fudonet

Indy 4

Published on May 22, 2008 11:01 AM - 2 Comments

Well it is has finally arrived, Indy 4 hits the cinemas today. I can’t wait till this evening. Haven’t booked tickets yet, should be okay since most cinemas are showing the film on multiple screens.

Apart from the Star Wars trilogy, the Indiana Jones movies are my favourite films from my childhood. I think any 80s child adores them. People have tried to replicate the mix that the Indy films offer, but failed in some way or other. I still think the original script and idea for the 4th film, Fate of Atlantis. Which was written some 10+ years ago would have been great, I know I loved the computer game which was released back then. So lets see what the ‘Crystall Skull’ is all about. Had hoped there would have been some late night screening last night, but none of the cinemas did that. I guess with the football they didn’t want gamble on people not showing up or showing up drunk.

WordPress : Day 2

Published on May 14, 2008 11:26 PM - 5 Comments Tags: WordPress MT flickr twitter facebook LinkedIn.

Since I sort of hit a minor set back, of not having my UBCD USB key. I postponed XP install on the EEE and decided to tinker with WordPress this evening. I have now tweaked the theme a little to at least get the colours I want. So the next thing on my list was pages. However I quickly discovered putting arbitary PHP, JS and CSS doesn’t work to well. After a bit of googling I quickly discovered that there are plugins to address these problems. So after about 20 minutes of tinkering that was all working. However the styles and block of HTML that WP applies is sort of interfering with my HTML. Take a look at the Music page and you will quickly see what I mean. MT has the mechanism of publishing pages as static files or bind a page to a static file, I haven’t found the equivalent in WP yet.

Other than that with about 3 hours work the site is now fully functional under WP. The next things on the list are the sidebar, I want a flickr feed, facebook, linkedin and twitter profile links, not difficult at all plugins do exist but I will probably have a go at writing my own sidebar plugins. I also need to make it look a little better, the current styling was rushed just to get the theme working like I wanted. Comments are currently off, but once I get the WordPress API key I will re-enable them.

I will plumb in the AdSense under the first post as well since I can. Also just realised that when I did the upgrade to MT4 I wiped out the Google Analytics JS code resulting in no stats for the last couple of months, no biggie really. Not like I get more than a few people reading the blog anyway, fortunately I do have the server logs so I will try to do something to them so I can register the data into Google Analytics, if such a facility exists that is.

XP on EEE

Published on May 14, 2008 4:33 AM - 0 Comments Tags: EEE, EEEPC, WinXP.

I have decided to give XP a go on the EEE, since I figured I could. Linux is great, but due to not being able to hibernate and other little niggles I thought I would give Windows a go. In terms of pure functionality there is nothing wrong with Windows. I find with Linux I can waste a lot of time dicking around with settings and trying things rather than actually getting work done.

I have made the nLite install and I’m going to try installing to the 4GB SDHC card to start with.

Bye Bye MT, Hello WordPress

Published on May 10, 2008 7:15 PM - 0 Comments Tags: WordPress.

Well I have had enough of trying to workout the new archive system from the old one turned out to be more trouble than it is worth. So I fired up WordPress on my Linux box to try out converting this site, and it all worked without a flaw. So I decided I might as well do it on the live site. So here it is. Now I just need to sort out the styling a little and reduce the header it a little.

Will also go back and publish all the blogs from January to now.

MacBook Air

Published on January 15, 2008 11:17 PM - 0 Comments Tags: Apple, MacBookAir, MBA, SuperDrive, TimeCapsule.

Phil Collins was not at MacWorld after all, instead Jobs unveiled the MacBook Air a super lite MacBook targeted at the people that want a super portable but with a full keyboard. The most important feature is the flash drive option, why didn’t Apple standardise on SSD. The default configuration uses a 1.8″ iPod style hard disk.

There is no integrated optical drive, however Apple also unveiled a USB portable SuperDrive. Until I get my hands on an Air and have a play. I can’t really decide if it the right new Mac for me. Since I do need more storage and a bit more power. The Air is clearly not a primary or single machine option. I would have liked to have seen a builtin HSDPA modem, like in the Sony TZ. But I guess they were trying to keep the price down. Also the other strange thing is that it only has one USB port, so that would mean you need to have a hub with you at all times. Hell even the EEEPC has 3 USB ports, and the new X300 from IBM also has 3.

I do want the portable SuperDrive that also got announced, for $99 it is a steal. The new Time Machine capsule is also an interesting idea. Though a cheaper SATA NAS solutions are available that are better value for money. but until I play with Time Machine I guess I’m not that bothered. I still haven’t got Leopard obviously since I really need a new Mac, I thought I would wait until then.

LOL, Apple have got Phil Collins at MacWorld…maybe!

Published on January 14, 2008 2:54 PM - 0 Comments Tags: Air, Apple, AppleInsider, Jobs, MacWorld.

Just came across this on AppleInsider. Either Jobs has convinced Phil Collins to come along tomorrow, or Apple is launching a new wireless device that is not an iPhone. Either way we will know in the next 24 hours or so.

RockBox

Published on January 9, 2008 10:43 PM - 0 Comments

I have been giving RockBox the alternative firmware for the iPod ago. I have to say at first I was quite taken with some of the cool things, however its usability is not a good as the standard Apple firmware, even after enabling all of the look and features. Sync whilst simpler is nice, keeping a mixed iTunes DB and playlist folders is proving troublesome. If I blew all of the iTunes stuff away I’m sure it would behave nicely, but right now I think I’m going back to Apple.

End of WoW Trial

Published on January 8, 2008 10:52 PM - 0 Comments

Well I completed my trial period of World of Warcraft yesterday, and I found more enjoyable this time round. I got to level 11 in about 15 hours of play. I wasn’t playing it all out. But I have decided I will probably get a sub this time and stick with playing it. Lets see how quickly I can progress, Mati will be about to help on the group missions plus also useful to know strategies for some of the quests. I’m only going to use a single character for now.

Not Well!

Published on January 7, 2008 11:58 AM - 0 Comments

Was out on friday night, and I think I caught a chill on top of which Mati has been sick for most of the last week, with the flu bug doing the rounds. So I managed to dodge it last week, however I’m not out of action. Hopefully I will be well enough for work on monday!

Back to work!

Published on January 2, 2008 7:14 AM - 0 Comments

First day back today looking forward to it. Even got up extra early! Lets see how much those a-holes at South West Trains have put the prices up by!

MT Archive system is pissing me off!

Published on January 1, 2008 2:39 PM - 0 Comments

Well I’m still playing with upgrading the site, however I’m hitting a few problems with the new archive system. I’m sure the new version is better, however I can’t work out a simple things like republishing all of my templates easily. Also the new pages feature seems not to be working for me. I’m sure these problems are just configuration issues, plus the fact that I’m still learning how the whole things hangs together.

Happy New Year!

Published on January 1, 2008 2:33 AM - 0 Comments

Happy New Year, well you know I don’t do resolutions so I’m not going to state any for this year either! Things are good now so I hope things keep getting better! Having said that I’m at least going to try and actually post entries closer to when I write them rather than batching them up and then publishing them. Though I still have a fair few to copy and paste in yet, largely from the latter 3 or 4 months.

LOL – MT Error after upgrade!

Published on December 31, 2007 6:56 AM - 0 Comments Tags: MT MovableType.

I have obviously been having a play with MovableType over the holidays, because I don’t have anything better to do. A few minor problems I encountered, but nothing I couldn’t fix. One thing that is still bothering me is the following error on every dynamic page :

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare is_valid_email() (previously declared in /blah/blah/blah/fudonet.net/php/mt.php:716) in /blah/blah/blah/fudonet.net/php/mt.php on line 722

However I’m not the only one. I googled it to try and find a fix. Instead google returns every MT instance that is exhibiting the problem.

Updating the Site!

Published on December 30, 2007 1:44 PM - 0 Comments

Well since I don’t have much to do, thought I would revamp the website a little. Have been meaning to do the upgrade to MT4 for ages, so I might as well re-do everything. The new style skins look neat, will probably take one and customise it as I go. MT4 finally has a direct page publishing system, about 3 years ago I hacked my own mini version in for doing the subject pages. However I didn’t update those pages as often as I could because it involved hand editing the content. But now I can use the MT4 web frontend and my blog templates will be used automatically. No hacking of including custom PHP snippets in the templates, yipee!

I am Legend

Published on December 30, 2007 2:06 AM - 0 Comments

Watched I am Legend last night. Now I did like it, and I knew what to expect since I have seen The Omega Man and I’m aware of the original writing. So I was expecting people’s reactions to mimic those of people that watched War of the Worlds without having any knowledge about the original version. In part that is true, you only have to look at the comments and reviews. However there are lots of people giving it more credit than it is due. In most part it is still a remake! For instance the whole thing with the Mustang in the beginning is lifted directly from Heston’s film.

As for the plot, and setting things have obviously been changed and modernised. LA is now New York, and the virus comes about from an apparent cure for Cancer. (The shots of New York empty must have been hard work. Though some were CG!) The first two thirds of the film were excellent, however the pace did change towards the end. Some might even say the ending was a little abrupt. I don’t because logically that is the only way the story was going to end. Though I was expecting the whole film to be a little longer, but 101 minutes is totally fine. So yes this film is worth seeing over the New Year break.

Will Smith’s performance can’t be faulted at all. I think it is technically a progression from Six Degrees of Separation and perhaps a little better than Ali. His next film Hancock, which is going to be one of the big films of next summer also looks good. Teaser came out a few weeks back.

World of Warcraft

Published on December 29, 2007 2:51 PM - 0 Comments

Well I said I wouldn’t look at WoW, after my experiences of a trial some years back. However I was watching the 5th episode of Rise of the Video Game which featured MMOs. I remembered back to the Warcraft 2 and Starcraft days (I know they different kind of games!) and I was compelled to give it another go.

I have tried Second Life, which was entertaining for a couple of weeks, but wore off quickly. Have looked at Guild Wars and Eve as well. However WoW just seems better, plus 7 million people can’t all be wrong. Plus maybe I might run into Mr T or Captain Kirk

Since I’m not doing Windows any more either, WoW seems to work pretty well through Cedega so I will probably go that route. The CD set I have are from the original WoW launch so I don’t fancy downloading all of the updates. So I will try to work out what I can pinch from Mati’s machine.

UPDATED: Well I should have probably just downloaded the new Trial installer which was 2.6GB. I have disks, and 2GB worth of patches, however the installer decided to download accumulated updates rather that the 21 that I have. So I ended up downloaded 1.1GB anyway, but I guess I did save at least a day.

Call of Duty 4

Published on December 18, 2007 11:04 PM - 0 Comments

Picked up Call of Duty 4 today. Have to say I’m quite impressed with it so far. The single player game is supposedly bigger than Halo 3, and the multiplayer also feels quite good. Perhaps there is finally a game to rival CounterStrike, maybe.

First Day!

Published on December 17, 2007 10:49 PM - 0 Comments

First day at Cognos. Have to say I’m really impressed with the people there. All of them are very friendly, and totally into what they are doing there. I already feel like I’m part of the team. Whilst it is kind of strange starting the week before Christmas, it is actually proving to be a good plan.

Christmas Drinks!

Published on December 15, 2007 11:59 AM - 0 Comments

Was out with a very small subset of the APR crew last night for our annual Christmas gathering. But I guess this was due to picking the second from last friday before Christmas. Plenty of company events going on. Harry and Francine did well to pop by for an hour, before disappear off to Francine’s company bash. In the end it was just Muz, Rich and me left. So we decided to grab some food.

Beowulf

Published on November 17, 2007 1:41 AM - 0 Comments

Just watched Beowulf. The film is technically great, works brilliantly as a technology showcase. The studios are after all pitching this technology to replace actors, some day. Which I’m sure is a nice idea in principle, but in reality is never going to happen. Though if production costs are low enough and the technology is cheap, then I could see poorer nation adopting it for educational purposes, maybe!

Anyhoo, back to the film. The story is good, you can’t go wrong with an excepted mythologically tale. However for what it is, it seems too long! Don’t rush to the cinemas to see this, wait for it on TV.

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