Month: March 2004

from userfriendly.org

Cross posting? I don’t care.

The weather today was amazing, I’d forgotten what sunshine looked like and now I can’t wait for the summer.

Today was mainly spent playing with thoddo (laptop) and hacking PHP.

Come a long way now on Computing coursework with return journeys and a GUI sorted out and more started, but still far too much left to do.

thoddo now has a 20Gb hard disk and is dual booted between Windows XP and a Knoppix hard disk install. This may not sound much, but upon aquiring the laptop I was told it was impossible to install Windows on because it overheats too quickly. My method of installation included patience, intuition and a gel cool pack from the freezer which was re-inserted into the freezer twice during the installation period. Who needs money to buy an expesive laptop that actually works?!

http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_March2004.pdf <<-- Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee, of Harvard Business School is my new favourite person (yes I did just say that about a Business academic). A summary of his 52 page paper is basically that file sharing does not have a negative impact on record sales, in fact it may even have a positive effect. It's what teenagers have been saying all along... long live creativecommons and copylefting is all I can say. School was quoted a sum of money greater than the anual wage of our IT technician to upgrade four servers today... oh how we laughed. Mr C gave me an extremely useful article about ASP, web services and .Net the *day after* I sent my geek test off for the job application, grr! Oh well, not his fault 😛

Hehe, the Google UI change made slashdot, I wonder if Google can get slashdotted… As one slashdotter said, “Anyone know where the Google cache is?”

I’m guessing it’s no coincidence the Google makeover and their newly released “Personalised Search” coinciding with the new Yahoo launch.

The real reason for this silly entry is to prove Knoppix made the network card work on thoddo 😛

Just helped Ruth find a candy floss maker. Uh ho, overheating…

The Computing Mock was cancelled, not sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Stop the press! The Google web site just had a makeover! OK, so it’s barely changed, but people who use it daily will know what I mean. Interestingly, the Google Directory has been taken off the front page and added to the list of extra Googly features on another page. Also, Froogle has been added to the front page, not sure why with google.co.uk as all the prices are in USD.

Maybe there will be talk about it in the Google Newsletter… Stop looking at me like that… what? what is it? I am *not* sad. Oh well, it’s only a matter of time until Google becomes corrupt and evil due to all the money it makes, then we can all hate them. Just imagine the power a corrupt Google would have at its fingertips… Did you know MacDonalds owns Pizza Hut and numerous other multinational companies? did you? hmm? djkoa did.

lauperr had an insight into my world today which I think may have scared her a little. I was just explaining the in depth reasoning for the naming of all my computers (thoddo had just joined the family) and she gave me a funny look. It was over the Internet, but I could tell all the same.

After two attempts at installing Debian on Thoddo and upgrading the kernel I still couldn’t get the network card to work, so I’ve admitted defeat and installed knoppix 3.3 for now so I can at least use it. I may put a 20Gb hard disk in it and I’m determined to get Windows dual booted on it just to prove it can be done. May need a fridge to do it though because it overheats, or perhaps I could take it to tux’s hideout in antarctica. Not sure he’d appreciate me installing Windows though…

I’ve sent off the geek test for that job application, fingers crossed. Had an interesting General Studies lesson for a change.

mchicago seems not to be enjoying his final year work very much, I hope I didn’t make matters worse by distracting him over the weekend.

Arrrgghhh Coursework!

P.S. do you think it’s convention to put the artist first or song name first when writing what music you’re listening to.

P.P.S. I hate P.S.s

The trip to Norwich was pretty successful. I spent fun time with mchicago and bouncykaz and presented them with two UGLI fruits :D, had paul_c look at my hard disk for me and fetched a laptop from quinophex, thank ye both. Bad news on the hard disk front, it’s now officially broken. Oh well, at least now I can send off for a replacement on the warranty.

Played three games of pool with bouncykaz which was a lot of fun, I even enjoyed losing, twice. Among the numerous dangerous activities over the weekend were trying to get corks into bottles of home brew beer, no mean feat without the right equipment! mchicago‘s flatmate Ian the cook cooked for us twice, scrummy.

When it came to go home a search on the internet revealed that all of the trains back to Peterborough had been cancelled. Wonderful. J and Kaz found a bus for me which went direct, but cost more on top of my return train ticket, they did somehow manage to get the bus driver to “Moose” at me from outside the bus though! Was much more comfortable than a train would have been, reclining seat, personal lighting and heating controls, a bottle to talk to… By the time it got to Peterborough I was the only passenger left and the driver asked me where I wanted dropping off. It also only cost £4 which I think is a bargain.

Today was mainly getting distracted by things I shouldn’t be doing. I used Knoppix on the newly aquired laptop for a few hours to see how long it would take to overheat 😛 reubs decided he wanted to get rid of Linux and install Windows again, with my help. asher_francis‘s virus ridden computer had to wiped and re-installed, I decided to dual boot Windows and Lindows for him. It seemed like a good idea to test the Lindows CD that came with a Linux mag quinophex gave me on someone elses computer 😉

Lindows is OK. It autodetected *everything* on the computer and had all the tools the average home user needs installed by default with an extremely easy to use installer. However, it doesn’t have a partitioning tool during installation so I had to use a Knoppix disk to do that. The licensing is a little dubious, as is the Microsoft bashing on their web site, although understandable after the recent attempted lawsuit. No, Microsoft, you don’t own the word “Windows”, get over it. The subscription based “Click N Run” package manager (?) looks dodgy too.

Now the weekend is drawing to a close the stress of school is seeping back into my conciousness. lauperr kindly reminded me we have a CPT4 mock exam tomorrow and it still hasn’t sunk in that I have a week to finish two pieces of coursework. I just know they’re both going to drag out right over Easter. My brain just won’t seem to register the problem in the correlation between the amount of pages left to fill and the number of seconds left in which to fill them. I completely accidentally missed a DT lesson on Friday as well, I still can’t figure out how I thought I had a free.

I’ve just found a whole new load of Creative Commons music on the web. CC have released a new License specifically for music, details here. So look out for the “Share Music”, “Some rights Reserved” logo.

Oh poodles, I haven’t finished filling in those questions yet for the job interview…

I would like to make some apologies.

Firstly to all the people I may have appeared to have been ignoring when they spoke to me today and to those who were subjected to rantings about incompetent people.

Secondly to lauperr who is one of the above people but deserves a special apology because I forgot to ask her how her mock driving test went, among other things…

And lastly to James Innes, a name I have come to know a little too well over the past two years, for the transcript posted below. I do feel a little bit of guilt for doing so, but some credit does go to him, and Bargain Host for admitting responsibility in the end, which is something many others would not have done.

transcript

Pretty good weekend.

Friday night rented a… (oh shit I forgot to take the film back) film and lauperr bought us a pizza 🙂 Met djkoa in the Well until we nearly got chucked out then stopped the night in Dyke. Phone call from Adam in the morning which didn’t come to anything. Was feeling really ill by the evening for no apparant rason.

Mum was presented with pressies this morning but she still ended up doing ironing during mothers day 🙁 I offered to help, but she said she’d like it done some time this month 😛 By lunch time today I had two working computers for the first time in ages, Frell’s problems were resolved with a new hard disk.

Went to the pub with Aunty Kazzy and her boyfriend which was quite amusing, two pubs and several games of pool. Went to pub quiz where although we had a good start there were about 8 teams and we lost. Mr C had abandoned us and someone stole the lucky table again despite me arriving at 8:20, grr. The weather was crazy today, alternating between sunshine and the hardest rain I ever remember seeing, wind, thunder and lightning.

Came home to asher_francis telling me that our internet connection had borked and there was a burning smell in my room. The network was indeed not working, not just the internet but no communication through the hub at all. Was starting to think it had been fried in a power surge (the lights dipped in the pub in Bourne and the street lamps turned off) but everything worked once I’d reset the hub, must have jammed up. Should probably buy a surge protector for the phone line as well as the power.

Now I’m told I have maths first thing tomorrow, and I’m trying to figure out how. Got to stop putting off things I’m worried about and just get on with them.

Rough night last night, three nightmares in a row, I have no idea why, especially after an enjoyable evening.

I was going to write out what happened in the nightmares here, but I don’t particularly want to remember them. Let’s just say waking up to find my mum, wez and indeed myself still alive was a relief and leave it at that.

The second accident in three days happened outside school today. On Tuesday a pram with a baby in got hit by a car, as far as I know the baby is still in hospital and was in a very bad state. Police tape and crime scene inspectors were everywhere, three police cars, a motorbike, two ambulances and an important looking policeman in a white hat.

The road was closed which caused a small amount of chaos trying to get almost 1000 students out of school at the end of the day. I’ve heard there was an argument in the car, a man in the passenger seat thought the woman driver was driving to fast and pulled the handbrake on. The car managed to mount the kerb and hit the pram pushed by the baby’s mother. The skid marks on the road would make sense if this was the case I suppose. Two policemen were taking measurements and photographs, inspecting the skid marks and the pram to try and figure out what had happened. Very odd thing to watch from a distant window.

Today a motorcyclist coming out of a junction got hit by a car in almost the exact same spot. An ambulance and two police cars arrived at the scene, but according to djkoa (who saw inside the ambulance) nobody was too badly injured. Still, an odd coincidence.

Two weeks to finish DT and Computing coursework, at the moment it’s difficult to see how that is possible. Perhaps I’ll find a way, I usually do.

I’ll say goodnight as djkoa explains what he means by “I’ve just screwed over the whole UCAS admissions system”.

Yey! I got me a Guinness hat!

crappy day followed by fun at the pub with lauperr, mum, reubs, asher_francis and some other girl…

I even got a St. Patrick’s Day poster from the wall, but my Guinness was contaminated by polos, grr. Random drunk bloke in the chip shop was hilarious.

I’ve just discovered I can add myself as my own friend on livejournal. Small things…

Hopefully going to visit mchicago and bouncykaz a weekend soon.

hehe…

Major Label Executive walks up to Magnatune booth:

Exec: (pointing to trade show booth logo) "We are not evil." That's not very nice.

Jan: Why not?

Exec: Well, you're saying we're evil.

Jan: No we're not. Only you can be the judge of that.

Exec: (snicker, frown)

Jan: Depending on how you treat your musicians, you may or may not be evil. How do you treat your musicians?

Exec: Well, I think we treat them pretty good.

Jan: Do they make any money?

Exec: Um… well, you know. It varies from contract to contract.

Jan: You mean that there could be a contract where a musician would not receive any money? That's evil. (giggle)

Exec: (frown) No, it isn't. So you really think this idea of yours will work?

Jan: Yea, we do. Everyone's really excited and many of the musicians are already making money.

Exec: Well, I don't see how this business model can work in the long term.

Jan: From what I read in the press your business model isn't working out too well.

Exec: (smirk) But mergers like BMG and SONY are going to have an impact.

Jan: Oh good, then they can go bankrupt together instead of separately.

Exec: (frown)

Jan: I mean, your whole industry is based on stealing people's music. It's like running a restaurant and not paying the cooks. Eventually you're going to run out of food and then the customers will stop coming. It seems they already have stopped.

Exec: Yea, ha, you're funny. Well, it's been interesting talking to you. I mean it, really interesting. No hard feelings, ok?

Jan: (shaking hands) No problem, have fun at MIDEM.

[from http://blogs.magnatune.com/]

I had a pretty crappy day, apart from lauperr presenting me with my present. A lovingly painted box for which I am very greatful. Very thoughtful thing to do.

A conversation with mchicago gave me some food for thought about future plans.