geeky

Anything technology related.

Poo.

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15

I’ve been trying to work out a nifty way to export all of my 223 previous LJ entries in to a nice RSS format in order to have them all catalogued on my site. I could reformat the XML I’ve exported, but I’d still lose the URLs to the entries themselves. It’s a shame there’s no “historical RSS feeds” to flick back to and use.

In order to attempt this, I tried out ljArchive, a nice little application that can connect to LiveJournal’s servers and download your entire posting history and the comments that were made with it. Very handy if you just want to skim through your history. It even has some mathematical models and graphs that it can draw up if you’re in to those sorts of things. I certainly find it entertaining. For a program that didn’t do what I wanted it to do, I quite like it. I just discovered that it can export your journal in to a MIDI file, too! Now I can hear my journal played as notes. Useless, but sexy.

I just got back from Newcastle and saw Grant, my mystical elf cousin/uncle. I arrived at Lake Macquarie around 3pm and we went up around Civic to check out the developments around the waterfront. Very impressive. He’s just bought a terrace house a short walk from there in Cooks Hill. It’s a cute little place. We ended up watching the NRL final back at the shack with some Italian takeaway and had a few quiet drinks. We retired at around 10pm and I failed to get more than 1 hour of solid sleep at any one time, leading to my decision to sleep in until 9am instead of getting up at 6am like I’d originally intended.

This morning, at 9am, I got up and sat outside for a while after drinking the short black Grant made me at around 8am. I guess it took a while to hit me. It’s always pleasant just sitting out on the bench at the shack and doing nothing but enjoying the view of the lake. There’s something innately peaceful about the whole experience. How wannabe-artistic do I sound? Geez.

I zipped over to Caves Beach before heading off and had a dip. There was no surf at all and I was a little cold just standing around in the water so it wasn’t long until I showered off some of the salt and sand and got back in the car and made my way back down the highway and freeway to Hornsby. I wanted to beat the holiday traffic and left Swansea at 10am. I hit the Pacific Highway at Hornsby at 11am. Quite a good run.

On the way home I stopped in at Lou’s to give her a birthday card. I thought it was a rather appropriate one and felt impressed with myself for finding it. Self-congratulation is fun. It was nice being able to see her again and things seemed to go pretty well. The whole thing was reassuring, to say the least. Hopefully, if we manage to keep getting along like that I think things should be fine. I believe she’s drinking punch at the moment with her girlfriends. I could go for a fruity mix myself. I don’t believe I shall, though.

I’m spending the rest of the day preparing myself psychologically to sit down and completely dominate the work I have left for my project – tomorrow. I’ve always been a crammer and rather than fight against my nature I’m just going to ride with it then capitalise on my skills when the time is right. I feel so insightful.

Speaking of insight, it’s only been this last week that I’ve noticed a whole new side of music. I suppose I can now relate to a lot more themes in songs these days. Honestly, it feels kinda good. I’ve always been an experience junkie like that.

redknob.net

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20

Well, I sort of set up redknob.net a bit better. Courtesy of Drupal. There’s really no point trying to make a website from scratch these days, unless it has some uber special personalised requirements. I don’t.

Managing it is taking a little getting used to. The way it handles content was a little confusing at first but I think I’ve basically gotten the hang of it.

I kind of like the basic white theme that I’m running on it, even though it’s virtually an unedited stock/default theme that comes with the installation. Simplicity and minimalism are certainly a turn-on for me.

I’m actually writing this entry just to see if I have the crontab working properly (a script to update aggregated content). If I did it right, I shouldn’t have to do anything for this entry to appear on my LiveJournal syndication.

I’m going up to Newcastle on Sunday afternoon to visit my uncle (although he’s technically my cousin), Grant. He’s been living at the shack for a little while now and wanted me to come up and visit him. He wants to have a bit of a man-to-man I think after everything that’s happened. I’m actually looking forward to it. It’ll be nice to talk to someone older who’s not one of my parents about things for a while.

My part of the RailCorp project has pretty much ground to a halt over the last week. I have trouble getting motivated to do any work in general, let alone after having a depressing week. I really should be doing something on it now instead of fucking around with a new website, but it’s still hard to concentrate on anything too important. Maybe I’ll take a swipe at it on Saturday night. I was planning on trying to do a little bit on Sunday morning before I left, too. Knowing me, I probably wont.

I just can’t wait for this year to be over. I’m a little scared but still curious as to both what the world has in store for me and what I have in store for the world, now that I’m basically going to be set loose from everything.

To refer to the RPG analogy: I’m not going to be questing. I’m just filling out the map.

Ding.

Posted by

7

[13:36:44] <@dot|redknob> man
[13:37:01] <@dot|redknob> my life is going to be as frustrating as a fucking rpg now
[13:37:09] <@dot|redknob> an open ended rpg
[13:37:23] <@dot|loknlowd> emo
[13:37:25] <@dot|loknlowd> ;o
[13:37:26] <@dot|redknob> nah
[13:37:29] <@dot|redknob> scared :o
[13:37:36] <@dot|loknlowd> !!
[13:37:37] <@dot|redknob> we all know how i never get through open rpgs
[13:37:41] <%bubs> ./install u7
[13:37:44] <@dot|loknlowd> lol
[13:37:52] <@dot|redknob> and in the next few weeks i’m going to have total freedom to do what i want
[13:37:58] <@dot|redknob> no ties at all
[13:38:01] <@dot|redknob> no uni
[13:38:02] <@dot|redknob> no gf
[13:38:09] <@dot|redknob> free to leave the country
[13:38:12] <@dot|redknob> money to spend
[13:38:35] <@dot|redknob> i guess i’ll just go wandering
[13:38:40] <@dot|redknob> see where i end up
[13:38:49] <@dot|redknob> fortunately i don’t know how to pick locks
[13:38:52] <@dot|redknob> or i’d never get anywhere

Distracted.

Posted by

9

I love 4chan. I know a lot of people think it can be of poor taste, but that’s pretty much me in a nutshell. There are some safe-for-work forums on there but where’s the fun in that?

Anyway, I’ve been lurking on that site for quite a while now. It’s a great way to kill time. <3 /b/.

One thing that turned up that some of you might like to play with for all of 50 seconds: Sand Art. Try it out.

This one lasts about 10 seconds: Google Logo Maker.

I found this page linked once, too. I think it was from 4chan. I can’t remember now. It’s an entertaining (in my mind) browse: For Sale By Mental Patient. Strangely, I haven’t seen that page turn up anywhere else before. It’s worthy of at least some kind of cult following.

Lately I’ve been clocking up some hours playing the PC version of Final Fantasy VIII after (again) failing to get past disc one of Final Fantasy VII. I don’t mind FF7, but I don’t like most of the characters. This was the third time I’ve attempted to play through it (I still haven’t gotten past where I was up to the first time) and after I read through the complete plot/storyline on GameFAQs I didn’t think it was worth it. The “shocker” at the end of disc one and the ending itself would have just irritated and/or disappointed me if I’d injected 100+ hours in to playing through the whole game. Sure, you can finish it in under 40 but I’m one of those annoying people who has to get 100% of everything done (within reason), meaning I kill a lot of time doing stuff that isn’t really required. Maybe the FF7 “sequel” Advent Children will be cool. Bah, of course it will be. I know I’ll end up playing it, somehow.

So, having found out exactly what happens in FF7 and feeling tired of it anyway, I fired up FF8 after Scott started playing his PSX version on his PC with an emulator. The PC version of FF8 is good enough, although I really miss having the save state and frame skip functionality that you get from an emulator. I’m coping, though. It’s definitely a fun game. It has its own specific annoyances, but which game doesn’t, right? Right.

Sorry to bore everyone with all that gaming talk. God forbid.

What else is on the agenda? Let’s see.

I’m still plodding through Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon. I’m enjoying it, but it’s just taking me forever. I think it’s about 1150 pages and I’m up to about 750, give or take a few dozen. I started reading it last semester during my 2 hour breaks on Fridays. Over the holidays I didn’t really touch it too much and now I don’t have any breaks at uni (since I’m barely there), so I’m reading it before I go to sleep and when I can’t be arsed playing any games.

Oh, yeah. I’ve decided I’m going to find some good old 70s funk music and throw a party. 70s porn-groove-funk style music. Something to get people shaking. It’s actually hard to find good porn music, as Scott and I found out last night. I’ve been going through hundreds of CD samples on various music sites trying to find appropriate tracks. If anyone knows anything catchy, let me know.

By the way, I finally got around to trying out Google Earth. It’s certainly better than Google Maps. It’s kind of useless, really, but I did title this entry as “distracted”.

Word.

Posted by

29

I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but I deliberately only use 1 word in my subjects for each entry. Only a couple of early entries defy this format. Fascinating.

I’ve been out at a Winesoc dinner and I’ve decided to write something. I think that (like most people) I open up more under the influence of alcohol and speak about more interesting things. Unfortunately there’s also the trade off of being lazier, so it doesn’t guarantee that I’ll actually say anything more in-depth or interesting that the usual boring bullshit I usually post.

So, what can I reveal to all of the 2 or so people that actually take interest in what I write here that is somewhat ground-breaking? Well, let’s see… There’s plenty of things I could say, but they’d probably be incriminating and come back to ruin my life within a few years. Fortunately I’ve always been self-aware enough to know when to hold back, even under the influence of alcohol. ;) Don’t worry, it’s nothing illegal.

I met a gamer tonight, one that I actually know/have played against/remember. That was pretty cool. I told him we should meet up during semester and drink a few beers and the like. He seemed genuinely interested and that’s enough for me. Did you notice I’ve changed tangent? Yes, I open up but still not too much. It’s more fun being a prick tease. Oh yes.

I hope all my effort at typing is paying off. It’s hard to hit the right keys, even with my awe-inspiring touch typing skills. Being a good typist makes me feel like a big man. I remember it always used to impress people whenever they saw me typing on computers at school and elsewhere. It’s like an extended e-penis but without the e… Although, it had something else instead of the e, so it wasn’t just an extended penis. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Geez. I’m starting to get dizzy and tired. I have to be up at like 7:30 am. That’s only 5 hours away. I wanted to bum a cigarette off Chandler tonight, so I could have a cigarette with coffee tomorrow afternoon. I’ve heard quite a few times that those two drugs seem to go well together, even though I can’t imagine it. I forgot to steal a dart though, so it’ll just have to be coffee on its own, unless I burn some paper and inhale the fumes from that. Somehow I don’t think it’ll carry the same effect.

I spent $40 on taxis tonight. Donated a bottle of Wolf Blass wine to my table and spent about $15 on drinks, plus another $10 on food. $65 for a night out, plus the $30 on the dinner. $95. I really shouldn’t have bothered going to North Sydney. That’s where $60 went of my night. What a pisser. I had Oportos. It was typical of Oportos, ie: bland. At least I shared my chips with some Macedonian guy called Bogdan who swore he’d had a foursome with 3 other girls (due to him being a guitarist in a band and having shoulder-length curly hair) in a gay bar. I have to admit, I ‘m jealous. I’ve never picked up in a gay bar (although I’ve come close, believe it or not), let alone scored a mini orgy with 3 other women. It’s almost offensive that a nerdy guy called Bogdan can, I have to admit. He was nice enough, though. I shared my Oportos chips with him, because I’m sweet.

Anyway, I’m falling asleep here in my chair, so I may as well at least doze off in the bed that I slept in until 12pm this afternoon. Good night, freaks.

DNS.

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9

I’ve been researching virtual private servers for hosting the team.dot website. Some of the deals out there look pretty sweet. Unfortunately, CoreVPS doesn’t allow IRC services. The bastards. PowerVPS might, but I’m going to have to email them and see.

Anyway, on a whim I decided to fork out AUS$57.07 to own the domain “redknob.net” for the next 5 years. I was tempted to go for 10 but I didn’t want to blow all that money on something that I wouldn’t have any real use for yet. Namecheap are just that, if anyone is interested. Some stupid farm has registered redknob.com. What an embarrassment. Maybe I can get the domain in 2007. I’ll have to keep checking.

Ohh, I’m the hypertext guru tonight!

Shame I still need to do more study tomorrow. Brett was pissed when I said I wouldn’t be coming in to work tonight. Oh well.

Camwhore.

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2

Well, kinda.

I got bored. The first one is a photo from someone else’s camera. Technically it’s not a camwhore shot.

The second one again shows off my “receding hairline”. I swear to God it’s not receding. That’s my actual hairline. It just looks worse because my hair is short and that photo is taken from above my head (on my new phone, actually). My hair’s too thick to be receding. Honest. The cartoon picture did of me represents the actual consistency of my hair.

Really.

>_>

Anyway. My new phone arrived! Yay. I charged it up and got it going. I even calibrated the compass. By golly, that was a pain in the arse to accomplish. Hopefully I’ll never have to calibrate it again. The task involved holding the phone flat and horizontal, then either spinning the phone or yourself holding the phone around in a circle. Certainly not the most robust process, that’s for sure.

I think I’ll need to get an infra red scanner so my PC can play around with files on the phone. It’ll be cheaper to extract photos and movies that way than it will be to email/MMS them somewhere. :O

Jolly good.

P.S. Look like Battlefield 2 is out early, via BitTorrent. Always good to see those naughty release teams getting things done.

Silence.

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2

I finally took the time to remove the BIOS fan (that one that has been whirring for months) from my motherboard. I think I mentioned earlier that apparently it doesn’t make any difference as long as you’re not overclocking. Well, I’m not overclocking. So far it’s been 2 minutes and it’s all looking good!

I can’t believe how quiet my computer is again. :D I still haven’t reconnected the 120mm fan at the back, either, due to all the dust it sucks in. Maybe I can find a nice little filter or something and slide that inbetween the fan and the case. Maybe I wont bother if the temperature stays alright.

Speaking of temperature, I also took the opportunity to actually move my sound card down a few slots, so that it wasn’t crammed up in the face of my video card. The video card’s temperature has already dropped from 90° to 70° when I try maxing it out with some hardcore 3D rendering. Good times. Maybe BF2 wont fuck up as much now.

I don’t want to go to work today. :(

Interesting article regarding copyright: http://theage.com.au/articles/2005/06/15/1118645854663.html

Slogans.

Posted by

This should change on every reload.

generated by sloganizer.net

hehe. The simple things.

Well, exams soon. Next week in fact. Only databases in week 1 of exams, then e-business and project management in the second week. I have a 2 hour exam review session to be at in an hour and it looks like I wont be showering if I expect to make it there on time (and have some toast).

That’ll be the kick-start to my study, actually. I haven’t looked at anything yet. Strangely enough, I’ve been to all of my lectures (well, the ones that the lecturer presented) for databases and project management, so I feel somewhat confident about them. E-business is a different story: I’ve skipped about 8 or 9 of those. Oh well. I get the impression most of the course is similar to things I’ve already studied. I hope so, at least.

It’s been just over 5 weeks since left for her trip. Only 14 weeks to go! Whackadoo. It’s gone pretty fast, admittedly. I still have to reply to her email. I mark them as “personal” in Thunderbird, just so I can pretend I’m important and need to label my mail in case it was audited, or something.

I bought a new video card! Well, a second hand one that hasn’t been used. Yes, I got an nVidia 6800GT. It’s pretty funky (no purple bars of doom like my old busted card), but it seems to heat up when I have all the details running on full at 1280×1024 in the Battlefield 2 demo. It starts getting artifacts and the textures fuck up after a little while, when the card heats up to about 90°. :O I think I may have to plug my case fan back in to try and keep it cool. If only this place wasn’t so fucking dusty, I wouldn’t mind. If I use the fan, all the dust layers around the grill on the front of my case in a nice, thick clump. The grill stops most of it, but fine dust still gets through into the machine and so over time it becomes like an abandoned library inside the case. I must admit it’s kind of fun cleaning it out. There’s something satisfying about dusting with a paintbrush and seeing all the metal become shiny and new again.

Nokia.

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5

Got a call from my mobile phone provider today. They’re changing my plan since I don’t make many phone calls. $59 cap instead of $75, with $200 worth of everything except international calls (and maybe wireless stuff?) included… Or something. Whatever.

Anyway, they’re also giving me a new phone! That means I’m on another 2 year contract, but who cares?

Currently, I have a Nokia 3530, which is rather ugly and a little clunky. It also fails to have much memory on it or any particularly useful features. The new one is the Nokia 5140, for the “outdoorsiness” in me. It has a compass! That’s cool enough for me. I think Frank has that phone, actually. It’s about a year or so old… Maybe more. Meh. I don’t care.

Hmm. It seems to have a radio (!!!! thank christ), torch and thermometer, too. This is like the extension to my long-gone school blazer “survival kit” that I’ve been wanting. Ha! Finally it pays to have answered the phone for once.