Scratch

Here you will find older scratches, musings and other detritus that once were located on the front pages, but have now faded.

Filed away here to collect dust and cobwwwebs in perpetuity, links may break, facts may change and data may corrupt.

On occasion I may come down here to tidy, but for the most, I prefer to leave the past where it lies.

Monthly Archives

01/07/2008 - 31/07/2008 01/06/2008 - 30/06/2008 01/05/2008 - 31/05/2008 01/04/2008 - 30/04/2008 01/03/2008 - 31/03/2008 01/02/2008 - 29/02/2008 01/01/2008 - 31/01/2008 01/12/2007 - 31/12/2007 01/11/2007 - 30/11/2007 01/09/2007 - 30/09/2007 01/08/2007 - 31/08/2007 01/07/2007 - 31/07/2007 01/06/2007 - 30/06/2007 01/05/2007 - 31/05/2007 01/04/2007 - 30/04/2007 01/03/2007 - 31/03/2007 01/02/2007 - 28/02/2007 01/01/2007 - 31/01/2007 01/12/2006 - 31/12/2006 01/11/2006 - 30/11/2006 01/10/2006 - 31/10/2006 01/09/2006 - 30/09/2006 01/08/2006 - 31/08/2006 01/07/2006 - 31/07/2006 01/06/2006 - 30/06/2006 01/05/2006 - 31/05/2006 01/04/2006 - 30/04/2006 01/03/2006 - 31/03/2006 01/02/2006 - 28/02/2006 01/01/2006 - 31/01/2006 01/12/2005 - 31/12/2005 01/11/2005 - 30/11/2005 01/10/2005 - 31/10/2005 01/09/2005 - 30/09/2005 01/08/2005 - 31/08/2005 01/07/2005 - 31/07/2005 01/06/2005 - 30/06/2005 01/05/2005 - 31/05/2005 01/04/2005 - 30/04/2005 01/03/2005 - 31/03/2005 01/02/2005 - 28/02/2005 01/01/2005 - 31/01/2005 01/12/2004 - 31/12/2004 01/11/2004 - 30/11/2004 01/10/2004 - 31/10/2004 01/09/2004 - 30/09/2004 01/08/2004 - 31/08/2004 01/07/2004 - 31/07/2004 01/06/2004 - 30/06/2004 01/05/2004 - 31/05/2004 01/04/2004 - 30/04/2004 01/03/2004 - 31/03/2004 01/02/2004 - 29/02/2004

 

Lightroom 2 Beta

So, after a couple of false starts, I have now got the beta of Lightroom 2 installed, and have begun retagging my current photos. 310 down, some 5649 to go.

Joy.

So, I mentioned earlier that my iTunes library had gone belly up and due to the changes, some good and bad, since my last backup I decided to start from scratch.

To get a variety of songs and start rating over again, aswell as giving me a chance to listen to music I may not have heard in a long time, or ever, I set up a smart playlist adding just 200 songs that have not been either rated or played and synced away. 18790 songs. What are the odds that so many that were synced onto my iPod, currently 9/67, would be Joy Division or New Order when in reality it should be nearer the 1/100.

Too things to learn from this. First, I have far too much Joy Division and New Order. Secondly, I have obviously offended my PC and its trying to tip me over the edge. Perhaps I shouldn't have called it a useless piece of crap last night.

Jinxed

Not sure what started this weekends jinxing. First my broadband router develops a complex, then iTunes decides to go belly up and now my PC in general seems about as responsive as a dodo. Perhaps time for a reformat methinks...

A Mobile Life

I remember when I got my first mobile, not necessarily the exact details (me being at the end of my second year of University) but most of the facts. The where was Chatterbox Telecom - 184a Cowley Rd, Oxford. The who was John. The what was an Orange badged Motorola StarTAC. The when was 15 May 1998 (10 years ago today) and the why... well thats one of the facts I can't quite remember.

They were heady days. Texting the three or so other people we knew with phones to see if they had escaped from their 10am lecture in sufficient time to be in a position to stand at the bar and order at 11am*.

Time passed, and the numbers with phones that we knew rose into double figures. I remember the conversations when 'The Matrix' came out, and everyone marveled at the bananaphone which was quickly redesigned into the Nokia 7110 which if memory serves**, I think Stu was the first to get. He was also I believe the first to break it. On a reassuring note, even with the Navi wheel as it was then, he has never escalated into a crackberry, though he now has an iPhone...

Over the decade that would follow I have been through, by my counting 2 free replacements, 5 upgrades and 2 freebies. There would be shares of ups and downs. Happiness and sadness can be transmitted from or to wherever you were. The flaw in the plan is the word 'mobile' always there, ready to bleep when you least want it to to make or break your day... I would say when you least expect it, but I guess by definition it will only beep when you are staring at it really not wanting it to and so that means you are expecting it, or perhaps in some sixth sense-esque way making it ring.***

Ignoring the cost to ones sanity, relationships and general well being, one key element however can be quantified.. the cost to the pocket. Before I divulge this cost lets see what milestones I have 'achieved'.

Over the last ten years, I have:

• Talked for a total of 26 Days, 13 hours and 50 minutes
of which
• June 2001 was the highest with 20h, 53m & 30s;
• Febuary 2006 was the lowest with 29m & 44s;
and
• the average being 5h, 19m & 07s

• Texted a total of 30,028 message
of which
• November 1999 was the highest with a staggering 1032 texts (which also accounted for the longest bill of 29 pages, compared to the average 9 and lowest being 2);
• March 2006 was the lowest with 14 texts;
and
• the average is an unhealthy 250 texts a month (although if you only go back 5 years the average is a marginally better 77 texts a month)

These are just differing scales of markers on the road that is my mobile life. They are more easily resolved against other peoples mobile lives as they do not change with time - a minute or a text are exactly that whatever phone you have or whatever plan/network you are on. There is another set of markers however that we traditionally put more weight and relevance on:

• July 2007 was the cheapest bill at £22.20;
• October 1999 was the most expensive bill at £207.46;
and
• the average is £63.62 (although for the past 5 years this drops to £40.36)

The cost though, the bottom line cost, for the long calls to friends, the arrangements to meet down the pub, the moral support, the wrong numbers, the condolences and the celebrations, the memories - both good and bad, the accidentally leaning on the phone and calling the police, the replacement handsets... the sum total of my mobile life to date is £7884.70.

Not a small amount by any means. Whilst not wishing to change the past, I shall however be bearing this in mind for the future as I watch to see what other devices (crumpet toaster anyone?) can be added to phones... When I first got a phone you could (just about) make calls and send texts, now, you can do a hell of a lot more, take photos, watch tv, replicate PC functions... ...If only I could get a signal at work.

As a closing note, if you are interested, you can click here and see a graph of my minutes, texts and bill totals...

Remember kids, practice safe text.

GTA IV Influences Violence. And Queuing

After reading the BBC News article entitled 'Stab attack at Grand Theft Queue' I was left with a curious thought. If a man is passionate enough about his gaming and obviously British enough to queue up in an orderly fashion for several hours to buy a game at midnight, I cannot understand what could possibly make him voluntarily leave his place to stab someone seemingly at random. Even bearing in mind that the Police might not turn up and arrest him before the shop still opens, he is still going to have to rejoin at the back of the queue or face a unending barrage of hushed 'tsk-ing' muttered in his general direction until he leaves like a social pariah.

The British public may turn a blind eye to a stabbing less than a few yards from them, but pushing back into a queue you have clearly left is just not happening, not without serious social consequences. Perhaps slap someone with a glove and make arrangements for a later date, but leave a queue?

Seriously though, the Johnny Cash song 'Don't Take Your Guns To Town' seems pretty apt. With respect to the game, I suspect there would be less uproar if it had been for release of a new My Little Pony. I can see the news headline now, Man beaten with saddle recovers in hospital...

Edit 30 Apr 2007 13:47:According to The Register however

A hooded male stabbed another man in the head and neck yesterday as they both queued to buy copies of Grand Theft Auto IV from a Croydon Gamestation store... it’s thought that the two men were just rude to one another.

Perhaps more notable is

The victim managed to survive the ordeal - and stumbled home to grab a knife for a revenge attack. However, he collapsed in the street on his way back to the store.

British queuing jokes aside, perhaps its just me but I cannot imagine what words could've been said, let alone what the guy thought he would achieve by heading for revenge rather than medical attention.

Perhaps its the people who play the game that are to blame rather than the game itself. If you can't differentiate between pixels and real life...

Less Guitar Hero, More Average Session Musician

I presume like many an aspiring musician in the formation of a band, the choice of which instrument you end up with is defined by both what the other, better, musicians can play, and also what instrument can be afforded*.

As such I find myself using the Wiimote to play the bass part.

Now don't get me wrong, whilst not quite as glamourous as wanging around a lead guitar, its about the participating and a bass guitar, however small in this instance, is still a core element of a band...

I know its not about appearances, but perhaps I would feel more rock n roll if I stood up. Or perhaps took off my slippers. Only the other day I was watching some footage of Queen and saw John Deacon wearing a tank top whilst on stage....

Snap, Crackle, Pop

So, I am leaning down over my desk trying to plug work out why a bluetooth adapter I plugged in the day before is no longer showing up. I finally manage to extricate it from the mass of cabling and have a look. Why I did this I have no idea. Its not as though I expect it to have a flashing LED on it once the power is gone, or have a little thumbs up sticker. Anyhow. I plug it back in. Nothing. Possibly a device conflict I think, and sit back down to head to the control panel. I stand back up and reconnect the mouse which must have jumped shipped in the confusion. No device conflicts later, I unplug the dongle again. I plug it back in again. This latter move is accompanied by a sound one might associate* with introducing into a live three phase fuseboard, something with the electrical resistance of, oh I don't know, a pig.

Whilst I am busily jumping backwards over the chair, there is another almighty pop followed by the sound of a harmony of young children accompanied by a rather large orchestral ensemble.

Having realised that I hadn't just fried myself, I am somewhat bemused by the fact I had managed to activate the internal PC speakers, which I had been thusfar unable to do since getting my new PC, and it was just unfortunate that the volume setting was marginally higher than on the external ones I had been using.

Oh, but the dongle still didn't work.

SmooshTacts

For those of you with an iPhone, although presumably any hi-res device will work, a rather cool way to display contacts, sorry smooshtacts. (Courtesy of photojojo)

Some Days

Its as though technology conspires against me sometimes. Earlier today, AutoCAD kept crashing at work on my main PC, and another PC lost both graphics cards in quick succession. Tonight, PDA software refuses to sync with laptop. Whilst am waiting, check mail. Four accounts are down. Of the few mails I get from other accounts that aren't junk or equipment failures at work, one of which notifies me of a payment refusal, but the subsequent failure of Internet banking prevents me from finding out why. And to cap it off, now some files just will not delete/rename/piss off.

Am hot, am annoyed, and agitated. Also slightly superstitious/suspicious given Stigmata is on.

Its A Conspiracy

First my router dies, then the replacement goes loopy. Now my 500GB My Book has died less than a day after getting it. Apparently it can't even do a disk check as it has too many bad sectors. I'm guessing someone drop kicked it.

Must be karma.

Glutton

And just to test the karmic powers affecting all things technological in my life, I have decided to turn trackbacks on. No doubt I will regret this when my server falls over.

The processor catching fire and burning my flat down will no doubt compound this.

Damn PCs

It never rains but it pours. Its bad enough my ADSL modem dies taking with it my internet connection along with my NAT/firewall settings which I have to try and claw back from memory, but then a HDD starts going all clicky on me.

I apparently have inhereted my friend Smully's technological touch of death. Thats what you get for playing with another mans Wii.

Skype

Hmmm. Have now installed Skype. Its up and running and seems to be working with Trillian without too many problems. In hindsight, perhaps I shouldn't be doing this on a Vista Beta... Now all I gotta do is replicate this onto a USB stick..a la portable apps.

PCs

Computers are the darndest things. First one starts playing up, then another. Programs stop working, others only sporadically. Trend Housecall failed on one machine, on another it said something stupid like 3 years to complete. Windows Live OneCare works fine on both. Network traffic soars, then nothing. Then twenty fours ours, several virus scans and reboots later, and all seems working fine.

Who knows.

iTunes

Come the weekend, iTunes 7 shall be leaving the PCs in the flat to be replaced by iTunes 6ish. I can take no more of the buggyness and the constant problems with it or the iPods. A single library file will cut out the time overhead for importing everything twice, not to mention exporting and transferring playlists about so our Squeezebox stays uptodate. Mapped drives should solve any file inconsistencies. Also as there will be no vestiges of it left, I think I will also take the opportunity to slap in a new 320GB disk so I can consolidate all the relevant files and hopefully spead thing up.

The first PC I had ran with 32MB of disk space. I will now have over 1.5TB and it still doesn't seem enough.

CAPSoff

You know it makes sense.

Cabling

Theres nothing better than getting home after a hard days work and forgetting you'd agreed to simply recable for some additional electrics. The joy of fishing around behind plasterboard walls... Hell, whilst there I might aswell throw some cat5 cable in just in case I want a telephone/PC behind the sofa in the future.

FON

To FON or not to FON, that is the question.

VOIP

Various VOIP products compared. But not the Gizmo Project. I'm half in a mind to register with them all and proceed to never use any. Although I guess the key element is that it is still not possible to call from one program to the other so the decision for a VoIP program will be influenced by which program your friends/colleagues are using. Related info is Big Blue Ball which looks at IM progs. Currently I'm using Trillian which does have make use of the Skyllian plugin... although you still need to install Skype...

Slashot Dead?

An interesting article about the current relevance or lack thereof, of Slashdot

Office '07

Messing about with my new installation of Vista, specifically Office 2007 Beta and I have found all these new applications I haven't used before. Infopath, SharePoint, OneNote and Groove. All seem to be geared towards team based operations and making everything much easier to do and share.

All I need now is a team to work with and a project that justifies the learning curve. Ooh, and some sort of PDA to run OneNote on.

Bigger. Better. Buggier?

I realise that the Windows Vista Beta 2 was released to testers on May 23, 2006 and it has taken me until tonight to install it, but at the same time I didn't quite expect 9 'important updates' to be the first thing I downloaded.

Then again, maybe I did and I'm just being a bit harsh.

Clippy

For all his faults, and Lord are there many*, I may have considered installing Clippy if he had been a bit more helpful.

A Time And A Place

I suspect that like many other males in the world, I am viewed as having an appalling memory by my better half. True my memory is not the best, and the one excuse I have, that I probably didn't listen enough in the first place, is not one I can use and expect to live. Needless to say there are occasions when my loving wife forgets stuff, but apparently that doesn't count.

As a way to try and prolong my existence on this earth I have tried to solve this using my friend the computer (who I was probably concentrating on when I should have been listening) and although I spend an inordinate amount of time with computers, I have not gone as far as to set up an Exchange server in my loft, nor do I want to.

It seems fortunate that I've managed to get hold of GroupCalendar to sync our Outlook calendars and it seems to do the job pretty well, although I'll let you know in a week or two. Still need to sync my Oracle Calendar at work with it, but its a start.

Needless to say when my work calendar fills her entire screen it'll be time to rethink the plan.

iPoddy Goodness

I've been meaning to put this link here for sometime so, courtesy of Kottke, 50 Fun Things To Do With Your iPod.

Geekery

I have no idea why, but over the last couple of days I seem to have my attention direct soley on things I have no real need for, but seem to be possessed by an incredible want factor. Take for example gaming peripherals such as the Logitech� G5 Laser Cordless Mouse. Do you really need that many buttons, God yeah. Do you need the ability to adjust the weight balance of the mouse, hell why not.

But whats the point of having an eight button mouse if you use a normal keyboard. Perhaps you would want something more specialised like the Logitech� G15 Gaming Keyboard with a few programmable keys and a LCD panel for game info, or the more gamepad like Zboard.

My choice though would be the Ergodex DX1 Input System afterall, why constrain yourself to horizontal lines. If anyone wants to send me one to trial :)

Sumo Lounge

Oooh. The Sumo Lounge's Omni* - Giant Beanbag Pillow, Lounge, Chair, Loveseat All In One! If only my living room wasn't filled to the brim with seating...

*Attractive young women not included

Pocket PC

So, with the release of Quake 4 into the shops, we also received the announcement that id Software would release the source code to Quake 3 Arena under the GNU Public License.

Shortly afterwards, the nice people at NoctemWare took this code, loved it, nourished it and cherished it, before rather kindly porting it to the PocketPC. As such there is now no excuse for sitting in meetings pretending to take notes whilst in reality playing dull solitaire, not when you can sit and frag to your hearts content. Not having a PocketPC to check this out, I can't tell what the controls are like, but judging by the screenshots, it looks a pretty damn good alternative to staring at Excel spreadsheets, Powerpoint presentations or in fact doing any work at all.

Storage

Quick post. Hitachi's have just confirmed a storage density of 230 gigabits per square inch (Gb/in²) thanks to perpendicular storage.

Hitachi expects to see products shipping at 230 Gb/in2 in 2007, translating into storage capacities of up to 20 gigabytes* on Hitachi�s one-inch Microdrive and up to one terabyte on the Hitachi 3.5-inch Deskstar hard drive

If you can't wait that long, and are willing to compromise, then Seagate have recently announced their new "first 8GB 1-inch hard drive for new handheld capacities".

The only question is obviously how, not when, you would fill it.

Oystercard

Having been a frequent user of the Tube for some years, I was overjoyed when, in 2003 they introduced the Oystercard to make things more efficient and effective. And to all intents and purposes it has. One glitch in two years ain't bad..

The idea was simple. Gone would be the old paper cards prone to such issues as being chewed by the machine, being thrown away with receipts, absorbing coffee spills and perhaps most annoyingly, just degrading over time. In their place, a rechargeable smartcard that could withstand the maulings of a dog, being immersed in a majority of non chemical spills without disolving and, although probably not something that is shouted about, strong enough to jimmy open a door lock. And it doesn't stop there. Only last week there were mutterings of Octopus an extension of the Oystercard in the small purchases market eg milk, parking etc.

Convenience and simplicity through tehnology.

Before the Oystercard, I occasionally forgot my season ticket, had it mauled "I'm sorry I can't come in boss, but the lizard ate my travelcard", but now I just have it wedged into the deepest pocket of my wallet so that I can never loose it/forget it. Its just a simple matter of waving my wallet, or if its very cold waving my wallet in my jacket pocket, over the reader.

Of course when it goes wrong it goes really wrong.

Ticket barriers were left open and travellers showed passes to staff.

Do you know how inconvenient it is to show your pass when it is wedged somewhere in a bottom compartment of a wallet, in a pocket that you could loose a small panda in, let alone a small piece of leather. All the time people surging by, trying to trample both you and the ticket guard to death, not through any particular malice, but just because you are there. It was at this point my brain decided to remember a piece of writing by Douglas Adams from the The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy:

Mr. Prosser said, "You were quite entitled to make any suggestions or protests at the appropriate time, you know." "Appropriate time?" hooted Arthur. "Appropriate time? The first I knew about it was when a workman arrived at my home yesterday. I asked him if he'd come to clean the windows and he said no, he'd come to demolish the house. He didn't tell me straight away of course. Oh no. First he wiped a couple of windows and charged me a fiver. Then he told me." "But Mr. Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months." "Oh yes, well, as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything." "But the plans were on display..." "On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them." "That's the display department." "With a flashlight." "Ah, well, the lights had probably gone." "So had the stairs." "But look, you found the notice, didn't you?" "Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display on the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.'"

And all the time the technophobes with their little paper cards stream through. Its enough to make you want to take there little bits of paper and rip them up in a menacing manner. They may have one a battle today, but how I will laugh when the revolution comes and they try to hide behind there pieces of pulverised tree....

Keyword

The web can be a wonderful thing, and one aspect is storing information for perpetuity. I was rereading this old post of mine and decided to follow the links and see whether The Register was continuing tracking such occurences. I'm glad for all our safety it this BBC Article. I only mention it to draw attention to the statement (with my emphasis):

We would like to reassure domestic customers this isn't something that is likely to happen in their own homes.

If I'm reading this correct, "isn't ...likely", as in probably not, although possible? Rat brained controlled fighter planes raining doom and destruction down on me from the skies I can handle. War is hell afterall.

Its the being blown up whilst sitting in the bathroom innocently reading I am not so au fait with.

Unreal Engine 3.0

Oooh, its so pretty. Hmmm, 2048x2048 resolution for mid range PCs. I wonder what the upper limit is..

Firefox

You know it makes sense.

Administrative Shares

Having just downloaded the latest version of the MBSA it reminded me that I really need to permamently disable the 10 administrative shares on my PC.

For info see WOWN.

I could of course solve this by having less partitions...

I'll be Rat

Its worrying really.

Microsoft Support

According to the Microsoft Road Map for 2003 Server, I can be expecting SP1 and 64 bit support in the first half of 2005, with the "R2" release coinciding with the first Longhorn beta in the second half.

Having studied software life-cycles, I realise that support can only be given for a finite period, before the technology becomes obsolete and in the case of o/s', no longer able to support newer software to its best potential. Given, this roadmap, and the fact 2003 Server is only 20 months old, I didn't realise Microsoft had moved this plan drastically forward.

And yes FYI, you can run a web/email/ftp server on a PC with such little processing power and RAM. Well I say run, more like sedate afternoon stroll.

Alien Swarm UT2K4 Mod

If your idea of a good night/following day/further good night is to get some beer in, order pizza, rent Aliens and play Unreal Tournament 2004 till your fingers bleed and your eyes turn to dust, then you may want to check out this mod.

I've Seen The Future

The da Vinvi Institute has committed itself to "creating a museum of future inventions designed around our pursuit of inventions that will create a spot in the history books for people who develop them".

Spray on clothing anyone?

Firefox/IE6

I always thought that to look at something objectively, you needed to at least look at both sides. Microsoft Australia's managing director, Steve Vamos, doesn't agree.

In a
CNET article days after the launch of open-source browser Firefox 1.0, he claims Internet Explorer, "is no less secure than any other browser and doesn't lack any important features."

It's interesting to note that these statements come with no knowledge of what Firefox has to offer as he admits not even installing or using Firefox.

BT Broadband VoIP

The BBC is reporting that BT is to start offering customers free internet telephone calls if they sign up to broadband in December. The offer will be limited to the first 50,000 people who sign up and users will need to use BT's internet telephony software, known as BT Communicator.