I know it *looks* dead but I've been doing a lot of work behind the scenes. Here's a sketchy cast pic. Mostly done on the train. That's why its wobbly. Really.
13.5.05
30.4.05
Steady on, Tiger
I spent most of Saturday sorting out my brand new copy of OS X 10.4 . Heh I thought a backup, drive nuke and reinstall would be the less problematic path..
Some of my issues were self-inflicted (I hadn't verified one of my backup DVDs, turns out the burner hadn't finalised the session). I can say now I don't think I lost any data in the end.
There's some odd bugs and oversights. Browsing s60 symbian phones over bluetooth still doesn't work, though syncing now does (they upload a little app to your phone.) and I have the same pink daisy icon on my phone address book that I do on my user profile.
There's a weird bug where folder names on my external DVD drive disappear. Tiger seems to recognise the drive's capabilities though (it knows its a DVD burner). Haven't tried burning anything yet.
As predicted, Shiny Effects are limited on an iBook G4. You don't get the Dashboard ripples but you do get the little swirl effect when you refresh individual widgets. The little Core Graphics test app (Fun House) works if a little sluggishly.
Seems faster. Could just be a reaction to the reinstall.
Spotlight is everything as advertised. For fun, try typing porn-related search terms into the Spotlight text field on the computers of recent switchers >:).
On the Dashboard - a hint for Aussies. If you want to use the weather widget, type in 'your city, your state' (e.g. Adelaide, South Australia) then press 'enter' rather than the Done button.
This photo was taken Friday night. After standing in the queue at the Malvern Applestore, I got a 'Spotlight' mini torch keyring and a $20 gift voucher. I was overdressed in a big fuzzy jumper and it was really hot in there, but because I was in a sluggish queue I accepted some of the free champagne anyway :).
I didn't have to put myself through that (I pre-ordered) but I wanted my swag and a Friday copy of Tiger, dammit.
Some of my issues were self-inflicted (I hadn't verified one of my backup DVDs, turns out the burner hadn't finalised the session). I can say now I don't think I lost any data in the end.
There's some odd bugs and oversights. Browsing s60 symbian phones over bluetooth still doesn't work, though syncing now does (they upload a little app to your phone.) and I have the same pink daisy icon on my phone address book that I do on my user profile.
There's a weird bug where folder names on my external DVD drive disappear. Tiger seems to recognise the drive's capabilities though (it knows its a DVD burner). Haven't tried burning anything yet.
As predicted, Shiny Effects are limited on an iBook G4. You don't get the Dashboard ripples but you do get the little swirl effect when you refresh individual widgets. The little Core Graphics test app (Fun House) works if a little sluggishly.
Seems faster. Could just be a reaction to the reinstall.
Spotlight is everything as advertised. For fun, try typing porn-related search terms into the Spotlight text field on the computers of recent switchers >:).
On the Dashboard - a hint for Aussies. If you want to use the weather widget, type in 'your city, your state' (e.g. Adelaide, South Australia) then press 'enter' rather than the Done button.
This photo was taken Friday night. After standing in the queue at the Malvern Applestore, I got a 'Spotlight' mini torch keyring and a $20 gift voucher. I was overdressed in a big fuzzy jumper and it was really hot in there, but because I was in a sluggish queue I accepted some of the free champagne anyway :).
I didn't have to put myself through that (I pre-ordered) but I wanted my swag and a Friday copy of Tiger, dammit.
15.4.05
Last Call
So I've tidied my desk, sent my 'I luv you all' email to everybody, washed the coffee cup, consigned a forest to shredding, compressed a month's work into two weeks, removed 2.5 years of sedimentry computer files from my account on the main server, my desktop, and my thumbdrive.
Talked to some people, probably won't get to everybody, handing my cards over in an hour or so.
Hmph.
Realisation will hit me on Tuesday. I'm guaranteed to need a couple of minutes to remember the extra tram on Monday.
Talked to some people, probably won't get to everybody, handing my cards over in an hour or so.
Hmph.
Realisation will hit me on Tuesday. I'm guaranteed to need a couple of minutes to remember the extra tram on Monday.
14.4.05
The space where you were
Today's Earworm- I need to say goodbye - Vast
Second last day at $oldjob (still dithering on a Fri night drinks venue). Its going to be Hudsons at this rate.
Miserable weather. It's raining, but its the sort of warm clammy air where all your rain-weather gear is too hot and stifling. Running extra late, but I'll make that up with change over the next couple of days.
I've taken to carrying around a sketchpad, with a few markers. I've actually gotten some preliminary work done. If you don't respect your muse, and ignore it, your muse will take an extended vacation right when you're trying wrap up the first act and move on. And then the muse will only come back after *days* of brainstorming, cajoling, and watching better sci-fi.
Funny how I've gotten inspired amid impossible deadlines and the paperwork and running about that a job transition brings. I guess Benton didn't have to put away a month's worth of webstuff in two weeks. Could be escapist. Could be therapeutic. Could be a subconcious reassertion that I'm not really my job, because *that's* changing.
Until Friday night though... I think I've about a week's worth of work remaining and nothing is going to stop me today. Not my desk in the monkey house, not meerkat impressions by the boss-unit, bosses boss-unit and co-workers over the cube wall, not caffeine dependency/deprivation. Not that I'm broke til tomorrow and lunch is reconstituted 3 minutes noodles with a more interesting asian providence then usual.
More on the quitting situation tomorrow.... no dirt, just squishy emotional stuff.
Second last day at $oldjob (still dithering on a Fri night drinks venue). Its going to be Hudsons at this rate.
Miserable weather. It's raining, but its the sort of warm clammy air where all your rain-weather gear is too hot and stifling. Running extra late, but I'll make that up with change over the next couple of days.
I've taken to carrying around a sketchpad, with a few markers. I've actually gotten some preliminary work done. If you don't respect your muse, and ignore it, your muse will take an extended vacation right when you're trying wrap up the first act and move on. And then the muse will only come back after *days* of brainstorming, cajoling, and watching better sci-fi.
Funny how I've gotten inspired amid impossible deadlines and the paperwork and running about that a job transition brings. I guess Benton didn't have to put away a month's worth of webstuff in two weeks. Could be escapist. Could be therapeutic. Could be a subconcious reassertion that I'm not really my job, because *that's* changing.
Until Friday night though... I think I've about a week's worth of work remaining and nothing is going to stop me today. Not my desk in the monkey house, not meerkat impressions by the boss-unit, bosses boss-unit and co-workers over the cube wall, not caffeine dependency/deprivation. Not that I'm broke til tomorrow and lunch is reconstituted 3 minutes noodles with a more interesting asian providence then usual.
More on the quitting situation tomorrow.... no dirt, just squishy emotional stuff.
2.4.05
Menu Bar Widgets
I removed some things from my OS X menu bar and added a few. There's a countdown until the end of my current role (looks to have been a wise decision), CPU temp (poor little iBook is no speed demon and it's a hot stuffy day), a smaller battery meter, iiNet Usage (by Harold Chu). Bluetooth, Menumeters CPU usage (again, iBook is an 800Mhz G4), Menumeters network speed monitor, Airport Extreme, and date/time.
I installed the G4 specific build of Firefox but I can't say its any better, even if I like the icon more. Firefox eats a lot of RAM, and the CPU utilisation is insane once you have a few (7, 8, 10 ?) tabs open. I suspect Safari is better behaved in use, but FF has RSS. (Yeah, I'll be upgrading to Tiger. Whether the upgrade will be coming in a Mac Mini box is a matter of budget).
I installed the G4 specific build of Firefox but I can't say its any better, even if I like the icon more. Firefox eats a lot of RAM, and the CPU utilisation is insane once you have a few (7, 8, 10 ?) tabs open. I suspect Safari is better behaved in use, but FF has RSS. (Yeah, I'll be upgrading to Tiger. Whether the upgrade will be coming in a Mac Mini box is a matter of budget).
April Fool on .com.au from Google
On Friday Google had an additional prank in store for the Australian .com.au websites. It dropped them from the index. Every last one.
In the fastest rollback ever AFAIK, around 5pm-ish the .com.au domains started to appear for most searches.
Lets just say things were interesting in SEO-land.
I hope it doesn't end up affecting getting through my workload by the 15th. It's the last day at $oldwork (and the end of my brief SEO career, hopefully.) I can't say I was comfortable with the marketing aspects, though those aren't my only reasons for moving on.
In the fastest rollback ever AFAIK, around 5pm-ish the .com.au domains started to appear for most searches.
Lets just say things were interesting in SEO-land.
I hope it doesn't end up affecting getting through my workload by the 15th. It's the last day at $oldwork (and the end of my brief SEO career, hopefully.) I can't say I was comfortable with the marketing aspects, though those aren't my only reasons for moving on.
28.3.05
Lost Weekend
Just for a change, for the Easter weekend this year, I didn't leave the house all weekend. I needed to recharge my psychic batteries.
I probably should have studied more and eaten less junk food. I don't like to think of the time as wasted though.. sometimes, I need to decompress and catch up on some sleep. I'm a better (or should that be, more convincing) human being when all of the other human beings are seperated from me by a locked door.
Its good to be alone. Well, alone plus the last person I'd kill if I were an Evil Overlord.
I customised my Linux desktop.
Click the image above for a closer look.
(Check out the name of that iTunes client, cheeky! Also, dear ARIA, I own all of that music.)
The whole fakey Apple thing is cute but now that I've done it, it looks sort of tired. Especially if one has the real thing. I think I'll hunt down a slicker theme. I'll keep the FakeDock though.
The Dock is called 'engage', its an Enlightenment application.
In other news, I'm really looking forward to the pre-WWDC Melbourne Apple event though admittedly if Apple were opening a mailbox (and putting on nibblies) I'd be there too.
Also on the Apple front, annoyingly, Macchiato the iBook has developed a slight white spot on the screen which I am trying to ignore, as this is my primary machine. It's got to be a pressure issue. There's an area of screen behind the spot, on the lid of the iBook, which is pressure sensitive (warps when pushed slightly). The rest of the iBook screen isn't. Unlike a lot of recent switchers though, I won't be holding that guy with the turtleneck personally responsible. *shrugs*. I don't know why people submit whiney posts to the forums around the net attributing glitches to Steve or Bill or Linus, you can hold the company responsible for quality control issues in code or hardware, but CEOs aren't Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, they don't have magical omniscient powers that should have saved you from inconvenience.
Ok I know posters don't mean it 'literally'. I think.
I probably should have studied more and eaten less junk food. I don't like to think of the time as wasted though.. sometimes, I need to decompress and catch up on some sleep. I'm a better (or should that be, more convincing) human being when all of the other human beings are seperated from me by a locked door.
Its good to be alone. Well, alone plus the last person I'd kill if I were an Evil Overlord.
I customised my Linux desktop.
Click the image above for a closer look.
(Check out the name of that iTunes client, cheeky! Also, dear ARIA, I own all of that music.)
The whole fakey Apple thing is cute but now that I've done it, it looks sort of tired. Especially if one has the real thing. I think I'll hunt down a slicker theme. I'll keep the FakeDock though.
The Dock is called 'engage', its an Enlightenment application.
In other news, I'm really looking forward to the pre-WWDC Melbourne Apple event though admittedly if Apple were opening a mailbox (and putting on nibblies) I'd be there too.
Also on the Apple front, annoyingly, Macchiato the iBook has developed a slight white spot on the screen which I am trying to ignore, as this is my primary machine. It's got to be a pressure issue. There's an area of screen behind the spot, on the lid of the iBook, which is pressure sensitive (warps when pushed slightly). The rest of the iBook screen isn't. Unlike a lot of recent switchers though, I won't be holding that guy with the turtleneck personally responsible. *shrugs*. I don't know why people submit whiney posts to the forums around the net attributing glitches to Steve or Bill or Linus, you can hold the company responsible for quality control issues in code or hardware, but CEOs aren't Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, they don't have magical omniscient powers that should have saved you from inconvenience.
Ok I know posters don't mean it 'literally'. I think.
22.3.05
ThinkGeek :: Wi-Fi Digital Hotspotter
I need one of these. Now. Just in case there's some FREE wireless hotspots arround Melb.
17.3.05
Murder Mysteries
John Coelho runs live-action murder mysteries for groups in Melbourne. From the looks of this, if you liked Cluedo, you're going to love this game (and make that a lock if you like LARPing too).
16.3.05
Things Are Going To Change
Today's earworm - Lift Me Up-Moby
The title references the last storyline in Scary Go Round. :)
Definitely personally feels like a season of change though. I'm a postgrad student (RMIT Grad Dip in IT Management) and I'm fast tracking my MCSA.
Trying to establish a routine for Midnight Blue. Just moved the latter to a friendly Athlon box this side of the pond. That's working out so far.
Reconnecting with old friends. Recognising the need for people in my life
Had a birthday recently and I felt really stalled, and pretty down, but that was because perhaps the moves I'd made towards change hadn't borne fruit yet.
Re: the strip - I seem to have caught up with studying, and barring any EXTREEM overtime, that should update again later on in the week.
11.3.05
New Midnight Blue Webcomic Strip
Today's new strip
I'm emailing this in because Blogger is being quite unhelpful.
Ok, as of 11:00am Blogger seems to have it's stuff together so here's my ramble. I was going to have a background, but for reasons which will soon become obvious, a glaring white backdrop was perfectly fine. Anyway, there's a lot of dialogue there.
I penciled, then inked using an Espresso felt-tip. This saves a hell of a lot of time! I used to ink with my Graphire but while I can get better lines, it takes about five attempts . With ink, I'm stuck with whatever I did, which is good for my obsessive-compulsive streak.
I'm emailing this in because Blogger is being quite unhelpful.
Ok, as of 11:00am Blogger seems to have it's stuff together so here's my ramble. I was going to have a background, but for reasons which will soon become obvious, a glaring white backdrop was perfectly fine. Anyway, there's a lot of dialogue there.
I penciled, then inked using an Espresso felt-tip. This saves a hell of a lot of time! I used to ink with my Graphire but while I can get better lines, it takes about five attempts . With ink, I'm stuck with whatever I did, which is good for my obsessive-compulsive streak.
10.3.05
Thursday Already?
Today's Earworm- Placebo, Plasticine
It's already Thursday... after Monday and Tuesday spent on the couch and a less-than-productive Wednesday. I have a lot of mind-numbing document-crunching to do this week.
Ever get the feeling you could be replaced by a (slightly complicated) shell script?
Postgrad ACS stuff arrived... this evening I should *really* be catching up on my readings and eyeballing the assignment. I've also got some Security+ to do.
And if I'm really organised, strip this weekend.... though I'll understand if you don't hold your breath.
It's already Thursday... after Monday and Tuesday spent on the couch and a less-than-productive Wednesday. I have a lot of mind-numbing document-crunching to do this week.
Ever get the feeling you could be replaced by a (slightly complicated) shell script?
Postgrad ACS stuff arrived... this evening I should *really* be catching up on my readings and eyeballing the assignment. I've also got some Security+ to do.
And if I'm really organised, strip this weekend.... though I'll understand if you don't hold your breath.
3.3.05
575 Reasons To Back Up Your Data
Engadget are running a competition where they're giving away a 2(!) Gig flash drive to whoever produces the best data loss horror story. There's tales of pr0n substitution, death by magnet, death by Big Night Out, squashed dogs, lost holidays, and untold hours of make-up work.
25.2.05
Moving
The Receptacle - The Receptacle
My domain has just been redelegated (I've got the best hosting setup imaginable, as in I work at my registrar, and the sysadmin and DNS admin are right down the hall.) There *might* be some issues as things propogate but I've done some digging in DNS and things are good to go.
*crosses fingers*
My domain has just been redelegated (I've got the best hosting setup imaginable, as in I work at my registrar, and the sysadmin and DNS admin are right down the hall.) There *might* be some issues as things propogate but I've done some digging in DNS and things are good to go.
*crosses fingers*
24.2.05
Fresh Firefox 1.01
Index of /pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-aviary1.0.1
Apparently faster startup and load, obviously YMMV.
Apparently faster startup and load, obviously YMMV.
22.2.05
MobileTracker - Paris Hilton's Sidekick hacked
MobileTracker - Paris Hilton's Sidekick hacked
Stupidity. technology. They don't mix . Maybe they should make a reading of 'The Art of Deception' compulsory in high school, or something. Assuming Paris here actually went.
Stupidity. technology. They don't mix . Maybe they should make a reading of 'The Art of Deception' compulsory in high school, or something. Assuming Paris here actually went.
21.2.05
ELX.com.au (Australia) - ChocoXtreme Energy Drinking Chocolate
ELX.com.au (Australia) - ChocoXtreme Energy Drinking Chocolate
Need to cut back on coffee? No problem! Elx has you covered.
;p
Need to cut back on coffee? No problem! Elx has you covered.
;p
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