Useful J-phrase No. 56 : Tonari no otoko no ko wa ichinichijuu haamonika o fuite bakari iru.
Why on earth does Real insist on an email address and password before you can download the player. I had to use foo@bar.co.jp before I found a foo@bar address that wasn't in there already.
I heard Lucille Bogan's unreleased version of Shave 'Em Dry today. An exhuberant and uninhibited young lady I would surmise.
Today I saw a large, cock pheasant on Scotswood Road. Which was nice. It was quite early and I was on my way to catch a train to Leeds.
I was looking round for open source video-conferencing software and all the projects seem to have died two years ago. Very strange. Was there a meteor shower or something that targeted only people working on open source video?
Everyone and her cousin mary are linking to the shredding videos so I suppose I will just have to joing the herd and plunge lemming like into those grinding wheels. Except of course lemmings don't behave like that in real life. Perhpas I mean gadarine swine. And while I am following the herd let me put in the chicken herding machine that is also everywhere today
Hmmm, dissent in the ranks about the comment stuff. Clearly I need a config and a cookie that says "keep it simple" or "make it rich". Not tonight though.
Also changed in comments is that it now uses HyperTextArea for editting so you can do more interesting things (if you can be bothered).
Loads of brilliant commercials - I haven't seen most of these since I rarely watch commercial TV or go to the cinema. As usual the production values of the ads are much better than those of most of the programs.
It's probably not socially or culturally acceptable, but I am really enjoying going through the complete calvin & hobbes.
My favourite forum site's database has been corrupted for several days this preventing it from working and it is very annoying. No, I'm not going to say which site it is, except that it is nothing in the least bit strange or outré.
You can see the last week's worth of comments at http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/bifurcated/rivets/recentcomments - this is a rudimentary interface at the moment, so comments and suggestions are welcome.
For some reason I hadn't checked out trashbat.co.ck, watching the programme reminded me. (Non-ukers will not understand)
I do like Colin and Justin's How Not to Decorate. They are so wonderfully camp and Scottish, and they say what they think. "You've got design cohesion, bcause it's all dreadful"
This opening a new tab from JavaScript thing is becoming annoying : I keep finding hints that it is possible but they all end up calling functions that I don't seem to have. *sigh*
There is a not-quite-all-there-yet atom feed available now if you want to use atom. It probably isn't quite right yet though.
There was a request for more buildings (well, sort of, but you can listen to Giant Steps at the same time which is always good)
Brendan Power - here's his webpage, ten quid a throw, so rather better than Amazon prices (buy 4 and get his Riverdance album free, though that does sound more like a threat than an offer...) And the music is great. Go and buy some. His harmonicas look great too - I really fancy a celtic chromatic (though of course I can't actually play an ordinary chromatic properly) or one of the retuned diatonics.
This looks interesting, but I'm not paying $54 to find out! (via the aforementioned Harmonica Ramblings)
Counter Counterfeit Commission - is this supposed to be funny or something? What is it spoofing?
I love reading the Gawker Stalker columns (at Gawker of course) - 95% of the people I have never heard of. Who are they all? Who cares?
Throne of Weapons (Look at the link in Rob's comment and wonder who it is who cannot spell at the Britsh Museum...)
I wonder where people get money from in Edinburgh. Almost every place that I remember as a bank is now a bar.
"One of these days, say those close to the situation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will investigate the claim that marijuana weed is promiscuously used and smoked by players of swing music. The idea that weed, which is supposed to have first taken hold of the low-down musicians playing in Harlem dives, is now spreading to the bigger bands where instrumentalists now use it to emit the wild abandoned rhythms which comprise swing music, is said to be arousing intense interest at J. Edgar Hoover's headquarters." (from here but via Information Junk again)
Anyone else having trouble with the Firefox Extensions panel? I can't get it to load - I get the hour galss and then nothing. Looks like something is corrupt but there are no error messages. (And, yes, I have tried uninstalling and re-installing)
Ladies of StarTrek - they all look the same! (That maybe because I've never watched Star Trek of course)
2001 explained (sent to me by several people) - I always thought I understood the film without a website.
Went to see Huw Warren at the Sage, Gateshead last night. Fantastic. He had Peter Herbert on bass, Mark Feldman on violin and Martin France on drums. All of them superb. Go and see him. Buy his records.
Blast, I can't get iTunes to see my iPod on the iBook. Mounts as a disc but the new updater says "Unexpected Error".
My brother was on this flight. His comment : "the pilot had noticed problems with the engine one hour after take off" - hah! It was like the whole plane was driving over cobbles, not to mention the sheet of flame out the engine...
Patron Saints - some interesting items : "against scurf", "Belgian air crews", "understanding"
Mixed opinions about how the page looks. Of course I am not finished playing wiht it so don't judge it yet. Personally I like the fixed buttons on the right - same size as before but more available.
The buttons should look better in Safari now (though I haven't actually checked). Still playing with things of course.
Amazing : the 419ers (Nigerian scam artists) are actually now phoning you up to tell you that they are mailing you, and then again to make sure that you received the message! Two colleagues have been called today. I feel left out.
Just fiddling around with CSS. Non-IE users will see the buttons fixed at the top right. IE-users : what on earth are you doing running IE???????
Mannekin Pis postcards. I must admit that the actual mannekin is a huge disappointment (just like the mermaid in Copenhagen). What is good is the surreal vision of the tourist shops all around filled with chocolate souvenirs.
Astonishing video - you have to scroll right down to the bottom of the page and I could only get it to work in Internet Explorer. I am told that the performers are deaf too.....
Paris Hilton Sidekick photos (NSFW if you work in that kind of place) Do you really believe that her sidekick was hacked? There isn't a single one of those pictures that looks remotely natural and unposed.
I was making apple crumble today and instead of my usual 85% wholemeal I used Spelt and the result was rather tasty, though possibly a little greasy - may be less fat needed (I use 6oz flour, 2 oz rolled oats, 3oz sugar, 4oz butter/marge - everything organic of course). I also found some nutritional yeats on sale! I'm sure it must be a new product in the UK as I have never seen it before (It's from marigold and is in a black tub). Anyhow, I shall dig out my US cookbooks (Laurel's kitchen, Martha Rose Shulman, etc. etc.) and see what I can find that might be interesting using it
Chemical Brothers Response segueing into Planxty Raggle Taggle Gypsies - nice one. Thank you iTunes.
I see that we will not be able to escape HHGTTG hype. I suspect they will ruin it - the whole point about it was that it was a kind of shaky, low budget production in all its forms and if that is lost then it just won't be funny. (And volumes 4 & 5 aren't funny anyway)
What's cool about Iceberg lettuce? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!! IT IS AN ABOMINATION! OUT DEMONS OUT. PARTICULALRY THE ICEBERG LETTUCE DEMON! It isn't a food, it is a wrapping material or something. disgusting, disgusting disgusting. What happened to the Webb's Wonderful - an excellent lettuce that used to be readily available? I haven't seen one for years (apart from ones I grow myself). Grrr......
The Tokyo Damage Report travel guide is getting well deserved publicity all over the place at the moment. I would certainly check out some of the places should I be in Tokyo (ha!).
So how is this cheating? It seems to me to be no different from using a form book at the races, it's just dynamically collected information. Of course, anything that means the casino loses is defined as "cheating"
This Lorem Ipsum generator has been around for a while I think but is a useful tool to know about.
There was a bizarre advert for Cisco during Nathan Barley on Friday night. Weird security-scaremongering-yet-corporate-image-building stuff.
Give the gift of virginity - strange idea that this woman is a counter-culture heroine. Perhaps the counter in your local SPCK bookshop.
Creation Cookies - words fail me.
A folk version of "Straight out of Compton" - brilliant but of course will offend people who object to sweary sweary words. (Via GaijinWorld)
Tonight I got round to watching the Bill Bailey Part Troll DVD. Very funny even if you did see the tour. The Hokey Cokey as done by Kraftwerk is pure genius and he didn't do that at the Newcastle gig.
My Secret Life on the web. Not mine, you understand, and of course it is 100% guaranteed to be NSFW and offensive to everyone.
"I had to give up gym" by the Hokum Boys. What a bizarre song that is. (And, yes, there is no link - just like the Ornette Coleman one. Just a random ejaculation)
Grrr. CSS annoyances - you don't seem to be able to style the Browse button on a File input, at least in Firefox anyway.
SEIRI: create tidyness. Throw away all unused stuff, file away the rest.SEITON: keep everything at the right place. Keep the tools you need accessible, hide materials you don't need regularly.SEISO: keep your (work-)space clean, remove all traces from the previous task before starting the next.SEIKETSU: develop a personal sense for organizing your things. Develop routines, optimize your system according to your needs.SHITSUKE: stay disciplined doing the above, make it a habit and permanent practice. (via b**g before you think (I won't use the b word))
Oh, and also the very wonderful "New & used Circumcision. Check out the deals now!" (on ebay of course) The perils of automated ad generation.
OK, I clicked on the "Nepalese" link on the previous page and it brings up som ekind of search result. This suggests that popular categories are "Nepal, Maui, Chinese painting, Airline tickets, Air charter, Circumcision, Mortgage". Circumcision????? A quick click leads you to links to such places as the Circumcision Agency : "High-quality, convenient and affordable circumcision in the UK"
Website of the Workers and Peasants Party of Great Britain of the Shining Path of Marxist-Leninist Mao Zedong Abimael Guzman Pete Smith Thought (WPPGBSPMLMZAGPST for short)
This video is very funny, though I suppose some people might be offended. It is perfectly SFW though.
Firefox users, if you set the network.enableIDN in your users.js, it definitely works and it definitely survives a restart. Or at least it definitely does for me, the about:config may well not survive a restart.
Shoe lacing - this is all over the place, and I may have done it before, but it's excellent.
Hmm, this new URL attack is nasty (though obvious when you think about unicode usage) - make sure you have define("network.enableIDN", false); in your user.js file if you are using Firefox or Mozilla. (No fix for Opera or Safari, and IE is so old it doesn't get hit) Update: Seems not to work for some people. Use about:config, scroll down to network.enableIDN, change the value, clear your cache and you should be safe.
Einstein - good training (or a taperecorder hidden in the microphone). I suspect that the key is the positioning of the microphone acting as a cue. And of course birds are pretty intelligent.
Adult English - scans of a Japanese English instruction book. May offend. For a variety of reasons....
*SIGH* I cannot work out what the hell is wrong with this damn PC. Today I took it apart : unolugged every cable, took out every card and I vacummed the whole thing. Put it back together and the damn thing still calimed there was a read error disc. Knoppix of course boots fine and can see the disk. I ran the Seagate diagnostics and they claim that the disc is fine. Is it the disc? Is it the motherboard? Is it something else entirely. I managed to clear whatever it was and reboot into Windows and it runs fine, until it randomly fails again claiming a bad block. I/O on the disc does seem to be a requirement failure (I think) - I can always make it fail by trying to install Sims 2, though it will fail at entirely different places every time. (When installing Windows I get random errors trying to read from the CD - different every time you try. Knoppix reads fine from both the CDs though).
Wow - though, in true geek fashion, do watch out for the places where it doesn't quite work : watch the light sabre handle for instance. That is nit picking though.
Did you know that some senator or congressman has proposed that people with "political delusions" be included in a mental health bill that would let them claim back medication costs. These delusions include things like suspicion that voting machiens were tampered with, that the media is biased etc. etc.
Grrr, I hate Windows. My PC at home from which I have slowly been stripping devices to see if I can find the problem runs find under Knoppix (as at the moment), but now won't even boot under Windows : BSOD straight away, so fast back to the boot that I can't see what it is!
Little known attractions of Lynchburg and Central Virginia - so much weirdness! Wonderful stuff.
My Father's XP system shows the splash screen in colour and then boots to his desktop where everything is b&W *except* the icons. Click on a nicely coloured icon and you get a b&w app......
Bible rewrite project - it's hard. I tried a couple of verses, and since they mostly make no sense to start with it is almost impossible to rewrite them!