Incoherent Ravings

Game of Life... In Excel

2009-12-11T02:36:00.000+02:00

Well, I was sitting in work during a quiet period, thinking and ruminating upon the sheer tedium of it. So I decided to tinker with Excel. More specifically, I decided to make a version of John Conway's Game Of Life, using the spreadsheet cells as pixels or game cells.
Here it is...
There's a bunch of macro's and other stuff in there. All open. Feel free to modify it in any way that you wish. I'd appreciate feedback and any updates/improvements which you make :)
It's reasonably well commented. There are 4 baby macro's in the workbook itself, a form for setting options, and a separate code module which does the grunt work. The baby macros are there for putting buttons on your worksheet (the version of Excel in work doesn't want to keep the buttons there for some reason. Go figure).
Tinker away!
I'll convert to OOo format sooner or later :)

Acer Aspire One - With a real OS! REDUX

2009-12-07T08:00:00.001+02:00

New & improved, 10-step method of getting a real OS on your shiny, new, Aspire One...

Go and download the latest iso image of the most excellent of operating systems: Linux Mint
Download and install unetbootin (it's available via apt, for you deb/ubuntu users out there).
Using unetbootin, install the iso image to a spare usb key/thumb drive thingie that you have lying around.
Plug in the usb key/thumb thingie with the now-bootable Linux Mint distro on it.
Reboot the computer.
Press F12 when the screen lights up to select your primary boot drive. Select the usb key/thumb thingie.
Let Mint boot and do its thing. This is a live image, so you can have a look at the operating system before you install it - this also works for pretty much any other computer out there (be warned, SiS do not release open-source drivers for their graphics chips, so if you have an SiS graphics card, you may want to investigate a little before committing yourself to a Linux install).
Click on the Install Linux Mint icon (ensure that you've backed up any important data on your computer before installing any operating system! Always!).
Do the install thang! If you've backed up your system, then I'd recommend just ditching the os which came with the Aspire One (be it WinXP or the crappy, customised linux install).
Celebrate with a beer.

Btw. I've been using Linux Mint for about a year with no major issues. It just keeps getting better & better. Everything now works "out of the box" on the Aspire One now!

Acer Aspire One - With a real OS

2009-01-16T05:02:00.005+02:00

I really like the Aspire One. Small. Cheap. Cheap. Small. Good keyboard. Shame the operating system sucks.

Well, it's time to change that. I recently installed Xandros onto the machine. Nice stuff, however, to get everything working well, you need to customise the kernel somewhat. A nice guy called sickboy has done all the hard work for you, so all you have to do is follow this guide :-)
The only problem that I've found with this setup is that VirtualBox doesn't work. It can't compile its happy module with sickboy's custom kernel, and without it's happy module, it just sulks.

Not to worry. A friend of mine has come up with a solution. I'll present it in a nice, number order, don't forget to do all this (except the package installing) in a shell (Terminal window to you) as root (sudo -s to get a root shell)...

Disclaimer: This guide is for advanced os tinkerers who don't mind killing their operating system on occasion in order to try things out. The install of Xandros alone is enough to erase your hard drive. You must at least understand this guide and understand the steps given before even attempting to continue - this guide will leave your computer in an unbootable state. This guide will rob your house & run off with your significant other. This is a quick hack. Your mileage may vary. Contents may have settled in transit. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

That said. On to the guide...

Download and install Xubuntu linux (plenty of sites on how to make a bootable usb disc)
Locate & download the custom kernel package from sickboy, along with the headers (try looking here)
Install said kernel module & headers. Reboot, possibly edit grub menu.lst, possibly not (I was drunk at this point in the install)
Download the kernel source from here (2.6.28 at the time of writing)
Download the latest VirtualBox package for Ubuntu here
Unpack the linux kernel source into /usr/src/ the path should now be /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.28
Link it to the default source tree: ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.6.28 /usr/src/linux
Move the header tree to stop spurious errors: mv /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.28 /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.28.sickboy
Copy the .config file from the sickboy headers to the linux source tree: cp -vR /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.28.sickboy/.config /usr/src/linux/
Now, change into the linux source directory (cd /usr/src/linux) and run the following command: make prepare
Finally you get to install that pre-downloaded virtualbox package. Off you go and have fun!

Full credit goes to that invertate os installer: Nyje for the extensive googling which went into preparing this for you...

A real phone... At last!

2008-12-24T19:49:00.003+02:00

At long last, after many years of waiting, you can now (after jumping through many, many hoops) register yourself as an android developer (for the one-time fee of $25, of course). This gives you the option to purchase the Android Dev Phone 1.
This is a price worth paying for a phone which comes completely unlocked. No sim locking. No bootloader locking. No firmware locking. Excellent! I hear you cry. Where can I get me one of these babies?
We-eel, the answer, if you live in Greece, is you can't. Yet.
That's right. After jumping through the sort-your-credit-card-details out hoops on the website, and finally getting myself set up as a developer (like I'm going to use Java - ha!). I now have the option to buy the phone - as long as I live in the UK, or France, Switzerland and a few other European countries. This is a shame, as my beloved Nokia N95 has finally succumbed to the dubious charms of tap water, and I'm in the market for a new phone.
It looks like I'll have to ship it to my parents and get them to forwards it to me. What a pain in the arse...

Energy

2008-09-20T23:32:00.003+03:00

There are issues abroad. Mainly regarding the use and abuse of energy.
It seems to have come to the attention of the free world™(read Americans) that energy is in short supply. Lots of proposals have come forwards regarding the replacement of petroleum-based products, however, a large portion of them are shot down as impractical.

Now. I have an issue with this. Let me explain...
The impractical camp usually come up with the explanation that renewables (as they are currently called) energy just doesn't have the energy density to compete against fossil fuels & that therefore (etc.) our glorious leader (read: The Leader Of The Free World™ Bush) is perfectly justified in raping the underdeveloped world {along with Alaska} to keep {y}our own fuel-hungry society going for a few weeks or months more.

How wrong can they be?

The issue isn't really energy density. It's really about energy efficiency. Anybody in the "impractical" camp can come to me and explain to me how I'm wrong and they're right. All I have to do is to show them that they can't build a fucking car with an engine smaller than 4 litres!

If you can do the same work (try hunting for a scientific definition of work) for less energy, then it's obvious that efficiency is your problem. Keep insisting that you run around your continent in 4 litre and higher fuel guzzlers, then bit-by-bit, the rest of the world will start finding ways to stop you.

Sorry if I offended some Americans there, but it's my experience that a little offence is a good defense!

iTunes and AppStore.

2008-08-25T19:28:00.006+03:00

I'm not very happy with iTunes.

You see, I'd started buying apps from the Appstore for my iPod Touch™. Nothing major at the moment, just dipping my toe into the waters, as it were. Downloaded the Texas Hold-em poker game and their solitaire game, amongst a couple of others. Not bad little apps, I must say.

...However...

I decided a few days ago to reformat & reinstall my mac. Some stuff was randomly crashing and annoying me, so it was time to clean house, as it were. It would also give me the opportunity to set my machine up for multiple operating systems (another story). So, let's detail the procedure, shall we?

Backup my iTunes folder & all the music to an external drive.
Backup important documents.
Create a list of apps I use.
Pop in the OSX disc. Run disc utility to get a single partition (Bootcamp requirement).
Do the install.

Ok. No problems so far...

Copy iTunes folder back.
Update iTunes.
Sign back into iTunes, etc.
Still got my music & playlists. Good.
Reinstall relevant apps, etc.
Pop iPod onto the charger. It syncs.
Where the fuck's my apps?

I mean seriously. They've been removed from my iPod during the sync. Empty icons appear in iTunes/applications folder. It tells me that I've got 27 application updates available, but when I go to the applications updates section, guess what? They're not there!
Ok. I go to the iTunes Store & look at my purchase history. Maybe I can re-download them? Nope.
Allllrighty. Let's go and check out the apps in question. Maybe they remember that you've downloaded them and will allow you to just re-download the apps? Erm. Nope. You have to pay again. Apple's policy is that you are responsible for keeping backups of your own software. Now, I wouldn't have much of a problem with that if they were in an easy-to-locate place, or were quite happily ensconsed in the iTunes folder. But to have them hidden away and to tell you that it's your problem... Even when they have the download & purchase history! Nah. That's the sort of customer support I don't expect from Apple. I'm dissapointed and upset.
In fact, it's the last piece of hardware that I'll buy of you also.
Way to go Apple, you've lost another customer!

----
2008-08-29 - Updated
I appear to be in error on this issue. Even though various forum threads etc. hold you, the consumer responsible for storing your downloaded software correctly, it appears that Apple do allow you to re-download the software again. Unfortunately, you have to go all the way through the buy-it-again procedure until (after you've already volunteered to pay for it again) they pop up a dialog asking if you want to download it again for free! Hmmm. You'd think that the design guru's at Apple would actually put this option there before you have to click on the buy it button and then enter your password. They could have saved me from a ton of heartache!

Eve Universe Is Big

2008-08-13T18:56:00.003+03:00

Let's give you an idea of how big EVE actually is:
EVE-Online is a galaxy. This galaxy has x-thousand star systems accessible to everybody via a gateway setup (each system leads to 1, 2, 3 or even 4 other systems - a web, if you like). Each star system has y-planets/space stations/moons/asteroids/etc. Each system is also given a security rating - this indicates to you how dangerous the system is (for us noobs, it means that we don't go below 0.5 sec space). The security status is set from 1.0 down to 0.0 with 0.1 graduations. This means that 1.0 to 0.5 security space is fairly secure from gankers & the like. You're not really secure, but it's expensive in ships/equipment and status for somebody to attack you there without you giving them a reason to (think stealing other peoples loot).

In Warcraft, there are a bunch of servers with various names given to them and of various types (PvP/PvE/Mixed), you join a server, and that's pretty much it. You're stuck on that server. You cannot meet people from other servers & kill them (unless you're in a world battleground, and even then, it's not really a world battleground). Yes, I know it's 8 million people play WoW™ but they are so split up on different servers that it's like 10k people to you. If you have friends on a different server, then you have to create a new character on that server to join them (yes, I know that there is paid character transfer, but that has a huge set of conditions & restrictions). With EVE, everybody is on the same server. What does that mean? Well, it means that if your friends decide to join after hearing all about it, they can join anywhere & eventually meet up with you. Also, the fact that potentially 30k people can all gather in a single system for a fight makes for some interesting gaming.

iPod Touch Freebie goodness!

2008-08-05T18:17:00.004+03:00

I've (obviously) jailbroken my iPod Touch™, and have enjoyed immense benefits from the expanded software available.
Apple, of course, decided that they wanted a piece of that action, but they also wanted you to pay them for the privilege. So they decided to make their own version of the Installer App and called it the App Store, which you can browse on your iPod Touch™ or iPhone™ as long as they have the latest version 2.0+ firmware installed (you can also browse it in iTunes, which is much less painful, but still horrible). Note to the wise: the new version of the iPod Touch™ firmware is pay-for (allegedly, according to rumour, you can find hookey versions online, which you can then, after much juggling, install, jailbreak and use to connect to the App Store. With even more juggling, allegedly, you can get apple to download a brand new, genuine version of the firmware from within iTunes™ and then jailbreak that ;-)

On to the topic of the day. Namely the App Store®. Now, it appears to me that the App Store is just a glorified (and not so good) version of the jailbroken installer, or the even better cydia installer (which uses apt-get repositories, ftw!). However, it all appears a little jumbled. There's no searching & sorting functions, etc. Also the majority of the software in the iStore (is that trademarked, I wonder?) is pay-for. Now I'm not one to begrudge authors some cash, but I'm also of the opinion that people should pay what they think the software is worth, or at least be allowed to try it first, a-la shareware.

Anyhow, I'm rambling. Time to get to the meat of the topic. Namely, is there anything good in the App Store free software?

The answer to this is a surprising yes.

I have downloaded quite a few of the free apps to test them against the previous jailbroken software. I have come to the conclusion that there is a lot of pap in there. However, there is a few choice nuggets.
One choice nugget is Cube Runner. A free game written by a Mr. Andy Qua. Cube Runner is a 3-dimensional racing type of game. Quite simple really, you have a little ship at the bottom of the screen and you have to navigate a maze of blocks by turning your constantly moving ship. You turn the ship by tilting the iPod. That's the controls. Tilt left to go left, and tilt right to go right. Not exactly rocket science is it?
However, Cube Runner is not just a boring free couple-of-levels type of game, then pay for the rest (well, almost - it only has one level which you can go through at different speeds). Oh no, it comes with the option of uploading your own, custom levels. Already a community of Cube Runner fans have started to congregate around a particular fansite in order to post their own levels, voice tips and generally behave just like a community of like minded people generally does in situations like this.

As it happens, I have just had to go back into work do complete some pointless personality profiling test (seven hours after my shift had finished, and nine hours before my next shift started - right in the middle of my sleep. Hmm. Thank you, Casino!). This meant that I couldn't get back to sleep due to the interruptions in my sleep schedule, so I played a little Cube Runner. After getting bored of the given levels, I decided to make my own - it's surprisingly easy! a bunch of header text, then a bunch of "x" to denote the position of each box on the map. The fansite even has a level creator for you to dabble with.
I've posted my small creations here for anybody to download and play with. They're (unsurprisingly) called Insomnia1 and Insomnia2. As and when I get more, I will update my site accordingly!

That is one piece of software I would pay a few Euros for!

Enjoy & happy running!

WoW not wowing anymore

2008-08-02T21:07:00.004+03:00

Well, after grinding my Gnome Rogue to lvl 70, and grinding my 'lock to 69, apathy and boredom with the WoW grind has seriously set in. WoW is seriously no longer wow-ing me. Whilst it's a relief to my friends and associates who've had to suffer my tales of rogueish derring-do and the like, I myself have found myself at a bit of a loose end regarding MMO's and game playing in general. I'd love to play GTA IV, but that'd necessitate the purchase of a relatively expensive games console, along with a very expensive television set. Something I'm not financially prepared to fork out for on a single game. So, I decided to look elsewhere.

A year or so back I dabbled in Eve Online, a space-combat-cum-trade game. Basically a 'do what you want' approach to MMO games. They give you a ship, a small amount of their in-game cash, called isk and a tutorial. Then they set you free in their massive (& I mean, massive) EVE Galaxy. For those of you old enough to remember the 8-bit days, think MMO Elite in terms of freedom of choice. You can be a trader, a manufacturer, mission runner, pirate, explorer, miner. The list goes on & on. What the hell, I thought. They've just sent me a free 12-day reactivation of my old characters, I'll give it a try.
So, into my old character I jumped. Now that I've been playing MMO's for a while, I've more of an idea where I'd like to go with her (Aleph Two for those wondering). So I started training her up more in the direction that I wanted to go. With EVE-online, you improve your character through training & improvements of various skills. They all take different amounts of time to learn & you can only learn one at a time. However, it is trained in realtime. That is, if you log out for a few days & then log back in, your training was still ongoing whilst you were logged out.

Anyhow, I upgraded my ship, ran a few missions & thought about the potential of this game.

Then, one day, I tried to log in & got the message "Your account has been suspended". WTF!?! No way!? What for?
So I logged into EVE's website to find that my 12-day subscription had expired. That was the final proof that I didn't want to play WoW any more, when I signed up for a 3-month subscription and also cancelled my WoW account...
So, bad pun time...

I am gno longer the Gnome you once gnew.
In fact I am now, Aleph Two!

Sorry.

Like Marmite?

2008-07-19T14:43:00.005+03:00

I like Marmite, in fact, I really like Marmite. This can be a problem when living in a country which doesn't share your passion for it. Greece (finally) has Marmite on sale in the supermarkets. However, like its supplies of HP sauce (another great British tradition), the availability is quite limited. The last time I checked, you could get the smallest jar of Marmite for around 4 Euro. The only thing missing from this transaction is a one-legged man with an eye-patch and a parrot, saying things like "oo-har, me hearties", or "shiver me timbers" (that's the one-eyed man, not the parrot saying these things - the parrot says things like "pieces of eight").
Anyhow, to avoid the Foreigner Tax, here in Greece, I had somebody bring a large, 1/2 kilo jar of the black gold over when they visited last. Only cost about 4 Euro equivalent, so I was very happy with that one!
Back to the story. As you may (or may not) know, I'm quite into making my own bread at the moment. There's nothing quite like having Marmite on toast in the morning, made with your own bread. Yesterday, I had an epiphany. Why not cut out 1/2 of the work? Why not make Marmite bread? After all, Marmite is mainly yeast anyhow, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Should it? The only things I could envision causing an issue are:

Ratio of Marmite to flour.
If the Marmite fights the bread yeast.

As it was, I put a couple of large dollops of the Special Valentine's Edition Marmite (with Champagne, I believe) into 1/2 of the dough batch which I was making, & used that as a test loaf. I used this Marmite because I have some which I'm not eating (whilst I have traditional Marmite to eat, anyhow), so I figured it's better than going to waste.

The results:
Marmite Bread is bloody excellent! The bread is very savoury & quite strong in flavour, but it's excellent with cheese (& probably onion). I will be performing other sandwich experiments in the near future to ascertain optimal toppings for it.

Future thoughts:
I'm thinking that the next batch of Marbread™ will use original formula Marmite. I will also use slightly less of it to that size dough batch so that it isn't in danger of drowning out any other flavours (one tablespoon for a medium loaf, sort of thing).

Highly recommended!

The dream of flight

2008-07-14T13:00:00.000+03:00

Just imagine: You've decided to take a break. A vacation! A week in sunny Greece. Time to prepare...
It's July. Ten thousand others have had the same idea as you.
So, 4am you leave your house in the center of and spend the required hour or two getting to the airport with your luggage. Remember to be there 2 hours early, along with the rest of the ~~cattle~~ horde so that they can definitely see that you're not a terrorist (make sure you don't wear your terrorist T-shirt now, otherwise it's a long journey home - if you're not held for 42 days to make sure!).

To summarise so far: You have spent at least 3 hours awake, probably more. You have at least 2 hours to wait before your flight. Grouchy is thy name.

Your flight boards. You spend 30 minutes queuing up with 300 other sweaty, disgruntled passengers before being shoehorned into your oh-so-uncomfortable seat. You strap in & then play the waiting game for the next 30 minutes until take-off (remember kids, no electronic devices switched on during take-off & landing. That means YOU, young Timmy!!!).
Hoorah, you're in the air! Time to waste another 4 hours of your life trying to watch something on your iPod touch or listen to music. Don't bother trying to sleep, those seats were designed by politicians to keep them awake during palimentary debates. 3 hours or so later, you are on final approach. Put your toys away kiddies!
You land, play the "where's my luggage?" game, which keeps you entertained for another 30 minutes or so, before finally sidling through passport control and out into the free world. Time to proceed to your final destination, as they say. Another 30 minutes to 10 hours later, you arrive at your chalet/apartment/hotel/whatever. You're knackered, hot, sweaty, jet-lagged & grumpy. But it's worth it, 'cause now you have 7 days in the sun. Sand, sea & you get the idea. But it's not over! You're so knacked from the stresses of flying that you immediately fall asleep for ten hours. You then spend the next 4 days getting your body clock adjusted (sleeping when you should be beaching, etc). So now you have 3 days left of your holiday to enjoy before suffering the same thing in reverse.
Don't you think that it's a little strange that we suffer this? Shouldn't there be a better way? Maybe there was?

Think cruise liner in the air. Think space, relaxation, stress-free travel. Think efficiency, economy, safety. Think quiet, no big jet engines screaming in your ear. Think fresh air - flying below the requirements for pressurised air. Think all this and more....

You see, I've always dreamed about the return of the airship. Not the little floating balloons which pass for airships these days, but the super-sized behemoths of the sky, like the Hindenburg. Yeah, I know that it crashed & burned, literally. It was a shame. There were numerous factors involved in it's accident, not least of which was that it was running on Hydrogen instead of Helium (small note: The USA who 'produced' all the Helium at that time refused to sell any to Nazi Germany, hence the use of Hydrogen for buoyancy). It was also (allegedly) coated with an extremely flammable waterproofing paint, which didn't help matters much when it started burning. Anyhow, I'm rambling. Back to the subject...

Imagine a rigid dirigible made today, using modern technology (carbon-fiber, helium-filled, solar-powered, etc). Say for example, you wanted to see Europe. How about an air-cruise?

You get to the airport (or wherever they're taking off from, remember - no runway!). You board, get shown to your cabin, which is nice & roomy. You freshen up & then you go to the viewing lounge & order a margarita before take-off. Slowly the room fills up with fellow passengers just walking along, or sitting, watching the view & sipping on their cocktails before the big journey.

Take-off from London. A leisurely 4-hour flight to Paris, where it docks for the afternoon, leaving you to sample the delights of Parisian life.
The next morning it departs for Amsterdam (ignoring Belgium - there's nothing to see there, allegedly). A whole day at low-level cruising, gently whiling away the time, playing in the on-board casino, eating at the buffet. Reading, followed by a quick nap before you land in Amsterdam & go to sample the herbal delights of the city.
Early the next morning the airship takes off with the dawn, leaving you sitting there with your morning coffee, reading the newspaper & watching the world drift by, before it lands in Berlin.
You leave the airship, go for a nice, hearty meal & a fine German beer. The airship's itinerary states that they won't be leaving until late afternoon, so you have a nice night out on the town before a leisurely lie-in and then back to the viewing lounge for take-off.
Where to next? Why Rome of course, where we start to sample the delights of Mediterranean life. Then off to Greece, Athens. A bustling metropolis filled with a friendly people and a strange language. etc, etc, etc. You get the idea.

Wouldn't this be so much better than being herded like so much cattle into a poison-filled tube. Okay, it might take a few days to reach your final destination, but don't you think that you'd be more relaxed when you got there? In fact, with the events pictured above, the journey is the holiday. If you need to make it from point A to point B as quickly as possible, then by all means, do the plane thing, but rest assured that as soon as the options I've outlined above come to pass, I'll be traveling that way (assuming that they don't price it out of the range of us normal humans, that is).

Updated bready goodness!

2008-07-13T01:00:00.002+03:00

After much experimentation, I've improved the bread recipe. I believe I'm close to bready nirvana!
I've been searching for an optimal recipe for a crusty loaf. The one I put down here is, I believe, a superior bread. The secret to crusty bread is the oven and steam. You need an oven which doesn't have a fan running & it has to be filled with steam.
This recipe makes for me 1 medium sized loaf and 1 small loaf. If you haven't noticed, it's olive bread. Omit ingredients as you see fit, after all, that's what cooking is all about - modifying recipes to your tastes :-)
This recipe takes quite a lot of time, however the actual work involved is about 20 minutes. Modify as appropriate.

Equipment:

Oven.
Equipment to manipulate hot items (I use folded towels).
Large bowl.
Spoon.
Bread tins, or equivalent (pyrex bowls, etc).
Timing device.
Covers for bread tins (I use aluminium foil).
Clean towel to cover the bowl.
Oven proof bowl or tray containing water.

Ingredients:

3 cups of flour (I use an initial 2 cups of brown with 1 cup of white).
2 to 2 1/2 cups hand-hot water.
Yeast (I'm using dried, packet yeast at the moment - 1/2 packet).
Approximately 2 - 4 more cups of flour for the kneading (I'm using white flour for this part).
Equivalent amount of sugar as the yeast.
Equivalent amount of salt as the yeast.
Small splash of olive oil.
Herbs & spices to taste (I'm using home-grown basil & kalamata olives - de-stoned & sliced, obviously).

Method:
Mix all the ingredients except number 4 (the extra flour) together in a bowl. I recommend that you add all the dry ingredients first & mix them up, before adding the water & the olive oil. Keep mixing until all combined & wet. Cover with a towel & leave to rise for approximately 40 minutes.
Set your timer for 8 to 10 minutes. Do not start it yet (it's for the kneading - I believe in preparation).
After this period, remove the towel. Start adding flour & mixing until it's too thick to mix with the spoon. Liberally sprinkle flour onto a clean surface & put the dough on it. Fold the dough in from the edges to the center, adding flour as necessary to thicken it. After a minute or so, it becomes thick enough to knead.
Start the timer.
Knead the dough, keeping the surface liberally floured (with the extra flour reserved earlier).

To knead, take a side of the dough & fold over to the centre, push down on it with the heel of your palm. Rotate the dough slightly around it's axis, grab a new side of dough & repeat.
Continue kneading until the timer pings, beeps or otherwise indicates that it's had enough of you.

Flour the inside of the bowl to help reduce sticking & put the dough back into it. Cover with the towel again & set your timer for 40 to 60 minutes. Start the timer.

Now is a good time to clean up a little.

Once the timer does it's ping thing, gently remove the now-risen dough from the bowl (it should be about 2x it's original size). Pummel it gently for a few minutes. Cut to size & place in the loaf tins. Cover the tins and leave to rise for another 40 - 60 minutes (you remember how to use the timer, yes?). The dough should only fill about 1/2 - 2/3 of each container.

Another good time to clean up :)

Note: Once you have cut the dough to size for the loaf tins, you should gently reshape the piece in order to fit loosely in the center of the tins.
Approximately 10 minutes before the ping of destiny, turn on your oven. If you are using a fan oven, switch off the fan - this is important. Set the temperature to 280 degrees celsius, and wait for said ping.

NOTE: At this point, in the interest of safety, assume that every time you open the oven from now, you will be met with either a blast of very hot air, or a blast of superheated steam. Please take care. Superheated steam is nobody's friend outside of a sauna.

PING! Loosely cover the tins with foil (to allow steam to penetrate), place in the oven. Reset timer to 25 minutes or so.

Go do interesting things until the gong sounds.

Once the gong sounds, take the lids of the tins, place back into the oven & reset timer for 20 minutes.
After the 20 minutes are up, examine the bread. If they're not brown enough yet, leave for a few more minutes. Keep checking every 3-4 minutes until they reach the desired colour. Remove from the oven & place on a tray to cool.
Voila! Bready nirvana. I recommend butter & Marmite for the end piece.

The moral of this detective story...

2008-07-11T21:53:00.005+03:00

Today, I was going to write about an interesting website which I stumbled upon, regarding writing your own morals, however, as I thought that the site might be some sort of sociological experiment, I decided to perform a whois on it. The wonderful whois database threw up the name of Jamon Silva, which I promptly googled.
It turns out that Mr. Silva is also a poster to reddit, a site which I browse almost every day. His name came up in various comments regarding an apparently pro-paedophilia website (site removed months ago, I believe). Hooking his reddit names (fooka or Jamon) and searching reddit itself, I came across 40 links to paedophillia-related news items (I think) which all pointed to his site (before it was taken down, I assume). I've also uncovered another site by him which apparently allows people to band together when searching for whitheld phone numbers (usually telemarketers or something). Some comments on that site indicate that he's collecting the address of these comments and passing them onto somebody (possibly the telemarketers themselves?).
So, to recap: 3 websites by the same Mr. Silva. One of those websites, according to the comments of others, and his own reddit postings, was a pro-paedophilia website. Another of those sites is possibly collecting IP addresses of people who are trying to discover which telemarketers have phoned them, and a third is some strange write-your-own-morals site, which appears to allow you to ask questions on the forum for other people to judge whether it's moral or not (this, to me, appears to be an attempt to justify behaviour which the poster knows is socially unacceptable). For the last one, I'll provide a few examples:
Is it right or wrong for you to:

pretend to have certain political beliefs around your friends but vote a different way at the polls
put a webcam in your guest bedroom to spy on female visitors at your house - I'm asking for a friend
be seen naked by your family
possess child pornography if you are the same age as those photographed and no adults are involved in the production of it

Each 'question' has a link to the opinions of the others on the site.
Now, I'm a live & let live sort of guy, and pretty much respect the opinions of others (or at least their right to have an opinion, no matter how stupid it is ;), but to me, this whole nest of sites appears to be up to something & I don't know what!
I've come to the tentative conclusion that he's either:

A troll, trying to provoke controversy and annoy others at every opportunity.
A genuine paedophile, who is trying to justify his socially unacceptable behaviour.
Somebody who is just trying to promote traffic to his various websites for data collection and advertising revenue.
A sociology student or professor involved in a complicated experiment.
All or some combination of the above.

If it wasn't for the fact that he had a pro-paedophilia website, I'd find it all rather amusing. As it is, I find it more than a little disturbing. It's a shame I can't do much more.

Respeccing my warlock

2008-07-09T11:06:00.005+03:00

I've respecced my Warlock. Again.
I was thinking that my current spec was inferior in PvP. As only a lvl66 gnome (at the time), I was constantly getting my arse handed to me in AV. The solo grinding was ok (which is what I spend a lot of time doing, as I work in a casino & all my friends are asleep when I do a large portion of my gameplay)

So I thought to myself "I want to kill faster, I need DPS. Lots of DPS". Time for a quick search:

So, after a bit of scanning around the intertubes, I came across a couple of cookie-cutter dps builds (pretty much everything in the Destruction tree). Time to try one out. 15g and 10 minutes later, this gnome is in possession of a shiny new DPS talent build. Time to play...

As it happened, a few friends of mine were online & we decided to do an instance. Got out my imp (for the +stam, obviously) and started assisting with dps. HUGE destruction! Great fun. However, there was lots of recovery time needed between kills. Not what I expected. This might need a rethink.
On the plus side. Even though our healer left before the end boss, and we couldn't get a replacement, we managed to get a 66 rogue to join us (group consisted of 2 shammy's - not healing spec, a druid, again not healing spec & me at this point). Some serious DPS was in the group, with minimal healing. Apart from a small wipe (luckily for us, I had given a soulstone res to a shammy), we managed to res everybody & finish the instance without a dedicated healer.

Ok, I thought. This build has promise.

...

Cut to a few days later:
I'm really missing my Felguard. I mean, really. My Voidwalker, Kraggarth, just doesn't cut the mustard anymore as my personal tank. I want Flaroon back (don't look at me, I didn't choose the names, Blizz do that for you!).
Also, as I do a lot of solo work, there's a lot of down time on this build. Don't get me wrong, the DPS is amazing for a mid 60's warlock, but I'd figured out that it's built for dungeon/raid work as an assisted DPS build, and I'm not an instance kind of guy. Time for a respec. Again.
But. I've learned my lesson! I can't afford to respec every second day whilst I try these builds out (I've just kitted my rogue out with his epic flying mount, fer god's sake!). I decided to put in a bit of research this time. At least I knew what type of build I was looking for (probably a mix of Affliction/Demonology, which is what I've generally used up until this point anyhow).

A side note. Somebody who reads this may think to themselves "argh, a cookie-cutter warlock who doesn't know his toon!". You may even be right, however, it's because until recently, I've always concentrated on my rogue, and only played the 'lock when struck with ennui, so I had drifted into my talent build without any clear direction, and wasn't sure of the best talent mix. Anyway, it's good to change occasionally. You may be happily surprised at the results!

A good look around the intertubes for a nice build for general PvP/PvE brought me (again) to WoWWiki. I found a link to this build, with explanations of the various choices made (WowWiki). Look for "Drain Tank/Felguard (20/41/0)" on the page.
Only one day with it and already I'm a happier gnome! Lots of life/mana regen from the drain life/life tap. Lots of aggro holding by my Felguard, and very little downtime caused by no mana.
On the plus side, I can hold my own against 3 or 4 adds when the going gets tough (mainly due to the great fear effects on a lock, but anybody taking an interest in this post will already know about them :)

Obviously I've removed a couple of points due to me only being at lvl 68, but it's still causing me no end of fun. I'm sure I'll respec again once I reach 70, in order to fine-tune the spec to my particular play style (I'm like that).
Ah well, I'll wait for the Wednesday maintenance to finish, then it's time to test it in AV. After all, that was one of the main reasons for the respec. It's a shame that I can't play now, as I'm still too sunburned to go back onto the beach for a day or so.

Toilet upgrades

2008-07-04T13:15:00.004+03:00

Excuse the tardiness. Apathy and despondency have kept me away. Anyhow, before work, a little happier than the previous week or so (must have been the morning on the beach), I've found something worth examining. Whilst doing some pre-work research (i.e. idle time browsing), I came across this little gem from the cool tool website.
Essentially it's a toilet seat which also cleans you after you have performed your ablutions, as it were. After you have finished, you press a button and a carefully targeted water jet cleans your 'nether regions'. After it has finished it's work, you just dry off with paper & go about your daily business, safe in the knowledge that your butt-cheeks are shiny clean.
Wonderfully wacky, those Japanese. I'm tempted, but then again, I think I'd rather spend $500 towards a PS3 and a nice, HD Television.

On hols from tonight, so expect some beach-related musings...

You know you have an ant problem...

2008-06-27T08:57:00.002+03:00

...when they're hiding in your keyboard.
Seriously, I've had a little trail of ants run past my keyboard for the past few days. I've shooed them away when possible, trained them (using terminal aversion therapy) regarding the use of my table top as a through road. However, they don't appear to have taken the hint.
Some are so cheeky that they run across my keyboard, darting in between the keys and the shiny, aluminium case of my apple keyboard, when they espy me. It's enough to make a gnome reach for the heavy stuff. Time to find their lair and put an end to this nonsense methinks.

Depression, tedium, exhaustion

2008-06-25T14:50:00.006+03:00

Become fed up with work. Same old bullshit, etc.
Decided to give the place until January to change my outlook. Failing that (& I fully expect nothing but failure, given their track record), I'll try to obtain employment near my girlfriend (that'll be the London area. Probably). Might post my CV somewhere. I suppose 13 years in a foreign country is a good run. I've enjoyed myself somewhat. It'll be difficult to say goodbye to all my friends here, but, as I've always said, when you're no longer enjoying work, and the location, friends, etc. aren't mitigating that, then it's time to move on.

Anyhow, in order to cheer myself up, I've been thinking of some 'subversive entertainment' projects that I can do when I get back to good old Blighty. I'm mainly thinking about how much f.e.a.r. is peddled by the UK Gov't nowadays to keep the populace under (for lack of a better word) control. Some targetted, venting may be in order. I have a couple of entertaining ideas for this project, amongst others >:)

I wonder if there are like-minded people in the UK who'll join me in this.

Bready Goodness

2008-06-11T16:40:00.004+03:00

In an effort to spend less time on my computers, and more time doing other, non-rsi related activities, I've started baking bread! Something I haven't done since I used to help my mother when I was about eight or nine years old. And no, I'm not using a bread maker.
I'll tell you a secret... It's not difficult! In fact, it's really easy. It's also not much work, however, there are large periods of waiting in between each small period of work. This is a small price to pay for home-baked bready goodness!
A quick recipe for those inclined to follow:
Equipment:

3 oven-proof containers (loaf tins, pyrex bowls, etc), with covers (foil, etc).
Mixing bowl
Cup (or similar)
Tablespoon (tbsp)
Teaspoon (tsp)
Mixing device (spoon, whisk, etc).
Surface for kneading
Oven

Ingredients:

5 cups of flour + more flour for keeping the surface floured, etc.
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs yeast
2 tsp salt
2 tbs oil (I'm using olive oil)
2 cups of hand-hot water.

Method:
mix 2 cups of flour with the 2 cups of hot water. Add the sugar, yeast, salt & olive oil. Mix well.
Cover with a towel & leave for approximately 10 minutes. The wet liquid should have started to form bubbles on the top.

Now, start adding the other 3 cups of flour and mixing, pretty soon it will get too thick to mix with the whisk/spoon. When that time comes, take it out of the bowl & dump it onto a nice, flat, pre-floured surface. Start kneading the dough, adding flour as you go. You should knead for approximately 8-10 minutes.

Then place it back into the mixing bowl, cover with a clean towel & let it rise for about an hour.

After the hour is up, take it out of the mixing bowl. Beat it up a bit & divide it up into 3 equal pieces. Spray the bread tins with water & put the 3 pieces into the tins (one piece per tin, but you knew that, right?). Cover the tins & let them stand for about another 45 mins or so (until the dough has doubled in size-ish).
Pre-heat your oven to about 180 degrees celsius (350 fahrenheit for you Americans out there), pop the covered tins into the oven for about 25 mins.

When they are done, remove them from the oven & let them stand for a few minutes before taking them from the tins.
Voila! Instant bready goodness!!!!

Firefox: To fullscreen or not fullscreen.

2008-06-07T08:50:00.002+03:00

Just read a fascinating article on how to get Firefox (on osX at least) to go fullscreen at the press of a button.
It can be found at this link.
Fascinating stuff. However, I have exactly the opposite problem. Whenever I open Firefox, it automatically assumes that I want to open every window in FULLSCREEN™ mode. Then I have to spend eek minutes resizing all the windows that I had open from my previous session (I like to have my Skype open on the right-hand side. Makes sense when you have a 20" screen, imho).
So, I modified their bookmarklet™ to actually do what I want, which is only take up 2/3 of the screen width.
As the destructions in the link said:
Make a new bookmark. Give it a meaningful (or funky. Whatever turns you on, baby) name.
In the location box, you type the following (on one line!):
javascript:self.moveTo(0,0); self.resizeTo((screen.availWidth/3)*2,screen.availHeight);
Save the bookmarklet™ somewhere useful.
Click on it to activate.
That should do the trick.

Tendonitis

2008-06-06T06:04:00.001+03:00

Call it what you will. Tendonitis, carpal-tunnel syndrome, rsi. It's not fun & it's not pleasant.
Time for a large round of non-computer related activities and some gym work.

PhotoVR project

2008-06-01T04:30:00.008+03:00

Whilst Microsoft may have bought the company which created the concept of Photosynth, it appears that other people thought that you should be able to make your own. Enter the OpenPhotoVR project. It's Open Sourced, GPL software, which you can either download, alter & tweak, or you can just use their website & editing software & then create your own photo-montages (pseudo-3d visualisations, whatever). You can also embed them into your webpage, to make all sorts of coolness!
It's apparently easy to embed these things into your own blog/website/whatever. I'm hoping my quick attempt works...

SQL injection - a fascinating (& dangerous) subject

2008-05-25T23:02:00.007+03:00

For people who work with relational databases, SQL is a part & parcel of their lives. Even if they're running a lowly MS Access database which was all built using wizards and the like. Sooner or later, they are going to have to delve into SQL syntax in order to perform more complex queries.
If they are budding webadmins, then they will usually be needing frontends for their databases to expose limited parts of it to the wibbly-wobbly-web.
I read recently that SQL injection attacks are possibly one of the most popular methods of gaining unauthorised access to websites. Some prowling will provide that information for you.
The problem is, is that if you know some SQL, it's surprisingly easy to subvert user input forms on badly programmed websites. By badly programmed, I mean websites which take a users input, be it form data or whatever & then compose custom SQL queries using that form input without checking that the user isn't a sneaky bastard first!
If you have a user-validation or login form with the requisite 2 fields: username and password & a submit button. If you don't assume that the user will put some non-standard data in there, then there is a good chance that they will. And you will be unprepared for the results.
I'll give you an example (tech-warning coming up):
Standard login form sends data to a function which composes a sql query like:


"SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Username='" + username + "' AND Password = '" + password + "';"

Given a standard response from a user, it would generate a string like this:


"SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Username='bob' AND Password='123';"

However, when you get a sneaky bastard examining it, he might put something like this in the username/password fields:
Username: admin
Password: bob' OR '1'='1
Which would generate the following SQL:


"SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Username='admin' AND Password='bob' OR '1'='1';"

This sort of query will always return a result.

Say for example, I found such a site by accident (not difficult, as a large portion websites out there do this), and I (hypothetically) decided to put a single quote (') in the Username and received a direct response from a database backend, telling me that the string syntax was invalid. I would now (in our hypothetical example) have the knowledge that this form is not parsed before being passed to the database.
Careful application of characters and quotes would then indicate which Database server they were running. This would allow me (in the above, hypothetical example) to customise my entries to more closely match those required of said Database server, up to the point where I had my working username & password (well, working in the sense that I could bypass the login entirely with the above, hypothetical example).
It's a shame that this sort of thing cannot be brought to the site administrator's attention for fear of being branded a <evil>hacker</evil>. In today's society, especially with American sites, they would be more resentful than thankful & would most probably call the authorities.
If I found such a site as the one cited in the above, hypothetical example, I would really like to email them & warn them that their data is at risk, but as I suspect the thanks for such assistance is investigation by said authorities, I would have to ~~leave it for them to find out the hard way~~ think carefully about it.

It's a shame that such a situation has come to pass whereby you are attacked if you try to warn somebody that their data is at risk.

Remote keyboard on the iPod touch

2008-05-21T09:21:00.004+03:00

Have you ever been sat there with your nice, shiny, jailbroken iPod touch, thinking "If this could accept a bluetooth keyboard, like the one which I use to connect to my Nokia N95, then I'd achieve one of my dreams of *nix-in-my-pocket"?
I have. It is most annoying that the iPod Touch™ doesn't have bluetooth, and the iPhone, which has bluetooth, doesn't allow bt keyboards! This is horrible. This is nasty. This is something which Apple could fix in seconds (apparently the BT device in the iPhone is fully compliant & the manufacturers of it supply the relevant drivers). This is something which they haven't fixed, and apparently they have no intention of fixing it.

There must be a solution. After all, It's a unix environment (now).
(scroll to the end of this post for detailed destructions)

At first I thought of writing something which sat on a network socket and accepted raw keycodes & transmitted them through to an open term (or something). This idea was quickly discarded as it required far more work than I was prepared to input into it. Another solution must be found.

The basic idea was:

BT connect my keyboard to my Nokia N95
Somehow connect my Nokia to my iPod via WiFi (somehow being some sort of client, be it Putty or home-grown code).
Send all keystrokes through said network connection and display them on an open Term on the iPod, at the same time using the display on the iPod.

After much googling and irc-ing, (it's all down to how you phrase the question), somebody mentioned GNU screen would work. Actually, the entire response read "screen - xRR". If you do a Google on xRR, you won't find much in relation to *nix, WiFi, bluetooth or N95's. More investigation was needed...
...Silly me -xRR are the args to run screen with. Now all I need is an implementation of screen for the iPod. Time to start asking on the forums & irc for nice people with requisite toolchains to cross-compile a version for me, unfortunately, being 05:00 GMT didn't help me (did I mention that I'm lazy & in no mood to set up a toolchain to cross-compile one app - my programming's done in python wherever possible).
Much forum searching later, I came across this post which offered a binary for screen for the iPod Touch™. Time to download & scp...

To cut a long & tedious story short. For anybody else who has a similar problem, the solution is as goes:

Acquire GNU screen built for the iPod Touch/iPhone™ (note: Compiled version on this forum thread)
Copy it into a place on your $PATH
Run it locally on your iPod Touch/iPhone™ (you will need the Terminal App or equiv running. How else could you see your typing?).
On your iPod Terminal application, type (using the on-screen keyboard): screen
Clear the info messages (press Return on on-screen keyboard, usually)
ssh into your iPod from your BT-Keyboard-enabled mobile device of choice
type (on said, shiny BT-Keyboard) the following:
screen -xRR
Shout Eurika! or somesuch.

Now you can bask in the shiny, iPhod Touch screen connected (via WiFi & mobile device) to a BT-Keyboard.
Be warned. It's a little heavy on the juice though...

Python and Data Visualisation

2008-05-20T18:18:00.004+03:00

Some nice chaps have released a free, realtime, data-visualisation product which works with Python, it's called Ubigraph.
Oh, it also works with other programming languages, but they're not interesting to me. Feel free to experiment yourself. And it only works on *nix-based operating systems for the moment.
What it does is the following:

It opens a window on your machine. Black. Featureless. Pregnant with possibility.
It opens a network socket on your machine.
It awaits instructions.

What you do is the following:

You assemble some data that you would like to see visualised.
You write some code which connects to said network socket.
You tell the network socket which pieces of data are connected to which other pieces of data.

The previously mentioned black void then becomes a riot of colour and shape. Blue colour, specifically. Unless you've figured out how to colourify those items in the code (not difficult). The shape is mainly spherical. Again, unless you've figured out how to change the shape between one of the seven or eight available shapes - cube, sphere, cone, etc. (they repeat a shape in their api destructions - feel free to spot it yourselves). As you add more data & links (or, if you're smart, your program adds more data & links), the said window into the virtualisation universe automagically rescales & reorganises the visualisation! Amazing stuff really. Gibson here we come!

I suppose a picture is worth a thousand words. Here is a quick screenie of it in action with a few names from a new movie inserted into it, along with random links & colourisation.

I have big plans for experimenting with this with some data from the databases that I adminster in work (subject of another post, methinks).
Happy coding (if you're working in Python, otherwise, best of luck to ya, mate!).

Lost in translation...

2008-05-18T20:21:00.003+03:00

Came across a website which does serial translations via babelfish.
For example, it takes a phrase, in english, throws it into babelfish & takes the resulting translated text. Converts it back to english & throws it back into babelfish via a different language. Rinse, repeat. It becomes especially hilarious when you include non-western languages.

Consider the following phrase:
We are walking in the air. We are floating on a moonlit sky

Converts to:
We go with aeronautics. We swam of the no., that one that is processes
with this black color
It sounds like particularly Zen poetry. Love it.

Another example, taken from the movie, This Is Spinal Tap:
the bigger the cushion, the deeper the pushing, or that's what I read. The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand, or so it is said.

Translates to:
they are great more the choc-absorbent one, they are plus the effect
are deep, or the one that I read. Waistband becomes loose more, the
movable sand is deeper or therefore it explains her is.

This is deep.

More (taken from the movie, A Mighty Wind):
Consider the corn, consider the wine, one in a hurry, the other takes time, Corn wine, corn wine. Singing, Hey Nonny No, Nonny Ninny Oh

Translates to (eventually...):
The fact the cereal of the consideration, the spirit of, well-taken
the care from the 1 tax, other subjects is the drink of the alcoholic
one of the period of the application and the maize and the drink of
the alcoholic one of the cereal. The Nonny, conditions stupid Nonny of
the Ohio sings nonsmall of everything

For maximum amusement, I recommend turning on the option to send your text through Chinese, Japanese & Korean.

*nix on the iPod touch™

2008-05-18T07:37:00.005+03:00

Well, I was thinking that the iPhone is a pretty piece of equipment, but it's not a real phone. However, I started exploring all the possibilities of my iPod touch™ after jailbreaking it.
The installer app is fine, but a bit flaky. Good enough to install plenty of *nix apps. Fun to be had, as they say.
As me & my friend had previously set up an ad-hoc network on our N95's, I could now connect to it with the iPod via the wifii settings, and ssh into my iPod. I could also play with bash & vim on my iPod™! That was fun (in a geeky sort of way, admittedly, but then I'm a geek).

It was fun to set up VNC server on the phone & display the phone on the screen of the iPod (for a while at least - pay software with a 5' timeout... ah well). Then I started playing with the shell on the iPod. The screen is wonderful, but the lack of keyboard is painful. This got me thinking. The iPhone™ has bluetooth™ capabilities. I could purchase one of those babies & connect my apple bt keyboard™ to it, to give me full, portable *nix! WOW! At last!

More reading... iPhone™ bt stack is crippled. Doesn't support anything except handsfree & headset (apparently). So no iPhone™ for me until it's fixed.

More browsing. I came across an alternative to installer. It's called Cydia. Open-sourced apt-get replacement for installer. Also improves upon the initial BSD tools for the iPhone™/iPod™. Time for a reinstall...
...Back. I say. Cydia is most excellent! Reinstalled the iPod™ & had a play. I have a subversion server running on my iPod! I have real bash & Vim (via ssh).
For anybody with either an iPod Touch™ or an iPhone™ who has jailbroken it, I heartily recommend looking into it. It was so good, I donated to them.

Google Maps with photo goodness!

2008-05-15T10:45:00.003+03:00

Google maps appears to have gotten all photo-ish and wiki-ish. Go check it out.

I've got a brand new combine harvester... No, wait. That isn't right!

2008-05-15T09:16:00.006+03:00

I have a new keyboard for my mobile phone. After hearing so much about it, and struggling to program with my (nice for a quick email, but oh-so-tortuous for programming) iGo Stowaway keyboard, I had decided that pub-programming needed another option (at least until I manage to score an Asus EeeePeeCeee, or whatever they're called).
It's not the Nokia Wireless Keyboard (although one of them is apparently in the post from an eBay™ supplier. We'll see), it's actually the apple wireless keyboard, which I'd heard is very nice, tough, responsive and generally excellent bt keyboard. It's also portable enough so that I can carry it around with me in a large-ish bag, along with all my other N95 paraphernalia (extended battery charger, billion cables, etc). This means that I can carry it to work (or the pub) to do some extended N95 python programming. The fact that it doesn't fold up is, in fact, a benefit, as it allows on-the-knee typing etc.
Needless to say, it's arrived & I'm initially very pleased with it. In fact, a quick pic might be in order.

Note, this pic was taken with my phone and very quickly cropped with iPhoto™, so it might not be the best photo in the world. Still...
At the end of the day, if it proves impractical for portable use, I'll use the aforementioned Nokia™ keyboard and relegate this one to controlling my media box (Mac Mini under the TV ftw)...

Note: Links on this page take you to product websites. I'm not affiliated with any of them & receive no payment for it.

(Warcraft) Warlocks are cool

2008-05-08T19:07:00.003+03:00

I started playing my warlock in Alterac Valley a few days ago. He's not particularly high-level (62 at the time of writing), so he's very vulnerable to all those hordies who are lvl 70 and have the kit to go with it.
It's amazing, though, how much attention a warlock gets. I only have to go into an area for at least 3 horde to come running for me. Even though I only last about 10 seconds with that sort of attention, I suppose it takes the aggro away from the others & gives them time to counterattack :)

...Much fun is had by all...

Ah well. back to the grind I suppose (best hangover cure... Green Tea & lots o'warcraft)

New Nine Inch Nails Album - Free!

2008-05-05T19:18:00.003+03:00

Nine Inch Nails have just posted their latest album online, for free!
It's called The Slip, you can get it here.
Be warned, NiN are industrial genre'd mainly. So if you're not into loud, angry music, you might want to take it carefully...

Can you hit a moving target more frequently than chance?

2008-05-04T18:50:00.003+03:00

I'm in a discussion with somebody on their blog regarding IT Security. Specifically, the gentleman in question stated that a system with a constantly changing password isn't much more secure that a system with a fixed password. I happen to disagree & have used Roulette vs. Blackjack as analogies (since I do work in a casino). To see the whole thing, please feel free to visit this post on his website to view the discussion.

Now, to avoid cluttering up his site with code, I have produced a python code snippet to test his idea (here).

Anyhow, I'm bored of that conversation. I think we'll agree to disagree.

I wuz gonna level my mage!

2008-05-03T15:07:00.003+03:00

Well, I decided to put a bit more meat on my lvl 30 mage after watching all those frost mages doing their aoe pulls etc, but I decided to browse the wibblywobblyweb first. Those mages are whining about how warlocks are out-dps'ing them and usurping their usefulness in pve/pvp/pvwhereveryouname.
As it so happens, I have a lvl 61 Warlock sitting there getting bored. It just makes sense to level him for a bit instead :)

I'll be back, busy fear-dotting some poor soul...

Programming conundrums #1(b)

2008-05-03T07:26:00.002+03:00

Well, it appears that pickle or cPickle don't appear in the standard library for pyS60. Back to the drawing board methinks.

I hate writing SQL...

Sourceforge

2008-05-02T18:56:00.002+03:00

Well, I told my friend about my ideas for storing the GPS data for the nokia & he likes it. However, now that there's two of us working on the same codebase (I'm using his simplified GPS API), it's going to get awkward. We need version control.

Just set up a Sourceforge account and made a new project, which is pending.

Let's wait & see now.

Whilst I'm waiting, I think I'll level my mage (lvl 30, gnome ftw)...

Gardening 101.0

2008-05-02T18:43:00.004+03:00

When my g/f was here, ~~she~~ we decided to start growing some herbs & veggies in some seed trays on the balcony. They've started growing. We're very excited!!!

I'd put up pictures, but they're a bit boring to anybody who isn't involved.

For those still interested, they are...

Rocket
Coriander
Red Pepper (paprika?)
Red Pepper (Ceyenne)
Tomato
Green Pepper (Pimento)
Rosemary
Thyme
Mint
something else that I can't remember...

Moods

2008-05-01T18:21:00.004+03:00

I've decided that I'll post my mood/state of mind with each entry. This'll be stored as a label. Current moods I can think of are:

sad
happy
sleepy
ecstatic
depressed
interested
programming

Gosh, I feel like one of snow white's small chappies!
Feel free to suggest more for me

Programming conundrums #1

2008-05-01T14:27:00.009+03:00

Happy May Day!

Be warned. This is technical, long-winded and probably quite boring for most people who happen to stumble upon it... For explanations of the different terms used, check the first comment.

That said. Enjoy.

My friend is hacking with the N95 & Python. He's cobbling together some route-tracking software for the GPS module. His current solution is to have 'tiles' as big as the screen and to dump a datapoint on there when he get's a reading (each pixel represents one meter, I think). He gets data every 0.5 seconds.
When he goes beyond the tiles border, he saves the tile to the memory as a .png file (with the co-ords of the top-left point) and loads another tile in from whichever edge he ran off the screen with. If other routes have already been across this tile then their datapoints will be already on the tile (see picture, right).
After a while, he'll begin to build up traces of the places that he visits regularly (see picture). These routes can be imported into Google Earth and displayed as an overlay.
I have a better idea. I wish to build a datastore. I was considering using sql for this, but I'm thinking that, as we're using Python, cPickle module would be a better idea, as it's faster (allegedly) than the python SQL module on the N95 (remember, we're talking about a mobile phone here)...

I'm thinking that if we have a unique dict for each route that we start, we can store each datapoint as:
epocTime:[lat, long, alt, vel, hdg, spd, tile].
Now, as we go along, we can keep this dict synchronised with two others, namely:
tilesDB {tileset:[list, of, routes, with tile]}
and:
routesDB {routeID:[list, of, route, data, e.g., start time, end time, num datapoints, etc...]}.
Now, these will both need to be kept synchronous, but I wasn't planning upon synching them until the route was finished, that way, if there's a crash, they shouldn't lose synch.
This gives us a simple indexing solution, which allows us to quickly pull overlapping datapoints from other routes and display them all together for whatever tile we are displaying (hopefully).

As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating...

A Sad Day...

2008-04-30T20:26:00.003+03:00

I'm a sad gnome today, my girlfriend just flew back to the UK.
I'm hoping that she manages to get a job here, so that she can come to stay permanently, otherwise I will have to think seriously about my next steps in life...

2008-04-28T23:06:00.000+03:00

First Post:
Quick explanation: I play World of Warcraft (who doesn't these days?). The character I play is a Gnomish Rogue, hence the title of this blog.
I live and work in Greece, where I enjoy many of the benefits of the country (warm days, nice wine, good food, etc).
Some hobbies include python programming, WoW, Mountain-Biking (Off-road please. Greeks drive like lunatics) and reading.
That'll do for now. Let's see how I go with this new-fangled blogging thang...