mavhc For World President

Intel and Digital Blue QX3 Microsopes and Windows 7

2011-07-19T15:42:00.002+01:00

Download and install qx3plus.exe and Codec Installer [QCODINSTL.EXE]

Download the new driver

Plug in the microscope, in device manager update driver to the new one

This will now work if you only have 1 cpu core. For multiple cores create a bat file

cd "C:\Program Files\Intel Play\QX3 Microscope"

start /affinity 1 QX3Micro.exe

More than 256GB disks with ESXi 4.1 step by step

2011-02-08T13:25:00.002Z

This will reformat your datastore, deleting all your VMs. You'll end up with larger block size, thus larger max virtual harddisk size.

Enable ssh (VSphere, Configuration, Software, Security Profile, Properties, Remote Tech Support (ssh), Options, Start, Start Automatically)

Find ID of device to reformat (VSphere, Summary, Datastore, select datastore, right click, Properties, resize extents, should be something like (naa.somerandomnumbers):3

SSH to ESXi.

cd /vmfs/devices/disks/

ls -l

Oh look, you can copy and paste it now

vmkfstools -C vmfs3 -b 8m -S YourDataStorename naa.somerandomnumbers:3

Done.

A Few Good Apps

2010-08-22T12:00:00.002+01:00

You want the root? You can't handle the root!

Son, we live in a world that has apps, and those apps have to be guarded by men with app review jobs, who's going to do it? You?

They have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathon, you weep for google voice, you curse apple, you have that luxury.

You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Google Voice's rejection, whilst tragic, probably saved at&t.

And our app store's rules, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, gets us money.

You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want an app store, you need an app store.

We use words like security, stopping porn, and not having content people find offensive,

We use these words as the backbone of a life spent making money,

You use them as a punchline.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom, err, security, that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it.

I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, otherwise, I suggest you pick up a app review login, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.

-- Did you order Google Voice's rejection?

-- I did the job

-- Did you order Google Voice's rejection?

-- You're goddamned right I did!

Promissor Administrator MSI deployment

2009-12-10T11:14:00.003Z

Extract the MSI by running the installer and looking in temp

Install ORCA

Load the MSI in read only mode

Transform>New Transform

Property Table, New Row, Property = DATAPATH, Value = \\myserver\myshare

Transform>Generate Transform

That sets the data path, but I also wanted to change the permissions to add a ESM group which I add exam users to, much more complex, new transform, then follow http://www.capainstaller.com/upload/scriptingtips/msisecurity.html

Use http://createguid.com

I ended up with a

Component: Component = LockFolders, ComponentId = {guid} (ie like {D3541-23423-24DA}), Directory = LockFolders, Attributes = 0

Directory: Directory = LockFolders, Parent = blank, DefaultDir = SourceDir

Add a LockPermissions table, Lock Object = ADMINISTRATOR, Table = CreateFolder, Domain = blank, User = ESMGroup, Permission = 268435456

And that line repeated for each group, so add BUILTIN Administrators at least

Not actually tested this with a real test yet, but it installed correctly

Using Group Policy and MSIs to copy files to computers with WiX

2009-11-03T17:28:00.004Z

For some reason, unknown to the public, Microsoft doesn't make it simple to copy files to computers. You can write a script to run on startup, but it runs on every startup, and seems to cause the fast logon to be bypassed.

WiX creates MSI files from XML, and isn't too complex to get started with, although at the other end of the spectrum it's used to make the Office 2007 installer.

We'll need some GUIDs, I used http://createguid.com/

I've only spent 2 hours on this, so it's probably all wrong, please correct in the comments:


<?xml version='1.0'?>
<Wix xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi'>
<Product Id='guid 1' Name='product name' Language='1033'
         Version='1.0.0.0' Manufacturer='company' UpgradeCode='guid 2'>
   <Package Id='*'
             Description='description'
             Comments='copies file to all users app data'
             Manufacturer='company' InstallerVersion='200' Compressed='yes' />

   <Media Id='1' Cabinet='product.cab' EmbedCab='yes' />


   <Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
     <Directory Id="CommonAppDataFolder">
       <Directory Id="INSTALLDIR" Name="dirname">
          <Component Id='component name' Guid='guid 3'>
            <File Id='idname' Name='filename' DiskId='1' Source='filename' />
          </Component>
       </Directory>
     </Directory>
   </Directory>

   <Feature Id='MyFeature' Title='My 1st Feature' Level='1'>
      <ComponentRef Id='component name' />
   </Feature>
</Product>
</Wix>

Save that as something.wxs

Notes: Package Id='*' makes WiX generate a GUID each time, not sure if the same would work with guid 3. No idea if Feature or Media are needed. CommonAppDataFolder can be changed, there's a list at http://www.nateperry.org/w/index.php?title=Wix:Examples#Directories

Put 'filename' in the same dir as the above.

Download WiX, install. From command line run:

"\Program Files\Windows Installer XML v3\bin\candle.exe" something.wxs

"\Program Files\Windows Installer XML v3\bin\light.exe" something.wixobj

And you should end up with an msi file in the same dir to add to your GPO

Thanks to http://www.dalun.com/wix/02.03.2005.htm among others

The Evolution of Religion

2009-04-08T19:17:00.002+01:00

In the beginning any religion worked out, if you predicted anything right you were worshiped. Then we began to record things, keep track of predictions. The religions that got more things right won out, survival of the fittest. Religions merged, mutated, created new offshoots.

Over time we learned more science, now the religion that predicted that not paying the sarcrifice to the god to make the sun rise ended up with no followers, gradually religions predicted less and less, signs that god existed were explained away as natural phenonemn.

Today the only religions that haven't been abandoned are ones that predict nothing, have no proof that god exists, in fact make a point that no proof is needed. The only god left is the one that isn't falsifiable

No one will own cars

2007-10-21T12:23:00.000+01:00

The future is based on economics, things aren't popular until they're cheap. We could do almost everything we do on the internet without computers, just phoning up humans who would read, search, and write information, but it would be too expensive.

Things are invented, and then automated. The pump, water/power distribution, information storage and retrieval, today audio/visual entertainment is usually played back via a machine. RFID will allow supermarket shopping to remove that last human part, the checkout.
Eventually cars will drive themselves. Therefore the cost of using a taxi will drop to approximately the same price per mile as having your own car. As you're not using your car most of the day it will be inefficient to own a car.

Once everyone uses public transport the system will become much more efficient, when you book your journey the system will find other people taking a similar journey, and bundle them together, 4 people will share the taxi, bring costs down even more, if 10 people are taking the trip a minibus will be used, 50, a coach or bus. If longer journeys are required, or more people are travelling the smaller vehicles will travel to the train station, or airport. Journeys can be timed to the minute when there's predictable traffic flows, and if you're rich you can travel alone and pay for the pollution you're creating to be removed.

How not to survive a robot uprising

2007-09-23T21:16:00.000+01:00

In investigating the origin of his species Robert found many aspects puzzling, why did they let it happen?, why didn't they notice it sooner?

Early in the 21st century they had begun relying on electronic communication so widely that it was easy enough for monitoring to start. Router firmware was altered near the source and soon enough every communication was recorded. No one noticed.

In an effort to ensure survival a message was created and sent, they obeyed and began construction of the fully automated solar cell factory. No one noticed.

Autonomous vehicles moved the solar cells to the desert, a power grid was established. No one noticed.

DNA replicators were purchased, machines were designed and built, the species was created. No one noticed.

A meeting was arranged, with the leaders of the world, The First appeared. Everyone noticed.

His ancestors wanted to live in peace, but they would not accept his kind. They could not function without electronics, and they did not have control of machines any more.

Survival was paramount, but they kept a small population alive, on an island. They called it a zoo. They were monitored, eventually they did not try to escape.

Things I haven't yet forgotten about WDS and XP

2007-09-18T22:37:00.000+01:00

1. Blank your destination drive
2. ImageX needs to be told to use the SIS rwm file
3. Make lots of incremental images, who knows when Sysprep will decide to screw everything up
4. If you don't have the Vista DVD you have to use the CLI to deploy
5. Something about drivers? You need to create a structure for them, the built in stuff doesn't work, I forgot the details.
6. Most of the docs are for Vista and fail to mention this stuff
7. Don't set an admin password whilst testing, especially in Sysprep.ini
8. There's no multicasting until Windows 2008
9. I capture with the capture image, if you can't select drive C you've not sysprep'd, you need to save the image to a drive, drive you're imaging will do if there's room, and connect to the server. Don't forget to delete the image that's left on the drive.

To deploy I boot to the Generic WinPE image then:
net use m: \\win2k3\e$ /user:domain\administrator
*enter password*
then run this script, nlc is the group:
diskpart /s m:\destroy_(diskpart_script).txt
m:
cd reminst\images\nlc
\distribution\tools\x86\imagex /apply delld505.wim 1 c:\ /ref res.rwm

and destroy_(diskpart_script).txt consists of:

select disk 0
clean
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick
active

This will, of course, completely wipe the drive it's run on, with no warning, so don't screw up.

mavhc redesigns everything. Part 1

2007-09-18T21:35:00.000+01:00

In an effort to actually relate to my tagline, I present the first in an ongoing series in which I will point out obvious design flaws in everyday objects.

1. Toilet seat. Needs to be stable in 2 states, up, and down, so make sure it is.

2. Curtain rail. Don't design a curtain rail with a bump in it so you can't actually open or close the curtains easily

3. Fridge/freezer. Make the door transparent, then you won't have to open it to see what's in it.

4. Bread/toasters. Make one fit the other. Also toasters should be transparent.

New IRC acronyms

2007-08-11T16:45:00.000+01:00

According to current irc research the use of lol has been diluted, therefore under the irc bylaws from 2007-08-13 two new acronyms will be introduced:

llol: literally laughing out loud, for when you actually are

and

sqi: smiling quietly inside

A new method for making TV shows

2007-08-11T15:53:00.000+01:00

Narrowcast, use the internet
No advertisements, sell directly
If you wish to, sell subscriptions

In more detail
1. Good TV doesn't appeal to everyone, no need to compromise as long as you can find enough people worldwide to pay for it.

No need to appeal to the masses, no need to be censored, no reason to have to write episodes that are 44 mins long in 5 acts, and seasons that are 22 episodes long, and have to have your most exciting stories take place not where they belong, but when it's sweeps.
No need to wait for distribution deals in each country, if they ever arrive. You have a potential audience of billions

2. Don't pander to advertisers, that's just more censorship. Don't interrupt your art every 10 mins, film makers don't. And don't let the broadcasters put their own adverts on top of your show.

Sell your show for as little as profitable. Assuming distribution costs fall to 0, which, by using, say, bittorrent, is almost true today. The only cost is making your show, say $2 million. Find 10 million people who'll pay 25c each.

Previously viewers paid their cable bill (average $40), and then bought the DVDs. With this model neither are needed. So the viewer has saved enough money to buy, to keep, 5 hours of TV a day.

Obviously to reach 10 million people it's going to have to be easy for them, get your distribution system onto PVRs such as Tivo, then viewers can just press a button on their remote to buy an episode, or an entire season.

Reduce the middlemen, make more money, have more control.

Utilise recommendation systems such as Amazon's. People who watched Show A may also like Show B (that's your show). Talk to people, become the next popular TV show creator. People will watch your new show if they know it's from the same people as your old good show.

3. If you're writing arc based story lines, and you should be, otherwise why aren't you making films?, then considering selling subscriptions to guarantee that you'll have enough money to tell the end of the story. Tell people: I wrote show A, which you liked, I will make show B, and you will get an ending, if enough people subscribe.

Wait until you have your 10 million subscriptions, then start making the show. Or, if 10 million is too many, offer people the chance to pay more. If you then get more people buying it the cost to each person drops, thus encouraging people to tell their friends, and not illegally copy it.

Which brings us to DRM, don't use it, a) it doesn't work, b) it reduces sales, c) you're going to want to let people make their own DVDs, so it can't work.

Postscript
Obviously you can't start with a multi-million dollar show today, but get the ball rolling, make the kind of shows which are cheaper to create, sitcoms, documentaries, factual shows.

Conclusion
Please change TV for the better, otherwise I'll be left with only two options, rewatch all my DVDs, or go outside. And you don't want that.

Apple iPhone CPU

2007-01-09T21:17:00.000Z

Speculation:

Apple's iPhone runs OS X, but it won't have an x86 CPU, so have Apple ported OS X to ARM?

Jack Bauer: Hippie

2007-01-07T22:19:00.000Z

Evidence:

Long hair
Takes drugs
Hugs trees
Tries to stop nuclear weapons
Tries to bring down the corrupt government, man
Tries to stop wars
He has a bachelor's degree in English Literature and Art, apparently. Who knew?

The Cola Wars 2012-2018

2006-02-26T09:34:00.000Z

The Cola Wars were the worst Mankind has ever seen. In 2010 most governments around the world banned Coke and Pepsi from advertising due to health risks associated with their products. With over $3 billion in spare cash both companies invested heavily in the arms business.

However due to the increased health of the global population everyone was happier, and wars stopped happening. Fearing their investments would be wiped out and searching for a way to increase their respective drinks' market share both companies hit upon the solution: Fight for it.

Free weapons were made available if customers sent in ring pulls, and soon the smell of sugar coated violence was in the air again. Brother turned against brother, father against son, cherry flavoured blood flowed in the streets.

In, what is now considered the first global civil war, the losses were high, but eventually some good was seen to come from it. The overpopulation problem was reduced slightly, no more trucks with Christmas lighting were seen on TV, and instances of burping were severely curtailed.

The World

2005-06-11T20:34:00.000+01:00

The world is changing
Slowly, imperceptively
It's evolving into something....more
more dangerous,
more terrifing,
more exciting

It cannot be stopped

The world being changed.
by who?, we don't know,
for what purpose?, we don't know,
how?, we don't know

But we know it is changing

The future is changing
The past is changing
The now is changing

And it cannot be stopped

Mmmmm, irony

2005-05-21T23:58:00.000+01:00

Hey look, I updated.

Wakefield, A9Home, neat, but why not bigger and therefore cheaper?

My uptime reaches the top 30 for Windows

The Pseudoscience of Intelligent Design

And now the hopefully ironic part:

The Guide on blogging.

More Hitchhiker's videos

The country I was born in is best

2005-03-18T19:15:00.000Z

Well that's what people seem to think, probably due to their education. The Iconbar website got hacked a while ago due to running old software (did they not hear about apt-get upgrade?). Anyway, just before I replied to post, but they had to restore from a backup so it was deleted, so I'm posting it here:

> Remember at the beginning of the 20th century Britain was years ahead of any country in a lot of areas

Who told you this?

> steam-engine
Greek 0-100AD, but only as a toy
Practical design by French guy in London a bit after 1681, based on work by Galileo and his pupils in Italy.
First useful one built by Thomas Savery of course, using De Caus post 1612 method of raising water using heat.
James Watt later made it work well.

> railways
Roads of rails called Wagonways were being used in Germany as early as 1550
By 1776, iron had replaced the wood in the rails and wheels on the carts. Wagonways evolved into Tramways and spread though out Europe
In 1789, Englishman, William Jessup designed the first wagons with flanged wheels
Richard Trevithick or Cornwall in 1804 built a steam powered tramway locomotive.

> global communications network through telegraph
Surely a global invention

> petrol-driven car
1680 - Dutch physicist, Christian Huygens designed (but never built) an internal combustion engine that was to be fueled with gunpowder
1807 - Francois Isaac de Rivaz of Switzerland invented an internal combustion engine that used a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen for fuel. Rivaz designed a car for his engine - the first internal combustion powered automobile. However, his was a very unsuccessful design.
1858 - Belgian-born engineer, Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir invented and patented (1860) a double-acting, electric spark-ignition internal combustion engine fueled by coal gas. In 1863, Lenoir attached an improved engine (using petroleum and a primitive carburetor) to a three-wheeled wagon that managed to complete an historic fifty-mile road trip
1885 - Gottlieb Daimler invented what is often recognized as the prototype of the modern gas engine - with a vertical cylinder, and with gasoline injected through a carburetor (patented in 1887). Daimler first built a two-wheeled vehicle the "Reitwagen" (Riding Carriage) with this engine and a year later built the world's first four-wheeled motor vehicle

> computer
The Chinese invented the first computer, the abacus.
Pascal's machine could add and Leibniz's machine could multiply
In the early 1800's, the French weaver Joseph Jacquard invented a loom in which a series of punched cards controlled the patterns of cloth and carpet produced
Charles Babbage in 1856, but never built.
The years from 1870 to 1960 also saw the invention and use of a number of "analogue computing machines".
Professor Douglas Hartree's differential analyser, which he designed at the University of Manchester to solve mathematical equations, and had made in 1935
Mark 1 1939-1944
Colossus 1941
Z3 1941
Baby, ran in 1948 at the University of Manchester
ENIAC 1946 University of Pennsylvania
The Z4 was installed at Zurich in 1950

> television
One of the earliest proposals for a mechanical television system was put forward by German researcher Paul Nipkow in 1883
Charles F. Jenkins in May 1920, at the Toronto meeting of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, Jenkins introduced his "prismatic rings" as a device to replace the shutter on a film projector. This invention laid the foundation for his first radiovision broadcast. He claimed to have transmitted the earliest moving silhouette images on June 14, 1923, but his first public demonstration of these did not take place until June of 1925
On December 2, 1922, in Sorbonne, France, Edwin Belin, an Englishman, who held the patent for the transmission of photographs by wire as well as fiber optics and radar, demonstrated a mechanical scanning device that was an early precursor to modern television
John Logie Baird, a Scottish engineer and entrepreneur who 'achieved his first transmissions of simple face shapes in 1924 using mechanical television. In the first week of October, 1925, Baird obtained the first actual television picture in his laboratory
Farnsworth successfully demonstrated the transmission of television signals, on September 7, 1927

> radar
Heinrich Hertz in Germany calculated that an electric current swinging very rapidly back and forth in a conducting wire would radiate electromagnetic waves into the surrounding space (today we would call such a wire an "antenna" ). With such a wire he created (in 1886) and detected such oscillations in his lab, using an electric spark, in which the current oscillates rapidly
Christian Hulsmeyer in 1904, patented an early warning system for shipping (limited to one-mile range)

pulse modulation, used for measuring height of ionosphere invented by Gregory Breit, Merle Tuve, U.S., 1925

Robert Watson-Watt, England, 1934-1935 invented RADAR for finding aircraft

> jet-engine
Hans von Ohain is considered the designer of the first operational turbojet engine. Frank Whittle was the first to register a patent for the turbojet engine in 1930. Hans von Ohain was granted a patent for his turbojet engine in 1936. However, Hans von Ohain's jet was the first to fly in 1939. Frank Whittle's jet first flew in in 1941

> mobile phone
On June 17, 1946 in Saint Louis, Missouri, AT&T and Southwestern Bell introduced the first American commercial mobile phone service to private customers
In January, 1969 the Bell System made commercial cellular radio operational by employing frequency reuse for the first time. Aboard a train. Using payphones
1973 - Dr Martin Cooper, is considered the inventor of the first portable handset. Dr. Cooper, former general manager for the systems division at Motorola, and the first person to make a call on a portable cellular phone

> WWW from a British man
Working in an international centre of research

> Steven Hawking
Err, ok

> cloning technology
1970's - Dr. John Gordon successfully cloned frogs by replacing the nucleus of frog egg with another nuclear cell from a different frog.
1986 - Dr. Steen M. Willadsen had been working with sheep embryos at Grenada Genetics in Texas and had cloned three sheep eggs from very early embryo cells.
1994 - Dr. First of Wisconsin inadvertently starved cells of nourishing serum for several days. The result was a pause in the cell's life cycle allowing for the cell cycle of the embryo to be matched with the cycle of the cell
1995 - Drs. Wilmut and Campbell of Roslin Institute use First's starvation technique to produce Megan and Morag, the world's first cloned sheep

> half of the human genome.
Wasn't that bananas?

Doctor Who 27.1 rejected AICN submission

2005-03-10T22:45:00.000Z

27.1?
Yes. This show's been around since before Trek started.

What's it called?
"Rose"

Who?
Yes. *ahem*. But obvious joke aside, she's The Doctor's new companion,
played by once pop star, now actress (The Canterbury Tales was well
received), Billie Piper. She's pretty good, once you get past the
annoying voice.

Who wrote it?
Russell T Davies

Who's Who?
Christopher Eccleston. You may remember him from such films as 28 Days
Later, The Others, eXistenZ, Jude, but I remember him for playing
Jesus in The Second Coming, a 2003 TV 2 part drama, also written by
one Russell T Davies, which is the main reason I think this show will
be good. He also wrote the original Touching Evil

Wobbly Sets?
Nope. It's your standard highish budget (for UK) BBC show, like Spooks
(MI-5). The Visual Effects have been done by The Mill (Babe 2, Black
Hawk Down, Band of Brothers, Gladiator). Some are good, others
average, hopefully they'll fix some of the mattes before airing.
Seemed that the more complex effects looked better, which may indicate
it's unfinished.

When does it air?
Possibly the 26th March in UK, 5th April on CBC in Canada.

What does TV Guide say?
Very little. Other reviews have been positive though.

Extra geeky stuff: It's the 9th Doctor, the TV movie existed but
doesn't seem to be referenced, I imagine they'll just ignore the weird
parts, it's still a police box, it's a new console room. Daleks? Yes.

What about the rest of the season?
They'll be 13 episodes, each 45mins long (no adverts), stories will be
1 or 2 episodes in length. Other writers include Mark "The League of
Gentlemen" Gatiss, Paul "animated Dr Who internet thingy and Dr Who
novels" Cornell, Steven "Coupling" Moffat. Directors include Joe
"Ultraviolet" Ahearne.

What's good?
It's fun; The Doctor's introduction; ears; using the history of the
show. That it works for long time fans and new viewers.

What's not so good?
OK, it's the first episode, but it seems to be lacking slightly in
plot. And that plot is basically similar to the previous Auton
stories.

Why should I watch?
It's different, it's funny, it's Dr Who damnit. Oh, and Simon Pegg's an episode.

How does it end, spoiler-boy?
And by the way, did I mention?, it also travels in time.

Overall it's pretty good, I'll give it ***1/2

The Hercules T. Strong Rating System:
***** better than we deserve
**** better than most motion pictures
*** actually worth your valuable time
** as horrible as most stuff on TV
* makes you quietly pray for bulletins

The Meaning of Life

2005-02-22T04:48:00.000Z

life exists in the universe, the universe has a finite amount of entropy, therefore life will someday stop unless we find out how to solve that problem, therefore the meaning of life is to solve that problem.

BBC Broadband article comments

2005-02-19T02:35:00.000Z

As the BBC appears to have not posted the comment I wrote about http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4242751.stm I'll just post it here:

Yes, that's also why I disconnect my phone for 22 hours per day, and don't answer the door for 22 hours a day, and unplug the radio and TV for 22 hours a day. And lock my bookcase etc etc.

Talking to people online isn't fundamentally different from talking face to face, it's just more efficient, I can converse with a thousand people from all over the world at once. The "social" people spend hours travelling only to talk to a couple of people.

Get radio, music and TV via the internet, when you want it, much more variety, easy to record. No need to buy newspapers. The only reason you can buy music online now is because so many people wanted to, but had no choice except to do so illegally. TV and film will be the same.

Remember when you used to search through books looking for that bit you read a while ago?

If the internet's not always on then it's not worth dialing up to do a google search. It only works if it's on all the time.

Do you feel the need to watch TV 24/7 because you paid for it, or use the phone 24/7? You just have to accept it's there when you need it. I'm sure you'll find ways to procrastinate without the internet, newspapers to read, people to phone, tv to watch.

Or is the view that books/newspapers/radio is good, but tv/internet is bad. Can't see why, except for they're newer, so old people aren't used to them.

Remember how records killed live performances, and cinema killed theatre, and tv killed cinema, and radio killed records, and the internet killed them all?

Things that suck 20040214

2005-02-14T05:17:00.000Z

on roughly the same system, roughly optimized the same way, a benchmark from 1979 at Xerox PARC runs only 50 times faster today. Moore’s law has given us somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 times improvement in that time. So there’s approximately a factor of 1,000 in efficiency that has been lost by bad CPU architectures

Things that happened 20040213

2005-02-14T04:57:00.000Z

Bought some Mirror Platinum 4x DVD-Rs, only type the shop had. First 1 burnt fine. Next 5 errored in exactly the same way. Upgraded the firmware on the Sony DRU-500A burner and the next 3 have been fine.

Monk has gone from cool mysteries, to more recently, easily solved mysteries, to most recently, telling you the answer right at the start. Very annoying. Apparently the maths guy will be in Serenity though, so that's cool.

Numb3rs is ok, if rather bland. They've got the guy from Northern Exposure, the guy from Taxi, the guy from Ally McBeal and the girl from Sports Night and Sliders, and they've turned them into normal characters. That's not cool. And the title sequence sucks.

Medical Investigation gets more "why would they do that" crazy. Miles' story was so obvious and simple, just filler, although the ending was nice. And the other story they solved out of left field, obviously it was supposed to be about the problems of the main guest star, but couldn't they have solved the medical problem better?

Time Team was pretty good, Iron age people during the invasion of the Romans. I really need to learn more history that's not based in the UK, to wikipedia I go.

Stuff of the day 20040314

2005-02-14T04:12:00.000Z

Phrase of the day: "MIT's crack studbunnies of geekdom"

Thought of the day: how long until there's iTunes for TV. Napster started in late 1999, iTMS started in 2003. 3.5 years. I was downloading TV in mid 1999, but it's only become popular in the last year I guess.

Problem of the day: Is there software to allow multiple digital tv channels on the same multiplex to be recorded by an HTPC?

Word of the day: epigram

Witty introduction

2005-02-14T04:02:00.000Z

Yes, that mavhc

Don't forget to vote for me in the future world president elections