FOSDEM - a geek trip to Brussels. Going abroad to experience different cultures. Or at least, a chance to eat chips, suffer rain, and watch American TV in a different country. ]]> 3/7/2008 12:01:00 AM 371
It's not bullet proof, and not perfect, but an entertaining waste of time :)

PlayFish... I'm coming to getcha!

]]> 2/12/2008 1:19:00 PM 370
You can see the Faerie's Aire score here.

If you want to know what the first part sounds like, I 'played' this in a short realization of the Faerie's Aire and Death Waltz. It's piano only, and there might be a couple of wrong notes, but I think it's more accurate that any that have so far been done. i.e. none!

FYI, it took about 3 hours until to get this far, at which point the boredom I felt at the beginning seem productive, so I went to bed...

]]> 2/8/2008 8:46:00 PM 369
]]> 2/4/2008 9:58:00 AM 368 beer podcast, The Beer Crate.

Here's to another good year. There's some interviews in the pipeline, 20 or so beers already reviewed, and hopefully some more stunning beers in the "Try before you die" section.

Also, lookout for a special FaceBook application about beer in the not to distant future...
]]> 1/22/2008 5:54:00 PM 367 Why people grade movies on a 1 to 10 is beyond me. Grades govern whether you'd want to watch a film. Therefore there are only five categories:

• Watch it at cinema
  
• Buy the DVD
  
• Rent the DVD
  
• Wait for TV
  
• Download it

• Dont bother

Wow! Did that take some time to get out ;)
]]> 1/12/2008 7:48:00 PM 365
Upon alighting at the new Kings Cross International I discovered another example of very bad, real-world, design. Specifically, there is only one escalator for the 300+ people alighting from the train in the morning; plus there's stairs too close to the ticket machine (so when it's slightly busy the queue blocks the staircase), and the station is design for looks for than function, since more people now travel through Kings Cross because they can it's already showing signs of exceeding capacity.

If this were software, it would have crashed by now! :(


]]> 12/18/2007 4:10:00 PM 364



A couple of weeks ago, the TV crew from zdnet arrived at my door to shoot a short video about Minerva. This has now been edited (by them) and stored (on their server).

Minerva Video

]]> 12/13/2007 3:52:00 PM 363
Not that it's a bad price, just don't get carried away...
]]> 12/10/2007 2:50:00 PM 362 This handles everything you'd need for a standard dual-tuner DVR: decent quality EPG, good visuals, good audio, sensible interface, and sensible handling.

What it lacks is the ability to easily record the same program at the same time every week.

There's also a couple of annoying bugs. The first is that you can't correctly record programmes from the EPG display using your "favourites" list, since it doesn't realise there isn't a 1:1 relationship between favourites and all. This annoyingly means you have to always scroll through every channel, even if you can't receive half of them.

The second is that is automatically deletes programmes without warning. I believe the time limit is 30 days, but am unsure. I'm going to try and extract the programmes by opening the case, and removing the hard drive, so will let you know how it goes.

Otherwise, a decent, and well-priced box. ]]> 11/12/2007 2:51:00 PM 361 Steven Goodwin's Biography is now on-line!
]]> 11/11/2007 2:34:00 PM 360

The biggest problem is with their focus being on the fast food, cram-them-in, mentality that pervades the place. For starters, the young upstart waiter will cram you into whatever space he thinks you deserve (probably based on your dress sense, height, religion, colour, or bra size, but who knows how their two brain cells co-operate) and leave you to rot. (Note to staff: don't sit people of my size next to the fat bloke - there won't be room for both of us on your little benches.)

Then, ask to be moved, and one "seating Nazi" will grunt and point you to another table. At which point, another seating Nazi will tell you that you're in the wrong and have to move - followed by a dressing down about not keeping him informed. (Note to staff: communicate amongst yourself before harassing the customers.)

Immediately after being re-seated (for the second time) a waiter arrived for a drinks order. "Give me two minutes, please." Ten minutes later, no one had returned, due to the aforementioned staff member being on a "chat break". Eventually we got a waitress to take our order. A different one brought the drinks. A different one brought the food. And a different one brought the bill. Not an issue in itself, but it makes them all look clueless as there's no shared memory or concern about your dining experience. See above.

So, what should have been a nice quiet post-work meal was a Fawlty Towers-esque display of customer mismanagement.

Food: good. Service: pitiful. Verdict: never again.

p.s. splitting the bill means splitting it into equal portions. There's no need to ask "how much on this?" for each card.
]]> 10/26/2007 1:25:00 PM 359 How do I manage it?

I wonder myself, sometimes...




Beer podcast
]]> 10/16/2007 9:38:00 AM 358
The same is probably true at the other end of the scale. If you gradually lose your marbles, or die in your sleep, there's no time to realize the enormity of the loss of sentience. The same is true of those suffering tragic accidents. I guess this is also "by design"

So a tip for a long life - keep active, keep thinking, and keep living it.





]]> 10/15/2007 1:34:00 PM 357 When women say something stupid, men think it's stupid.

When men say something stupid, women think it's cute.



And that, I think, solves all the problems between men and women :)

]]> 10/9/2007 5:33:00 PM 356 very good, otherwise it'll be very difficult to convince me you understand the technology.


]]> 10/7/2007 11:42:00 AM 355 This entry is basically my online notepad for how I setup my latest subversion server.

After installation,
apt-get install subversion

I created a suitable directory, and set its access rights,

mkdir /svn
chgrp admin !$
chmod ug+rwx !$

svnadmin create /svn

I initially added two projects:

1. 
   tbc which contains the admin scripts for my beer podcast - The Beer Crate
   
   
svn import /home/steev/tbc file:///svn/tbc/scripts -m "initial import"

   This is for myself only, so I added a user/password combination in /svn/conf/passwd. This also requires a change in svnserve.conf,
   
password-db = passwd
authz-db = authz

   Plus access details in the authz file itself.
   
[/tbc]
* =
steev = rw
   


2. 
   warp applets which is publically accessible, but commit rights are limited to me. Alas, this is not possible when you have a public accessible repository elsewhere. Therefore I had to change /svn/conf/svnserve.conf to read,
   
anon-access = none

   Switching off all anonymous access. I then added a guest account
   

$line =~ tr/\221\222\223\224\226\227/\'\'\"\"\-\-/;

All this from one line saying "Port Windows-based games to the Linux platform." But which part of the games? The 3D client part, or the server part? It doesn't say in the ad, but the Diggers are convinced it's the 3D game. And they're already wetting themselves over the prospect of playing it.

Alas, not one line in the job spec asks for OpenGL, DirectX, audio, or any of the other topics involved in this area of games development. What it asks for instead is experience in "developing communications software" and informs us that the candidate will "Manage the operation of large clusters of machines". Does this still sound like a 3D game dev job?

No, me neither.

So, why is every post mentioning this simple fact Dugg down, while the rabid fan-boys using l33t sp33k have +37 diggs for saying this ensures the adoption of Linux.

No wonder we're in trouble.
]]> 9/14/2007 11:31:00 AM 347

This set me thinking about which un-prestige numbers would actually be prestige if you knew that 666 could be typed into your phone keyboard as 'Mom'

So I wrote a script that converts numbers into a regex for mobile keypads. You can find words with the simple command:

 grep -i `echo 666 | ./pnum.pl` /usr/share/dict/words

From here I wrote code to do the reverse. That is, one that converts words into phone numbers so you can find out that anyone with the name 'Steven' needs a phone number of '783836'. Use simply with:

  ./pword.pl steven

You can combine this as:

  grep `./pword.pl zigzag | ./pnum.pl`  /usr/share/dict/words

I'm sure this is useful information to someone... :)

]]> 9/12/2007 10:29:00 AM 346 beer podcast has just been launched. The first episode is available from The Beer Crate website.

Please download it and make me famous :)

]]> 9/11/2007 10:37:00 AM 345 Here's the end of the Internet!
]]> 9/8/2007 1:39:00 PM 344
Rule Organ
]]> 9/6/2007 12:25:00 PM 343
Custom CD Clock
]]> 9/6/2007 12:12:00 PM 342

To aid this, I suggest customizing your desktop differently on home and work PC's. You might also like to have an extra desktop configuration for your home PC, when doing personal work. In this way, you can create a distinction in your mind about whether you're working or playing. And in turn this stops the perceived monotony when working from home.
]]> 9/5/2007 1:36:00 PM 340

To aid this, I suggest customizing your desktop differently on home and work PC's. You might also like to have an extra desktop configuration for your home PC, when doing personal work. In this way, you can create a distinction in your mind about whether you're working or playing. And in turn this stops the perceived monotony when working from home.
]]> 9/5/2007 1:36:00 PM 341 Cenobitic - A Review has finally been put together, editted, and published through Lulu.
 

Whether this will make back the money I spent on digital tapes, domain names, and hosting, remains to be seen. But, I'm putting at the low price of £2.50 in the hope lots of people buy it in support (out of sympathy?) for the project. I shall probably release other books with different prices to experiment with "web commerce" thing!
]]> 8/26/2007 10:48:00 AM 339
Why should I create an account, give them my details, before they even tell me the price of their goods, whether they're in stock, or how to buy one.


Tut, tut, tut.

]]> 8/22/2007 5:21:00 PM 338

1.00 GBP = 7,898.20 ZMK


Just an odd little fact I'd thought I'd throw out...
]]> 8/15/2007 6:48:00 PM 337 For those that have asked, the Lego Menger Sponge does exist! It's not quite as famous as the business card sponge popularized last week, but it does exist. Here's the link for the Menger sponge in Lego.

]]> 8/13/2007 12:26:00 PM 336 Again, using the QuizML markup language. This one is entitled, Words and wordplay.

]]> 8/11/2007 12:52:00 PM 335
I've been asked about QuizML a lot this week. More than the rest of
year, actually. So I've put together a combined FAQ and
commentary.

QuizML, as the name suggests, is a markup language to describe quiz
questions in a structured manner. A typical question would appear thus:

<question difficulty="3">
<q>Who was the guitarist in Queen?</q>
<a id="2"/>
<opt>Freddie Mercury</opt>
<opt>Brian May</opt>
<opt>John Deacon</opt>
<opt>Roger Taylor</opt>
</question>

As you can see the format is straight forward, providing an arbitrary number
of multiple choice answers, the correct one, and a dificulty level. These are all
wrapped up in a top-level element,

<quiz-questions topic="music">

The benefit of structure data is that it's easy to then produce a suitable output for
your application, or quiz night. I have written XSLT (translation stylesheets) to convert
a QuizML file into:

• A list of questions


• A list of multiple choice questions


• The answer sheet


• A page of static HTML


• An interactive HTML page

I have also supplied some quizes under the CC attribution license, so anyone may use them
in TV, radio, and computer quiz games, provided they credit me on-screen (or on-air in the
case of radio and podcasts) as a question setter. If you don't want to credit me, then you
can email me and we'll discuss an alternative license.

The current quizes available are:

• Classic Pop Music - Volume 1


• Classic Pop Music - Volume 2

The current status of this project can be found at the QuizML main page.
]]> 8/5/2007 10:39:00 AM 334
What is the point of buying a gadget for £2.42, when the P+P is a whopping £5.99. And the item itself is a memory card - approximate P+P cost: 35p.

Oh, and why do you have to click through every single page before you find out the P+P is £5.99. Stoopid!

Buying it from Play.com is £6.99 fully delivered, saving us £1.42. Tut tut tut. Amazon are really driving customers away by including this "feature".

At least it's still cheaper than a bricks and mortar shop, where the same memory card costs £25.

Version 1 of QuizML is now official deprecated.

You can download sample QuizML files and XSLT transforms at http://www.bluedust.com/pub/quiz.

As a special bonus I created a transform for interactive HTML, which you can preview at http://bluedust.com/quiz/.

As previously, both quizes present can be used freely under the CC attribution license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
]]> 7/26/2007 10:28:00 PM 332 I have taken the proverbial plunge and decided to freely release my 7 Saintly Virtues of Museum Curatorship article.

This is one of the few pieces from my standard museum consultancy blurb to be made available to the general public. I'm not sure if the public are interested in the quality of their museums, or not, but I am! And I'm hoping that this will re-establish dialogue between museums and their visitors.

Portions of this article were adapted for a piece in the Summer 2007 edition of Museum Practice.

Now to find a bigger dictionary...

And at every stage there's software involved that could be bugged, broken, or suffering planet-sized security flaws. Each configuration file gives an opportunity for human error, opening the holes wider. Every registration service discloses a little more of your private information to the general public. With so many steps involved, is it any wonder that problems exist?

I know his address, phone number, hobbies, the music he likes, and even what his coffee table looks like. This took one step—typing a simple term into Google.

Let’s face it, this was too easy. I’ve done white hat hacking before, and found the security flaws and issues that any self-respecting hacker would know. What is outlined above can found by any self-respecting web surfer without even trying. There’s no attempt on the part of “Steve” to hide it, and as he’s made everything open to the public, it might not even come under computer misuse. It’s akin to looking at his public notice board, rather than breaking down his door to read his diary.

The barrier to entry (pardon the pun) is too low.

So, who’s to blame?

(There's a serious point in here someone, I just can't remember where I put it...)
]]> 5/2/2007 12:54:00 PM 309 Well, go to Google image search, type in "QA" and hit enter.

Note the first image :)

Or, if you're in QA, you'd probably write:

Steps to reproduce:
-Open Web Browser
-Go to http://www.google.com
-Type 'QA' into the search field
-Press Enter
-Click link to 'Images'
-Note first image

(All credit goes to Jon from work)

And thanks to Tor that repeated the joke with "programmer" in the subject field!

]]> 4/19/2007 11:20:00 AM 308
The solution was to move the TM13 (RF to X10 gateway) elsewhere.

The reason was that my NSLU fileserver and its hard drives were plugged into a socket tapped off a spur from the upstairs light. This hadn't caused a problem before, but randomness caused it to introduce interference to the line, thereby blocking the X10 control signals.

Consequently, instead of working fine with 1 NSLU and 3 HDs, it now only worked with 1 NSLU and 1 Lacie HD PSU - any other HD PSU (without drive attached) caused the signal to stop getting through. It would also stop working if the HD PSU was in any socket other than #4 on my 4-gang.

By moving the TM13 into the next room, the X10 signals were added onto another part of the main supply which reached the lights, before the interference generating NSLU.

I was consequently able to add my HDs back, and both lights and server are working again.
]]> 4/18/2007 10:07:00 AM 307 For those that have read A Week With Windows, this is the companion piece that covers my non-Windows grievances during my week off. It, too, also intended as therapy, and to seek solace, comfort, and sympathy. But I don't expect I'll get any!

The most annoying hardware problem involved my monitors. Specifically, my main Windows monitor, which was intermittently switching itself off all week, only to die in an insipid whimper on Friday. With no spares, no transport, and no time to get a new one delivered before I returned to work, I was forced to move the 19" CRT from my Linux box to the Windows machine. Although my headless Linux machine is still useable (thanks to Cygwin, putty, and a X Window Server) it's not the same. If there's a bad time for hardware to die, it will make the most of that opportunity.

My laptop screen was also playing up throughout the week. But in truth, it's been a bit dicky for the last couple of months.

My new phone should have been my pride and joy, after my old phone kept cutting conversations in half, but it wasn't. To begin, it refused to accept my sim card. No reason for this was found, but repeatedly removing and re-inserting it, it eventually allowed me to login. Being one of the new Walkman phones, I wanted to test its music capabilities, so I plugged in my lovely Sennheiser's and... watched the phone hang. This is a temperamental bug, with no obvious repro steps.

After music, came video. Or not, as the case may be, since I couldn't view any video placed on the memory stick of my phone. This is annoying because, as you can guess, the memory stick had 256 MB free, and the internal memory had about 17 KB. So that feature's worthless! Who designs this stuff?

The next piece of technology to break was my X10 remote control. This lets me control my lights from the comfort of my bed. Plus, with the aid of some software running on my (Linux) server, control the song and playback volume of my MP3 jukebox. I even bought some replacement batteries, but to no avail, so it's a formally broken unit. Plus, since this isn't the most common of appliances, I have had to order on-line. It's taken a week to arrive, but I have now received a replacement... which doesn't work in the evenings, for some reason. You forget how much these little pieces of technology add to the enjoyment of ones automated house, and how much they're missed when they don't work.

One final problem was the slug; aka the NSLU2 that I use as a fileserver. I'd bought a new drive to spread the load, and opted for a 400 gig beastie from my local supplier. This required the NTFS modules to be loaded. Despite the apparent belief they worked and were stable, I found them to be otherwise. They hung the machine with disturbing regularity, and crashed the Windows clients that were connected to them. I consequently unloaded all the drivers, and reformatted it to FAT32 using Partition Magic, since Windows is crippled and doesn't support such large disc partitions.

Apart from that, the slug has operated flawlessly for the last month, although a power cut on Monday meant I'd got a broken FAT on one of the other drives. Not that I realized it at the time. And only when Windows rebooted itself, and corrupted my disc, did I realize there were bigger problems.

I am in the process of checking the entire disc set, and wondering whether I can afford to buy another hard disc. Perhaps it's just me, but hardware is just too flakey.

The utility simply outputs the current date in a more sensible format than the Windows one. By default this format is yyyy-mm-dd. However, you can change that by specifying the format as an argument. E.g.

ndate yymm

The parsing is very simple, and the only available options are, yy, yyyy, mm, and dd. All in lower case.

This is most useful when combined with the backtick for Windows utility. The best example of this is to create date-labelled directories for backups, etc.

backtick md `ndate`

I wrote this because I needed it!

]]> 4/3/2007 8:13:00 AM 304 Backtick for Windows, has been released under the GPL and is now available from the public area. It is a command line utility that works under the Windows 2000 shell and probably those before or after.

The utility simply parses the command line given to it, and executes any programs enclosed within `backticks`. It then takes its output and incorporates it directly into the command line. So if you wanted to create a directory labelled with today's date you could execute:

backtick md `ndate`

Note: This requires the utility ndate, which is a replacement date program for Windows. Using the conventional date program doesn't work as expected since the date format includes forward slash characters, producing an invalid command.

I wrote this because I needed it!
]]> 4/3/2007 8:13:00 AM 303

I’m not really sure whether to call this the "Drac in a box scam", or the gothic clothing scam. The former because that’s the company that caught me out with it, or the latter because it is the uniqueness of that style of product which allows the scam to operate. But anyhow, here’s how it works.

Part 1. You start with a typical, legitimate, business with a bricks and mortar presence that takes orders of the Internet. They correctly advertise “secure purchasing”, and with a credit card as the payment method you should have some return from your credit card company should anything go awry. To most, this is normal.

Part 2. Build a website that mentions the uniqueness, rarity, and one-off-ness (if there is such a word) of the product. Indicate the 4-6 week waiting time for the customisations to take place, and so on. Most people err towards the 6-8 week period before following it up, just in case it’s lost in the post. (The fact that all goods are apparently shipped by recorded delivery means the “lost in the post” excuse can’t be used, but at this time the customer is unaware of that.)

Part 3. The credit card is charged immediately, and not at the time the product ships. On its own this is not unlawful, but since the credit card will not help you after 120 days have passed from the charging, the proverbial clock is now ticking.

Part 4. A couple of weeks after the order has been placed, and the money taken from your account, a confirmation email is received. This is time mis-direction, as you now believe it’s on its way, and start counting the 4-6 weeks. It also lulls the buyer into believing there’s a caring human on the other end. It also establishes email as the preferred form of communication, enabling the company to claim “lost emails” later on in the process.

Part 5. When you complain about the lack of goods, the scam company mentions supply problems, delays in sourcing quality materials, or whatever is necessary to keep you quiet. Again they highlight the uniqueness of the product, believing you’ll wait longer if there’s the promise of a better quality product at the end. This takes another 4-6 weeks. Each email will be answered within a week or so, adding to the total time taken, but cleverly hiding the extra weeks when nothing arrives.

Part 6. When/if the customer enquires again, the company will promise to look into the matter right away. You smile, and relax. You wait another couple of weeks. Again, the email delay trick (EDT) is employed here.

Part 7. On enquiring about why the post hasn’t arrived, you are met with a stony silence. The company refuse to answer emails, phone calls, and appear to disappear off the face of the planet. You give it a day or two – remember how slow the original emails where – and nothing happens. You call the credit card company…

Part 8. Upon totalling all the week delays for email, the two bouts of 4-6 delivery times, and the extra delays that have been artificially introduced into the pipeline, you are now complaining about a transaction that occurred over 120 days ago. The credit card people cannot (and will not) help. And, surprise surprise, the scam company don’t respond either.

Yours – very bitter about this,

Me.




]]> 3/28/2007 9:38:00 AM 302 and denominator. This ensures no precision is lost during calculations. Both halves of the equation are stored using the Java BigInteger library, so fractions can be as large as necessary.

Check it out! BigFraction Java Library

Only the biggest blunders, IMO, will be covered, so your favourite (such as the PGR car image being used to promote GT4) might not be covered here. Remember - this is a history lesson for PR agencies and companies alike. And for the rest of us, it's a just a bit of fun!


31 October 2005 : Sony Blunder #1 : Rootkits

Mark Russinovich discovered a rootkit hiding on a CD he'd recently purchased from Sony. This would report your listening behaviors back to Sony and lead to class action lawsuits against Sony for violation o f privacy. The patch that Sony later released could also render your machine worthless because both it, and the original DRM technology, was badly written. Many already knew that DRM was bad and unworkable, but this really proved the case.

27 February 2006 : Sony Blunder #2 : PS3 Delays

Delays are common and expected in the technology field. But when a company continually says there is no delay, but continually acts is if there is, some of us have a problem with their honesty. From the 27th Sony removed its gag and started to admit there might be delays. They made further announcements on March 6 et al.

Throughout 2006 : Sony Blunder #3 : Limited Backward Compatibility

In addition to announcing delays for the PS3 launch in Europe, Sony also managed to omit the entire continent in their strategy. As well as forgetting to mention that Europe exists, they also announced that it would play fewer PS2 games than the Japanese version.

Autumn 2006 : Sony Blunder #4 : Exploding Batteries

Despite knowing about problematic batteries since October, 2005 (yes - 2005!) Sony continued to sell laptops that could explode at any moment. They also permitted Dell to sell their laptops with the same batteries. Ok - so Dell probably came off worse, and colluded with Sony, but knowing shipping a product that will destroy a users precious data is hardly good PR. Is it?

24 October 2006 : Sony Blunder #5 : Closing gamers favourite, Lik-sang

Lik-Sang is forced to close its doors after Sony realize they're better at seller PS3s and PSPs than they. Particularly since Lik-Sang included power supplies that didn't destroy machines, where as Sony... well... see Autumn 2006.


11 December 2006 : Sony Blunder #6 : Flogging the PSP

Zipatoni, floggers working at the behest of Sony, get busted when their paid-for-blog "All I want for xmas is a psp" is exposed as a shill to lure customers to the PSP by the marketing department masquerading as a couple of fanboys. They even resorted to removing comments that highlighted the charade. The marketing department must think that every potential customer is as dumb as they are for even trying to camouflage this!

19 January 2007 : Sony Blunder #7 : Blu-Ray and porn

The biggest selling point of the PS3 is Blu-Ray. The biggest selling point (pardon the pun) of a new media format is porn. So why Sony decided to ban it is probably down to the same thinking why they banned porn from their Betamax format in the 1980's. And you can all remember where that went! Sony still deny this by saying they're not against porn, it's up to the licensees of the blu-ray what they do with it. But they also mention that anything they don't like will result in the removal of said licenses.


2 February 2007 : Sony Blunder #8 : Want a PS3? Only if you buy a PSP, too!

Sony teamed up with HMV to provide a "special" launch deal for the PS3. This required you to buy a 4gig PSP pack as well as two games (total cost, 675 gbp) to get a PS3 on launch day. If you didn't want to buy a PSP, then you wouldn't get a PS3. This took those in charge a few days to realize the banality of this idea, and withdraw the offer and promise to level the playing field.


1 March 2007 : Sony Blunder #9 : Gagging journalists

Sony blackballs Kotaku for reporting rumours as, er, rumours! They didn't acknowledge the rights of the free press, the backlash that would occur, or the problems with coercing and threatening journalists into being their PR flunkies. They did, eventually, realize their mistake, but not until the nay-sayers had a field day.

23 March 2007 : Sony Blunder #10 : Releasing the PS3 at... how much???

Despite all the negative publicity, harassments, complaints, and problems with the PS3, Sony are still adamant they will sell it at 425 gbp, or 599 euros. This is despite the same machine costing the equivalent of 252 gbp in Japan or $599 in the states, which translates as 300 gbp. And for this extra 125 gbp we get delays, less backward compatibility, less free speech, more intelligence-insulting marketing... etc...

It would include the usual collection of living room, breakfast room, and dining room. The kitchen would be oversized, with pantry, cool room (for cheese - a culinary passion of mine) and an attached utility room and stairs down into the (wine) cellar. Another culinary passion of mine.

Naturally, any property of mine must have a home cinema, computer room, study and connected library. This is in addition to the recording studio (with live and drum rooms) I expect. A play room would also be nice, since I’m still a kid at heart, where the Lego would live.

Finally, there should probably be bedrooms! Five sounds like a nice number, each with on-suite, and walk-in closet for the two main master bedrooms. One will be designated a “snore room” :)

Transport links are unimportant, since if I can afford that house, I’ll have enough money to hire a chauffeur ;) Now, does anyone know of such a place on the market for less than 200K UKP?
]]> 3/18/2007 11:30:00 AM 296 This will allow you burn movies onto VideoCD discs, or stream them to a MediaMVP device if your server isn't fast enough to transcode the data. I use it for the latter.

The command line:

ffmpeg.exe -i original.avi -target pal-dvd -b 6000 -aspect 4:3 -s 720x576 -acodec mp2 -ab 224 -ac 2 -mbd 2 -sameq -async 1 -y converted.mpg

EDIT: I now use the -sameq option to improve the render quality significantly.


]]> 3/14/2007 1:13:00 PM 295 A map of various game development companies.


No affiliation, it's just a note to myself, since I keep getting asked for this...
]]> 3/9/2007 5:12:00 PM 294

The best I found was the William MVP skin, although the soft72 skin was also nice.

]]> 3/8/2007 9:42:00 PM 293 1995

The year the music died.

IMO.

After watching portions of music countdown show I noted that the year I stopped finding anything worthy in pop music was 1995. The specific countdown details the top boyband in each year since 1982. In the beginning we had Wham! In the middle we had East 17 and Take That which, despite reservations, I appreciated then, and can still do so. The change was in 1995 when the "best" band anyone could find was MN8. Followed by Boyzone in 1995, then Five, Backstreet Boys and Blue in each consecutive year. Even Let Loose (the winner in 1994) had a better single than the others.

My belief was concreted a week later when watching a countdown of the best debut singles. Again 1995 was the tipping point. Prior to this I enjoy Oasis, Tasmin Archer's Sleeping Satellite (also my candidate for the most subtle un-subtle message in a number 1, ever), and Dee-Lite's Groove is in the Heart.

In 1995, the best debut was Boyzone.

The case for the prosecution rests, your honour.
]]> 3/6/2007 9:51:00 AM 292 Just some notes I haven't got around to posting...

Name	Tasting notes	Price UKP/Kg
Cathedral City	Wonderful!	7.65
Davidstow Cheddar	Creamy	7.79
Seriously Strong Cheddar	crumbly	7.18
West Country cheddar (Taste the Difference range)	texture of wensleydale	7.39
Sainsbury's own brand	slightly crumbly	6.75

In order from great, to acceptable when nothing else is available...

]]> 2/18/2007 6:43:00 PM 291
I assume shoutcast.com is still the "one" to use; it certainly has enough material to keep you entertained for a year or three!


]]> 2/17/2007 11:37:00 AM 290
Read more:
The three great levellers
]]> 2/12/2007 3:58:00 PM 289 lyrics were copyright, but the tune wasn't. Consequently, I wrote some new, copyright-free lyrics. They are:



It's your birthday today.

It's your birthday today.

Have a good day, dear ...

It's your birthday today.




Voila! Feel free to use these as you wish, under the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ license.
]]> 2/5/2007 4:29:00 PM 288 lyrics were copyright, but the tune wasn't. Consequently, I wrote some new, copyright-free lyrics. They are:



It's your birthday today.

It's your birthday today.

Have a good day, dear ...

It's your birthday today.




Voila! Feel free to use these as you wish, under the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ license.
]]> 2/5/2007 4:29:00 PM 287 Everything can be accessed from the info page of this web site!

So for the list of the list of talented americans go to http://bluedust.com/info/default.asp?id=The%20list%20of%20talented%20americans

And for the list of my own funny jokes try http://bluedust.com/info/default.asp?id=My%20list%20of%20funny%20jokes

And so on...

Fun for all the family :)
TIP: Try without the ?id bit
TIP: Hide the URL with smallr.com or tinyurl.com
]]> 1/30/2007 4:15:00 PM 286 So, I wondered, how much of this TV is taken up with the investigation of crime scenes, and how much comprises of city fly-bys, science effects, and music to perform autopsies by?

Not that there's anything wrong with it, I mean. I just wondered.

So, on one typical episode (i.e. last night's) I sat with a digital timer (thanks, Mum - that Christmas present came in useful afterall!) and a notepad.

Basically, watching the show takes 54'16 of my life, but thanks to credits/adverts/science bits/etc contains only 33'39 of content. That's nearly 38% of padding. It breaks down thus:



Or, if you'd prefer to consider the programme alone:



So know I know. I can get on with my life again...

Next, run a telephone help system run by machines – answering machines. Let them leave a message, and trust it gets answered. After all, machines are tireless, and less likely to forget.

Then, arrange for a representative to call the customer back the following day. If the customer doesn’t answer (for whatever reason) they obviously don’t want their package that badly. Don’t bother to call them back. Wait for them to make the next move; you’ve made your token gesture.

When the customer does eventually call back, tell them they can’t change the address on the package. If they start asking for services listed on your web site (such as the ability to specify a delivery time) tell them you don’t do it. Ignore the customers pleas that you’re offering that service, and remind them this has nothing to do with trades descriptions. 

If pushed, offer to make the package available to them in your warehouse. To reduce costs, hire premises 20 miles from the nearest town, or 10 miles from the nearest bus stop, whichever is the further.

Finally, sit back and relax as your workload eases up, as the customers refuse to use you again.

The End.

Unfortunately – this really happened with City Link. I’m not the first to complain about City Link, and won’t be the last. They still have corrected their pledge.

So now, 15 years, and 20+ email address later, I think of those points of contact that have come and gone.

banner -w 50 Hello! | ./sideways.pl

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Short version:Good performance. Good mentalism effects. Mostly traditional material. Worth seeing, especially for 13 GBP. Theatre's locale is grotty though. It's about 90 minutes long.

Long version: A slight error in timing meant my friend and I arrived a fraction late for the performance. We were ushered to two vacant seats at the back of an already packed theatre. The Tricycle is a fairly small theatre with slightly raised stage, which was decorated sparsely with two tables, containing his set of full props on display. Seating was on three sides of the stage, although mentalists rarely have to consider their angles.

We joined at the beginning of a poker prediction effect involving six poker chips, six envelopes, five prediction cards, four chairs, and much randomness. Everything was left to chance: the seating of the assistants, the selection of the envelopes, and so on. Naturally, Mr. Salem is good at what he does, and despite all the statistics and probabilities he espoused, he ensured that the color of the poker chips matched the predictions on the back of the chairs, and those written on the (previously shelved) prediction cards. As a magi, I'd criticize him slightly for placing himself between the assistants and audience, meaning it was difficult for those in front of the stage to see the chips being emptied out of the envelopes. But the chair predictions no doubt created a convincer for the doubters.

This segued into the other half of his story on poker - cards. Although not a cardician(sp?), and having not used cards for 30 years, he did a simple deck memorization. Simple, I say, because he only had to indicate which half of the deck each card was in. Alas, the spectators chosen where French and Swedish, and didn't know the English for "Ace of clubs" and kept missing their cues to drop cards or say "No." However, he worked through with great aplomb giving a valuable lesson on how to handle situations using humor and numerous one-liners. This, fortunately, made up for what I felt was a weak routine.

Next (if memory serves) was a book test, although I'm not sure which one it was since I don't do them (yet!) A book was taken from the audience ("You're expecting to be bored, were you?!") and the father of the assistant said "Stop" and picked the first word on that page, writing it on a board. He then transmitted this thought to his daughter standing in front of him. A nice effect, and well received.

Continuing with the children theme, he introduced a toy block with six colored letters printed on it. This was placed in a box and passed around five or six members of the audience. At each stage, a different color was placed face up and Mr. Salem called out the name of each color in turn as the spectator said "No" to each. A good hit ratio here; despite the occasional person erroneously saying "Yes" on their color. After each success he also mentioned what it was about the voice that tipped the method. He has similar hints on his website. Nicely done, and well received.

The next section of the programme dealt with three variations on traditional mentalist faire. Firstly, a version of Kurotsake concerning mafia hitmen using four stones (a victim, murderer, and two witnesses) to select the roles for the participants. No mention of why the victim would have been chosen in the same way (and from the same group) as the hitmen, but no one seemed to mind. Cue bad acting on behalf of the guests, and a set of completely accurate predictions/readings. This ended with a prediction-in-wallet effect of the amount of money the victim had on his person. The number was chosen randomly by the spectator, who also removed it from the wallet. This floored my lay friend, re-affirming my faith in the simple handlings found in Corrinda.

The second was a variation on Bank Night, with an electronic safe and four suitcases containing codes. This was conducted as a piece of pure mentalism, and was enjoyed by everyone... else! Both suitcases and safe look too gimmicky for my tastes, and the whole effect (and its associated patter) was playing on the idea that Marc could have lost a lot of money. Consequently, this didn't cut the mustard for me.

Finally in this trilogy was the infamous smash and stab. He made the obligatory references to his previous "failure" and the danger of the situation, along with a commentary on the "tone of voice" method he'd be using. His version uses a wooden block with three central slots for the knife handle, and edge pieces to hold the cups in place. Naturally he succeeded (as otherwise you'd be reading about it in the papers, and not the web!) and created an audible gasp from the audience. If the previous "failure" was intentional to create PR and even more danger; it worked stunningly.

The evening ended with his signature piece; a blindfolded cold reading of objects presented from the audience and various secrets written down by the audience on cards. He got two doctors to help with the effect, explained through his use of surgical tape, allowing him to use lots of good prepared jokes. The effect is very traditional, but handled brilliantly. The blindfold - since you're a magician, and are interested in this sort of thing :) - involved two fifty pence pieces in the eyes, taped in place, with a bandana to cover. Despite this, Mr. Salem still turned away from the items as he hovered his hand over them and read them. In the cases where the object contained a number (euro note, bank card, etc.), he would also read a few digits from it. He used this to increase the audience fervor, building the tension at each step. This demonstrated great crowd control without eye contact, and excused the fact that he was "reading" a number on a bank note/card that no one else would reasonably know.

His closing remarks included the comment that he wasn't psychic; something that now seems to be de riggeur with mentalists nowadays, that I don't remember them doing in my youth.

Is it mental magic or mentalism? Only Mr. Salem knows the real answer. Although I could reproduce most of the effects through magical means, this might not be his approach. If it is, there's certainly more "misses" than most mental magicians would be comfortable using. But each was done with good humor and great audience participation.

However, this is not the important point. It was an evening of entertainment. And as such, it was very entertaining. He's certainly more of a laypersons performer, but everyone up to intermediate mentalist should get something out of the show.



p.s. Hello to all the Johns!

Post-show comments:


I managed to grab a few words with Marc after the show. I duly joined the end of queue (since I hoped to say more than "good show") and waited. He was it seemed, in a rush to go home. And in even more of a rush when I mentioned I was a magician! However, he was polite, which in my book is more important.

His smash and stab is his own, I believe. I commented that it wasn't a method with which I was familiar and he replied that "that's why I get hurt sometimes" But, like I said, he was rushed, so I didn't get to delve as deep as I would have liked.

I also asked about his lack of TV appearances. He made a comment that specials are useless. You go on. You do your thing. And you go. "No-one gains" was his comment, which I thought interesting and am still not sure how I feel about this. Nonetheless, American viewers have seen him on 60 minutes, apparently. Something us English have not.

My friend and I then left and gave the pub opposite a lot of business, while I deconstructed the effects in my head!

[This post is made available under the license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/. Attribution made by including my full name and web address present at the top of the article]

• Fantastic company
  
• Lots of nice beers
  
• Good fun T-shirts
  
• Randomly seeing random friends
• Calling Grandma to thank her for my Birthday card, only to say I was in a beer festival but only drinking Coke :)
  

• The "argument”
  
• Not going back to get the Salvador Dalek T-shirt
  
• Losing my notes and beer ratings
  
• Missing out on sweet ciders and Timothy Taylors
  
• The crowds, come 7pm
  
• The queues for the toilets (so this is what it’s like to be a women, eh?)
  
• Breaking my commemorative glass on the way home
  

So what does this mean in reality? Well, one possibility is we find another server willing to provide this information without half-baked "sign-up" pages.

Another possibility is that the non-commercial people using the data (i.e. people that watch TV) won't know whats on ITV anymore. And won't be watching as much ITV in the future.

I'd have considered this an own goal if ITV got their money from advertising revenue, and fewer people will now be watching the programs (and therefore adverts) because of this move. Oh, wait...



]]> 6/1/2006 2:56:00 PM 231 Gllug organized another meeting, reviewed here. A good one too! It started with a talk from FilmLight, on some film colourisation technology which, despite not being part of the industry, I managed to understand. In contrast to previous meetings it did seem an even split between Linux geeks, and film production geeks. I'm probably not going to meet them again (unfortunately) but it is good have this cross-pollination of people so I hope something similar can be arranged again.

Second up was the quiz. Wonderful! Just like a pub quiz - except for the distinct lack of beer! It went exactly as you'd hope: multiple rounds, unconventional questions (e.g. here's ten beards, to whom do they belong), up-to-date scoring, well-matched teams and good prizes. In fact, it went exactly and I'd hoped since the team I was on won! Well done and thanks to Pete, Martin and Trevor, my cohorts. And extra special thanks to Positive Internet for the star prize.

So - am I writing this to show off our "l33t qu12 5k111z"? Partly, yes :) But moreso that the sponsors get acknowledgement for their involvement. Like IBM did last year with their planetarium event, this shows a commitment to the community that builds, uses, and promotes the software they use everyday in their business. This deserves to be recognized. And preferably by someone greater than a celebrity media non-entity such as myself, but it's a start.

And while companies continue to support the community, I'll continue to support them.

Now, does anyone have any ideas of what I can host with a new box, with generous bandwidth caps?
]]> 5/26/2006 2:46:00 PM 230 I know I'm late on blogging this, but I thought I'd better anyway. Last week Dean Wilson organised a talk that saw Jeff Barr talking about AWS. A very good talk and Q&A followed, which has already been covered here, with photos below.



(large images in here)

Anyway, my good friend, John Hearns, suggested at that talk that you could build a Knoppix-like distro that contained all your AWS credentials so you could use your S3 storage directly. Well - the idea was so good, Jeff has mentioned it on the AWS blog. It's now likely some open source urchin :) will pick the idea up and run with it.

Way to go, John! I hope whoever does it will credit you with the idea...



]]> 5/22/2006 1:57:00 PM 229 I hope I'm not speaking out of turn, but 'Eanes' is a rare and unusual surname. Pronounced 'een-s', it belongs to one of my co-workers. Yesterday, by chance, she remarked that being called 'Smither' might be interesting.

Rule #1: Don't inspire a geek with more important work to do :)

For the last day, my brain's background processing sub-routine has been thinking of other silly christian names. The usual suspects, like Phillip, Amphetam and Trample was joined by the likes of Crustac, Vax, Byzant and Marquee De-Sade. (Think about them...)

She then pointed me to morewords. It's nothing you can't do with egrep (blog passim) but a useful link nonetheless if you're into wordplay.

I'll leave you to find the myriad of possibilities we came up with.

]]> 5/18/2006 5:41:00 PM 228
Microsoft did OK with their 360, although it's a given it'll be good. They have a history of doing crap initial versions of software/hardware, but significantly better version 2, and this is staying true to form.

Nintendo had a brilliant show. The Wii, despite its infamously stupid name, has introduced so much buzz it's incredible. Afterall, games are about novelty (blog/articles/books passim) and this introduces a novelty. You've only got to look at the infinite growth in additional peripherals attached to games (Sing star, Buzz, Guitar Hero, those Gamecube bongos et al) to know that a console game can do well at any price point provided there's enough novelty value to it. In the olden days, the game engine was the game. And each game had a different engine. Pacman was different to Galaxian. And Galaxian was different to Frogger. Now the same engine powers a hundred different games... and boy does it show!

Sony failed. That's common knowledge in the blogosphere, so I won't comment on it much further. Their PS3 showing was arrogant and dull. Their R&D department have graduated from the school of creative photocopying to produce as little innovation possible with their re-dressed PS1 controller with a tilt switch. The only Sony innovation for the last ten years has been Eye-toy.

So - what's the purpose of this blog entry? A note to self, mainly. So I can remind myself in years to come. So I can see how history does remember this point in time. And so I can accumulate the various links and commentaries that made me laugh.

To begin, there's this clip, which I've entitled "Sony failure" and shows the opening of E3, and everybody running (yes running!) past the Sony stand to watch Nintendo present the Wii. And