Incidentally, the paddling pool was also banned.
Reason: we only had a “*part time* volunteer lifeguard on duty”, as in not 24/7
It’s a frelling paddling pool! They just can’t stand for anyone to have any fun can they?
[/rant]
Month: May 2006
Bittorrent, outlawed (at university)
I’ve just been disconnected from my university Internet Connection (and should have been banned for three days until someone from my department talked them round) for using Bittorrent.
Sorry LUGRadio, I’ll be leeching off your bandwidth from now on, it seems Bittorrent is outlawed. I’ve had my bandwidth restrictions “raised” to 750Mb of bandwidth a day up and down inclusive (bearing in mind this is a 32Mb Line), so it looks like I won’t be downloading any Linux distributions for a while either.
Argh. Let’s just hope they don’t find out I’m using a router as a firewall and spoofing my MAC address, another thing that’s banned under our terms and conditions.
“Digital Rights Management” is framing the argument
An article on NewsForge describes the frustration of the Free Software Foundation with trying to put across their opinion on “Digital Rights Management” when the argument has been “framed” by the very name given to the technology. They are trying to think of a suitable alternative phrase to describe it.
How about “Digital Rights Restrictions”? Possibly not perfect.
I’ve said before that I believe Digital Rights Management is futile because it’s fundamentally flawed. I think Copyright and Patent law need seriously revising to be relevent to today’s technology. Their original purpose of promoting innovation and creativity is no longer being served. Efforts like Creative Commons are a step in the right direction.
player-agnostic video embedding
Is it me or is there no standard way of embedding video in a web page without specifying a player? Surely you should be able to embed video just like
myvideo.mpg(with pointy brackets) and let the browser decide what to do with it?
Pool Party at Midnight
I came back from lectures today to find a 15 foot paddling pool outside my window!
Apparently there was a lot of money left in our university hall’s budget so they decided to buy a pool and stick it in the grassy area in the courtyard. The site managers aren’t exactly extatic about it but it’s there until the end of term, at which point there are plans to buy a small shark from the pet shop and give it a nice home as a leaving present 😀 It’s fascinating how many people congregate around a pool of water, really it is.
I’ve just been for a paddle for an hour or two, I think I may die of hypothermia.
I feel a blog post coming on
Currently on my mind…
* A technical paper I’m entering into the IET Write Around the World Competition that one of my lecturers has agreed to proof read (I’m starting to doubt myself and worrying about its actual value).
* Application(s) to Google Summer of Code 2006
* A service idea for Twisted Lemon
…and how all this fits into the big masterplan ‘o doom.
Oh and revision.
I’ve also been thinking about all the geek friends I have like Jon, Sam, J, Tom, Ian, Elliot, Mark, Daniel, Adam, Gary, James – hardly any of whom know each other but who all individually have a great amount of technical skill and are linked only by the fact that I know them. I’ve been trying to imagine what they could all come up with if put in the same room together. It would be something beautifully if chaotically designed which is digital, looks good, sounds good and is ubiquitous in nature. I just have no idea what it would be! Weird.
In other news…
Pluto Home was a big disappointment. (Half of) the idea is there, but it’s lacking a couple of years worth of polish. There are licensing issues too, the “Pluto License” isn’t Libre Free. It gives me hope that I’m still on to something.