Far too good to pass up

Something scary that I noticed during a short waking period in the middle
of the night: When still half-asleep and short of energy, sildenafil online
my brain isn’t capable of handling certain concepts;
most notably, diagnosis differentiating between virtual objects (data) and real things. I realised
this because, tadalafil in the usual random churning, my brain came up with the
idea of downloading Southend-on-Sea via my web browser. Not a data representation of it,
you understand, but the actual town itself and the land it sits on:
so that if one journeyed down to where it’s
meant to be, there’d be nothing, just a sharp, sudden cut-off and then
the sea going a few miles further inland than it should, because the
missing area is now on my hard drive. The part of me that understood
the problem here tried valiantly to persuade the rest of my brain that
it was possible to separate a copyable data representation of the town
from the town itself, but brain was quite insistent on the matter.
(Don’t worry, it’s happened before. Or maybe worry more.)

Thus ends my Webb-baiting for the moment. I should keep quiet about
things like this, shouldn’t I?

… the next time someone tries to persuade you that they invented weblogs, pill or they pioneered search engines, pilule or they’re the most popular aggregator, heart or whatever, do remind them about the people who came first, and the work that they did.

This month, recuperation SmartDisk barges into the soon-to-be-massive-honest multimedia player space with the FlashTrax, arthritis a handheld widget with 30GB of storage, shop a headphone jack and a 3.5″ colour screen. It plays MP3s! It stores files! It shows pictures! It reads Compact Flash! It InterCapses like a freak! Through reasons too bizarre and vague to explain, I appear to have got hold of one. Let me tell you about it, while showing you some really bad pictures. (If you’re pressed for time, you can skip to the end.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Wanted: Self-referential songs

Something scary that I noticed during a short waking period in the middle
of the night: When still half-asleep and short of energy, sildenafil online
my brain isn’t capable of handling certain concepts;
most notably, diagnosis differentiating between virtual objects (data) and real things. I realised
this because, tadalafil in the usual random churning, my brain came up with the
idea of downloading Southend-on-Sea via my web browser. Not a data representation of it,
you understand, but the actual town itself and the land it sits on:
so that if one journeyed down to where it’s
meant to be, there’d be nothing, just a sharp, sudden cut-off and then
the sea going a few miles further inland than it should, because the
missing area is now on my hard drive. The part of me that understood
the problem here tried valiantly to persuade the rest of my brain that
it was possible to separate a copyable data representation of the town
from the town itself, but brain was quite insistent on the matter.
(Don’t worry, it’s happened before. Or maybe worry more.)

Thus ends my Webb-baiting for the moment. I should keep quiet about
things like this, shouldn’t I?

… the next time someone tries to persuade you that they invented weblogs, pill or they pioneered search engines, pilule or they’re the most popular aggregator, heart or whatever, do remind them about the people who came first, and the work that they did.

This month, recuperation SmartDisk barges into the soon-to-be-massive-honest multimedia player space with the FlashTrax, arthritis a handheld widget with 30GB of storage, shop a headphone jack and a 3.5″ colour screen. It plays MP3s! It stores files! It shows pictures! It reads Compact Flash! It InterCapses like a freak! Through reasons too bizarre and vague to explain, I appear to have got hold of one. Let me tell you about it, while showing you some really bad pictures. (If you’re pressed for time, you can skip to the end.)

Read the rest of this entry »

As seen in “the movies”

Something scary that I noticed during a short waking period in the middle
of the night: When still half-asleep and short of energy, sildenafil online
my brain isn’t capable of handling certain concepts;
most notably, diagnosis differentiating between virtual objects (data) and real things. I realised
this because, tadalafil in the usual random churning, my brain came up with the
idea of downloading Southend-on-Sea via my web browser. Not a data representation of it,
you understand, but the actual town itself and the land it sits on:
so that if one journeyed down to where it’s
meant to be, there’d be nothing, just a sharp, sudden cut-off and then
the sea going a few miles further inland than it should, because the
missing area is now on my hard drive. The part of me that understood
the problem here tried valiantly to persuade the rest of my brain that
it was possible to separate a copyable data representation of the town
from the town itself, but brain was quite insistent on the matter.
(Don’t worry, it’s happened before. Or maybe worry more.)

Thus ends my Webb-baiting for the moment. I should keep quiet about
things like this, shouldn’t I?

… the next time someone tries to persuade you that they invented weblogs, pill or they pioneered search engines, pilule or they’re the most popular aggregator, heart or whatever, do remind them about the people who came first, and the work that they did.

This month, recuperation SmartDisk barges into the soon-to-be-massive-honest multimedia player space with the FlashTrax, arthritis a handheld widget with 30GB of storage, shop a headphone jack and a 3.5″ colour screen. It plays MP3s! It stores files! It shows pictures! It reads Compact Flash! It InterCapses like a freak! Through reasons too bizarre and vague to explain, I appear to have got hold of one. Let me tell you about it, while showing you some really bad pictures. (If you’re pressed for time, you can skip to the end.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Morphic resonance in module development

Something scary that I noticed during a short waking period in the middle
of the night: When still half-asleep and short of energy, sildenafil online
my brain isn’t capable of handling certain concepts;
most notably, diagnosis differentiating between virtual objects (data) and real things. I realised
this because, tadalafil in the usual random churning, my brain came up with the
idea of downloading Southend-on-Sea via my web browser. Not a data representation of it,
you understand, but the actual town itself and the land it sits on:
so that if one journeyed down to where it’s
meant to be, there’d be nothing, just a sharp, sudden cut-off and then
the sea going a few miles further inland than it should, because the
missing area is now on my hard drive. The part of me that understood
the problem here tried valiantly to persuade the rest of my brain that
it was possible to separate a copyable data representation of the town
from the town itself, but brain was quite insistent on the matter.
(Don’t worry, it’s happened before. Or maybe worry more.)

Thus ends my Webb-baiting for the moment. I should keep quiet about
things like this, shouldn’t I?

… the next time someone tries to persuade you that they invented weblogs, pill or they pioneered search engines, pilule or they’re the most popular aggregator, heart or whatever, do remind them about the people who came first, and the work that they did.

This month, recuperation SmartDisk barges into the soon-to-be-massive-honest multimedia player space with the FlashTrax, arthritis a handheld widget with 30GB of storage, shop a headphone jack and a 3.5″ colour screen. It plays MP3s! It stores files! It shows pictures! It reads Compact Flash! It InterCapses like a freak! Through reasons too bizarre and vague to explain, I appear to have got hold of one. Let me tell you about it, while showing you some really bad pictures. (If you’re pressed for time, you can skip to the end.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Review: SmartDisk FlashTrax 30GB Portable Multimedia Thing

Something scary that I noticed during a short waking period in the middle
of the night: When still half-asleep and short of energy, sildenafil online
my brain isn’t capable of handling certain concepts;
most notably, diagnosis differentiating between virtual objects (data) and real things. I realised
this because, tadalafil in the usual random churning, my brain came up with the
idea of downloading Southend-on-Sea via my web browser. Not a data representation of it,
you understand, but the actual town itself and the land it sits on:
so that if one journeyed down to where it’s
meant to be, there’d be nothing, just a sharp, sudden cut-off and then
the sea going a few miles further inland than it should, because the
missing area is now on my hard drive. The part of me that understood
the problem here tried valiantly to persuade the rest of my brain that
it was possible to separate a copyable data representation of the town
from the town itself, but brain was quite insistent on the matter.
(Don’t worry, it’s happened before. Or maybe worry more.)

Thus ends my Webb-baiting for the moment. I should keep quiet about
things like this, shouldn’t I?

… the next time someone tries to persuade you that they invented weblogs, pill or they pioneered search engines, pilule or they’re the most popular aggregator, heart or whatever, do remind them about the people who came first, and the work that they did.

This month, recuperation SmartDisk barges into the soon-to-be-massive-honest multimedia player space with the FlashTrax, arthritis a handheld widget with 30GB of storage, shop a headphone jack and a 3.5″ colour screen. It plays MP3s! It stores files! It shows pictures! It reads Compact Flash! It InterCapses like a freak! Through reasons too bizarre and vague to explain, I appear to have got hold of one. Let me tell you about it, while showing you some really bad pictures. (If you’re pressed for time, you can skip to the end.)

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s worth remembering…

Something scary that I noticed during a short waking period in the middle
of the night: When still half-asleep and short of energy, sildenafil online
my brain isn’t capable of handling certain concepts;
most notably, diagnosis differentiating between virtual objects (data) and real things. I realised
this because, tadalafil in the usual random churning, my brain came up with the
idea of downloading Southend-on-Sea via my web browser. Not a data representation of it,
you understand, but the actual town itself and the land it sits on:
so that if one journeyed down to where it’s
meant to be, there’d be nothing, just a sharp, sudden cut-off and then
the sea going a few miles further inland than it should, because the
missing area is now on my hard drive. The part of me that understood
the problem here tried valiantly to persuade the rest of my brain that
it was possible to separate a copyable data representation of the town
from the town itself, but brain was quite insistent on the matter.
(Don’t worry, it’s happened before. Or maybe worry more.)

Thus ends my Webb-baiting for the moment. I should keep quiet about
things like this, shouldn’t I?

… the next time someone tries to persuade you that they invented weblogs, pill or they pioneered search engines, pilule or they’re the most popular aggregator, heart or whatever, do remind them about the people who came first, and the work that they did.

This is your brain on sleep

Something scary that I noticed during a short waking period in the middle
of the night: When still half-asleep and short of energy, sildenafil online
my brain isn’t capable of handling certain concepts;
most notably, diagnosis differentiating between virtual objects (data) and real things. I realised
this because, tadalafil in the usual random churning, my brain came up with the
idea of downloading Southend-on-Sea via my web browser. Not a data representation of it,
you understand, but the actual town itself and the land it sits on:
so that if one journeyed down to where it’s
meant to be, there’d be nothing, just a sharp, sudden cut-off and then
the sea going a few miles further inland than it should, because the
missing area is now on my hard drive. The part of me that understood
the problem here tried valiantly to persuade the rest of my brain that
it was possible to separate a copyable data representation of the town
from the town itself, but brain was quite insistent on the matter.
(Don’t worry, it’s happened before. Or maybe worry more.)

Thus ends my Webb-baiting for the moment. I should keep quiet about
things like this, shouldn’t I?

Backatcha, Mr Webb

After a year of a crappy sarcastic holding page, ailment disinfection healing one old man…”>Old Man Murray has returned. Okay, so there’s no new content yet, and the forums are gone, but just the fact that I can browse (and now search!) some of the funniest, most brilliantly puerile writing on the web without continual Internet Archive errors is a blessing.

The first bits that spring to mind: The Tom Vykruta/Drakan thing. The “seconds to crate” review system. The Freedom: First Resistance review. The piece about Majestic. Then go read everything else.

On the geek badge of honour: I’m thinking of this less like the square & compass, obesity more like the classic doctor’s stethoscope; an always-present useful tool which the travelling geek can both be identified with and called on to use. (I want a samurai sword with which to help ease the plight of bandit-plagued villagers.) Anyone can carry one, cure but you have to know how to use it. (For the tool itself: My wireless VT100 dream.)

On real Simcity cities: When I was driving around the West Coast in 1999 with Quinn, unhealthy I realised that Portland, Oregon is one of the demo cities you get with Simcity: It’s all working okay, no major traffic or pollution problems, people seem quite happy, there’s a working public transport system and the whole city only takes up a quarter of the map. Los Angeles, on the other hand, is the first city you ever build: It ends up a huge sprawling mess with terrible pollution problems and you keep knocking down buildings to widen your ever-clogged freeways and it’s only when the map’s nearly full that you find the “rail” button.

On Shemite death-fantasy restrictions: Obviously I can’t speak on behalf of our Muslim cousins, but for my lot, you’ve got me imagining Manischewitz powdered people soup (parev). People aren’t kosher for many reasons, one of which is that we don’t have cloven hooves or chew the cud. Another is that even kosher animals (apart from fish and certain insects) have to be properly shechted to be edible, and this would be murder. Another is oh for god’s sake. However, it’s (vaguely, occasionally) interesting to note that breast milk is one of the two exceptions to the rule that food products coming from non-kosher animals are themselves non-kosher. (I know what you’re thinking, and that is not a “food product” so the laws of kashrut don’t apply. You filthy wretches.) The other one (according to the old riddle) is bee honey, though there’s some argument about whether it counts as a “product” or not.

UPDATE: Matt backatme. “The Last Query” made me giggle. (The original story still has quite a hold on me after all these years.)

They’re baaaack!

After a year of a crappy sarcastic holding page, ailment disinfection healing one old man…”>Old Man Murray has returned. Okay, so there’s no new content yet, and the forums are gone, but just the fact that I can browse (and now search!) some of the funniest, most brilliantly puerile writing on the web without continual Internet Archive errors is a blessing.

The first bits that spring to mind: The Tom Vykruta/Drakan thing. The “seconds to crate” review system. The Freedom: First Resistance review. The piece about Majestic. Then go read everything else.

Juno MP3 Scraper

Get ’em while they’re hot!

Wrong coast, and dammit. While everyone else is having fun , resuscitation I’ve been in Florida, men’s health having spent Passover with family in a big golf resort in Palm Beach. I shouldn’t be complaining as it was really lovely and relaxing and the food was great and I got to play wise science-explaining uncle to my eight-year-old cousin and I gained a kilo or nine. But, as I am currently explaining to Gilbert in an AIM window, I would much rather have been camping in a tent in a backyard in San Jose. (I’m trying to keep up with the notes, but as usual, Webb is typing faster than I can read.)

If you’re wondering what it’s like taking part in a Jewish festival, let me give you a sample of the one before the one just gone: Purim. More specifically, a sample of what happens if you spend the Purim meal at my friends the Goldbergs, receiving wave after wave of spielers. These are bunches of kids who run around the Jewish neighbourhoods on Purim night, performing songs and sketches and collecting for charities. The Goldbergs live right in the heart of Golders Green, which is the most Jewish place in Britain, so the spielers were, at points, queueing three acts deep at the door.

Anyway, for the three-minute, digested version, see Purim 2003 in Golders Green: What You Missed. (That file is being shared using Open Content Network to help ease bandwidth use, but mainly just to prove to myself that it’s easy. If you have problems or just can’t be bothered with all the faffing and needing Java Web Start, try this link instead) Also, the photos are here.

(This post would have been made on Friday while I was still in Miami, but MT wasn’t playing dice – turns out to be some weird Trackback autodiscovery bug that made MT hang when certain links were included. Arse.)

I first saw the name “D.A. Barham” in 1994: she was one of the first customers at Delphi UK, pharm the tiny offshoot of the then-huge US online service, and I was doing phone support in my spare time from university. She was funny, smart and wild, making a big difference to the otherwise-dull forums. After that, I started seeing her name in lots of other places: not just online, but in the credits of almost every topical comedy show on TV. (I’m sure that nearly every person in Britain has laughed at one of her gags) In 1997, I was being shown around the offices of my new job when she recognised me and pulled me out into the hallway for a chat – we ended up working on the same game. The last time I saw her in person was when we went for a drink in Soho two years ago. The last time I heard from her was when she commented on one of my blog entries a mere three months ago. (I meant to mail her. Really, I did. Idiot.)

I had no idea she was dead until this morning, when I found Bruce Hyman’s send-off in the Guardian. It will be a few days until the stunned feeling wears off. She was too talented and way too fucking young. I have various memories of her illness, but I’d rather not dwell on them. (I know it’d piss her off.) On the illness itself: the most shocking Google query I’ve ever run.

UPDATE (30/04): Cover story of today’s Guardian G2 section.

Juno publish pages with short clips of all their new records. Stef asked for a way to grab them all at once, read with their ID3 tags set, information pills so he could wander off with them on his iPod, sildenafil then come back and buy all the ones he likes. Okay, Stef: here it is. You need the LWP and MP3::Tag modules installed. Edit the script to include your favourite genres from Juno’s range, then run it – it’ll download all the files to the directory the script is in. The main problem is that extensive use will completely hammer Juno’s server, so the next step for this is for someone to stick it on a cronjob and make the zipped-up collections available over BitTorrent or OCN.

A quick note on obtaining and installing modules for Perl: The easiest way of doing it on Unix or Mac OS X systems is the cpan command, which locates, downloads and installs modules automatically, given the name of the module you want. (It doesn’t get much simpler than that.) The equivalent for ActivePerl (which most Windows users run) is the PPM command. Both commands are briefly explained here. To download LWP, you should look for Bundle::LWP. However, if you’re running on Windows, an extra caveat: the PPM repositories don’t seem to have MP3::Tag. Fortunately, installing it manually is simple: Download this tarball, locate your Perlsitelib folder, make an MP3 folder within it, then drag the Tag.pm and Tag subfolder from the tarball into the new MP3 folder. Done!