From one of our beloved customers -
Why do I need to (follow procedure to get replacement copy and reinstall software)? I have already done all that. Are you guys trying to punish me because your software didn't work properly.
Lets do a multiple choice 'MAD Magazine's snappy answers to stupid questions.' It writes itself.
a) No, but damn, I really wish I could.
b) Letting you live is punishment enough.
c) The correct question is why are you punishing me.
d) You better believe it, worm. You can't have your software until Mistress says you can.
29.12.05
Happy Holidays
Today's Earworm- Wires, Athlete
And how was your giftmas?
Mine was pretty quiet. I spent Christmas Dinner with family in Geelong. Mostly stayed off the carbohydrates, but I had some pudding. I've also been working my way through the light beer my mother had sent, and the occasional vodka. Doesn't seem to have done me any harm. D remained strict on what he ate and he's doing really well as a result.
I bought D a 200G Western Digital drive for Xmas, and installed it. Arconis True Image didn't properly clone over the boot sector, or so it seemed, and in the end after trying to clone the original drive a couple of times I gave up and added the new drive as a slave. It turned out that the original 30G drive was a WD 7200 RPM anyway, so replacing it with the new one without a fresh XP install would have negligible benefit.
Turned out too that the video card was running Too Damn Hot so I prised off the original wussy fan, and replaced it with a Blue Orb I had lying around. I wish I hadn't spent several hours scowling at the computer, and probably D too as he lurked in the doorway, waiting to get his computer back.
I mentioned up that I was thinking of upgrading the hdd on my iBook, he agreed with me that it was probably a very bad idea on a stress level. It's my primary machine now and full of tiny, tiny parts packed into a very small space that will cause me many hours of fun (panic, take a deep breath, try again, panic, etc etc).
Like most non-geeks he doesn't appreciate *why* its necessary to do these things that stress us out (or, frankly, why, for example, a video card periodically freezing WinXP is an unacceptable situation that must be *immediately* rectified. Possibly expensively). I know why I got stressed out over the hard drive thing, I've been in happy Mac land so long I'm worried I'm losing my hardware mojo. Also, at work, my whole world is brittle proprietry software. I do sometimes deal with Linux but its usually through a human filter who likes to click on irrelevant things and has a small seizure when I suggest we'll need to modify httpd.conf. (Cue usual whine on Pakled sysadmins.)
And how was your giftmas?
Mine was pretty quiet. I spent Christmas Dinner with family in Geelong. Mostly stayed off the carbohydrates, but I had some pudding. I've also been working my way through the light beer my mother had sent, and the occasional vodka. Doesn't seem to have done me any harm. D remained strict on what he ate and he's doing really well as a result.
I bought D a 200G Western Digital drive for Xmas, and installed it. Arconis True Image didn't properly clone over the boot sector, or so it seemed, and in the end after trying to clone the original drive a couple of times I gave up and added the new drive as a slave. It turned out that the original 30G drive was a WD 7200 RPM anyway, so replacing it with the new one without a fresh XP install would have negligible benefit.
Turned out too that the video card was running Too Damn Hot so I prised off the original wussy fan, and replaced it with a Blue Orb I had lying around. I wish I hadn't spent several hours scowling at the computer, and probably D too as he lurked in the doorway, waiting to get his computer back.
I mentioned up that I was thinking of upgrading the hdd on my iBook, he agreed with me that it was probably a very bad idea on a stress level. It's my primary machine now and full of tiny, tiny parts packed into a very small space that will cause me many hours of fun (panic, take a deep breath, try again, panic, etc etc).
Like most non-geeks he doesn't appreciate *why* its necessary to do these things that stress us out (or, frankly, why, for example, a video card periodically freezing WinXP is an unacceptable situation that must be *immediately* rectified. Possibly expensively). I know why I got stressed out over the hard drive thing, I've been in happy Mac land so long I'm worried I'm losing my hardware mojo. Also, at work, my whole world is brittle proprietry software. I do sometimes deal with Linux but its usually through a human filter who likes to click on irrelevant things and has a small seizure when I suggest we'll need to modify httpd.conf. (Cue usual whine on Pakled sysadmins.)
21.12.05
15.12.05
I need a holiday from the holiday
I just spent about a week and a half walking a teenage girl around pretty much every shopping destination in
Dialtone was out from Friday to Tuesday due to some hardware upgrades at our exchange. It’s a long, ugly story. *sigh* At least it’s back up. I’m too scared to ask what happened to the ADSL speed upgrade that supposedly caused this because we’re still connecting at 1500, but as I *like* having dialtone that one can wait.
I’ve deferred my postgrad studies for now, possibly permanently. I think its all of questionable value to me at the moment, and what would be beneficial is some ‘cake’ certs like the Security+. I’ll need that for later.
27.11.05
Yeah, I have a problem
Listening to: International Date LIne, Ladytron
And these aren't all of them. Not by a long shot. These aren't even the three or four I carry in my bag. I have a lip gloss problem. Shiny, sparkly, flavored, wine, pink, occasionally red or purple, I have a weakness for them all.
Its like the NEXT lipgloss I see, perched fetchingly on a shelf in its fresh pink packaging, will be the Holy Grail of lipglosses, and I can forsake the other fifty in approximately the same color and texture.
Other than sorting my drawers (thats what prompted the lipgloss navel-gazing) I've got other things on at present. I'll probaly defer my postgrad stuff indefinitely after I finish the current subject. I took it on because I wasn't sure what to do, and now I've got a few projects on I'm really interested in I just don't have the time.
I have a few more website projects that need attention, and my main site of course.
There are other courses that interest me more, too. But they'll need to wait until I do something about work, either do something part-time, or get a shorter commute, or God knows, take a course I'm actually interested in, because the upload is a lot slower on business speak waffle than it is on geek stuff.
And these aren't all of them. Not by a long shot. These aren't even the three or four I carry in my bag. I have a lip gloss problem. Shiny, sparkly, flavored, wine, pink, occasionally red or purple, I have a weakness for them all.
Its like the NEXT lipgloss I see, perched fetchingly on a shelf in its fresh pink packaging, will be the Holy Grail of lipglosses, and I can forsake the other fifty in approximately the same color and texture.
Other than sorting my drawers (thats what prompted the lipgloss navel-gazing) I've got other things on at present. I'll probaly defer my postgrad stuff indefinitely after I finish the current subject. I took it on because I wasn't sure what to do, and now I've got a few projects on I'm really interested in I just don't have the time.
I have a few more website projects that need attention, and my main site of course.
There are other courses that interest me more, too. But they'll need to wait until I do something about work, either do something part-time, or get a shorter commute, or God knows, take a course I'm actually interested in, because the upload is a lot slower on business speak waffle than it is on geek stuff.
24.11.05
The shrew and karma
Watching 'Airline' as Joanna the 'journalist' in the trashy red
leather coat throws a tanty about the flight she missed. No,
sweetheart, nobody is going to be flexible. Nobody is going to break
flight regulations or displace somebody else on a plane just to fit
your over-privileged arse. Know why? Look in the mirror.
I guess her bratty behaviour is really hitting a nerve because there
seems to be so very many people who were never taught that
tantrums are not cool after two years old or so. Other people must
just keep letting them get away with it.
Do us all a favor, if you have an encounter with the lawyer who
needs to grow the fuck up or the whining consultant who keeps
quoting his hourly rate, if you're not going to get fired for
telling them to pull their head in, please do it? For the sake of those
who would get fired?
It takes a village to raise a child, after all.
14.11.05
Goals
Here’s a few little goals I have in mind for the next few months…
1) Pay of my debts, so if I want to start a biz, move to
2) Grow my hair.
3) Lose the *remaining* 5 kg (15 melts off like butter, the last few are a bitch though)
4) Remember current gig is a means to an end, so remember to treat it like a particularly brutal SSL/PKI course.
5) Don’t stop studying new tech
6) Take some certification exams, dammit.
7) Don’t overspend over Xmas
8) Sock away some money for my Intel Powerbook
9) Don’t kill anybody before I get a better job
8.11.05
Public Service Announcement
On behalf of all CS reps, everywhere,
If you are a contractor, or other generic humanoid carbon unit who is hired to maintain a server running, say, MongyServer Pro (don’t take that literally, I know some of you do have problems with abstraction. This is for all servers wearing hats, servers named after fruit, servers made of glass, and Blue servers among others) please understand you may one day have to crack a book or manpage about MongyServer Pro.
Any server, no matter how lickable the interface, requires an understanding of Where the server keeps its Important Bits, and where you might need to start looking in the event of Bad Things Happening.
This goes double if you’re actually working for MongySoft, ok?
2.11.05
Divas and heat
In the space of about three days, the weather has turned from ‘chilly’ to ‘I need a beer and air-conditioning, stat’.
The streets teem with people. This is something I don’t quite understand. I don’t mean in comparison to *yesterday*, which was quite busy anyway thank you very much (I think we were so popular because nobody else in
Don’t know where the hell the extra people are from, they can’t all be tourists.
I did some damage on the iTunes AU music store last night. The bloke knew I’d had a real horse-cookie of a day so he greeted we with food, iced tea, Body Shop swag, and an iTunes music voucher. I got the new NIN album while I tried to get an assignment in on time (Hmm. NIN, Uni, unbearable stifling heat, I must be 22 again!).
Yesterday was perfect café weather, today the f-ing thermostat is set way too high. I won’t even discuss co-werkers who didn’t turn on the airconditioning until 9:15-ish.
Day’s not over yet and I’m already fairly snippy. But then again, most of these people calling up haven’t learned anything when I walked them through everything the first time yesterday.
14.10.05
15% less grumpy
15% of my body weight. Gone. Foomp. Still a way to go but damn, feels good hitting a milestone.
Decided to make this more of a feelgood post. I had a fairly snarky one up before but I thought better of it and pulled it down before it got indexed. The truth is, I don’t care if I’m popular at work, or what people think of me there. It’s not exactly under my control. And not a permanent situation from the looks of things.
It’s true. Not a permanent situation. I can take action to make the end result more positive, but the situation – as it stands now – with my work relationships and my role here – is subject to change no matter what I do.
For a procrastinator like myself, who needs justification, lots of it, to initiate change, that’s a very comforting thought. I will land on my feet. I always do.
4.10.05
All flights cancelled
My Airport Express is dead.
And to say that things couldn’t get worse this week is dangerously optimistic. And it’s only *Tuesday*.
More later.
4.8.05
Signs your Melbourne cab experience is not going well
I have officially met a cab driver with a worse sense of direction than me. I swear to God.
Signs your Melbourne cab experience is not going well -
1) They don't know which way to South Melbourne
2) They don't know which way to the Casino
3) When one of the ways 'right' leads to the Citylink, they TAKE THE TURN INTO CITYLINK.
4) Once off Citylink, you have to tell them repeatedly to HEAD BACK TOWARDS THE CITY
5) They're unsure of how to do that, so it's HEAD FOR THE SHINY BUILDINGS
6) Except it's "Go left, dammit!"
7) And you, not the driver, crack open the Melways
8) You tell them to head for the Casino via Swan Rd
9) You give up on that and get them to drop you off at City road, where you, shivering, will begin the two or three block trek to work (and thank God I spotted the Kings way train overpass or I'd still be out there!)
10) They want you to pay the full fare!!!!!! I gave her sixteen bucks, I only had change really, and I wanted to eat lunch. She didn't deserve it, and I handed it over to avoid any more trouble. No, that wasn't the full fare.
Needless to say, I'll try to get something done at $taxico, if nothing else some remedial Melbourne navigation is in order. Only 20 minutes late, thank christ, but I'm doing some suspicious coughing and I'm *still* shivering. I should have gotten out when I realised she didn't know where the Casino was, I mean FFS!
Signs your Melbourne cab experience is not going well -
1) They don't know which way to South Melbourne
2) They don't know which way to the Casino
3) When one of the ways 'right' leads to the Citylink, they TAKE THE TURN INTO CITYLINK.
4) Once off Citylink, you have to tell them repeatedly to HEAD BACK TOWARDS THE CITY
5) They're unsure of how to do that, so it's HEAD FOR THE SHINY BUILDINGS
6) Except it's "Go left, dammit!"
7) And you, not the driver, crack open the Melways
8) You tell them to head for the Casino via Swan Rd
9) You give up on that and get them to drop you off at City road, where you, shivering, will begin the two or three block trek to work (and thank God I spotted the Kings way train overpass or I'd still be out there!)
10) They want you to pay the full fare!!!!!! I gave her sixteen bucks, I only had change really, and I wanted to eat lunch. She didn't deserve it, and I handed it over to avoid any more trouble. No, that wasn't the full fare.
Needless to say, I'll try to get something done at $taxico, if nothing else some remedial Melbourne navigation is in order. Only 20 minutes late, thank christ, but I'm doing some suspicious coughing and I'm *still* shivering. I should have gotten out when I realised she didn't know where the Casino was, I mean FFS!
24.7.05
Thoughts on The Island
Without spoilers, I'll say that The Island is a solid C+. It neither really shines nor becomes screamingly offensively bad. It has some cute little character scenes featuring some good character actors. I *liked* Ewan McGregor in this, though Scarlett Johanssen isn't given a lot to work with, sadly, given the girl *can* act.
This movie borrows from a lot of very classic sci-fi, including slightly more obscure stuff (e.g. Capricorn One's 'space suits in the desert' scene).
That said, please, someone, make a Paranoia movie. That's the Paranoia RPG from West End Games. Yep, you heard, correctly, Citizen. Please please please. Lets see a movie skewer dystopias, the War On Terror (for 'Communists', read 'Terrorists'), mad computers, cloning, and all the movies that have come out lately and hooked into these threads in the community conciousness in a straight-faced and, frankly, predictable and depressing way.
I would LOVE to see that.
Times like this, you need laughter.
This movie borrows from a lot of very classic sci-fi, including slightly more obscure stuff (e.g. Capricorn One's 'space suits in the desert' scene).
That said, please, someone, make a Paranoia movie. That's the Paranoia RPG from West End Games. Yep, you heard, correctly, Citizen. Please please please. Lets see a movie skewer dystopias, the War On Terror (for 'Communists', read 'Terrorists'), mad computers, cloning, and all the movies that have come out lately and hooked into these threads in the community conciousness in a straight-faced and, frankly, predictable and depressing way.
I would LOVE to see that.
Times like this, you need laughter.
Bluetooth Follies
Replaced my Belkin Bt adapter with a special D-Link adapter ordered from Apple, as the DBT-120 is NOT the same as the DBT-122.
The DBT-120 has a CSR chipset which is supported by the Apple bluetooth firmware update, the DBT-122 has the more common Widcomm chips so it is *not*.
The Belkin adaptor technically worked, and still does, but it was always a little flaky and used to choke my Bt keyboard and mouse connections when I tried to run iSync.
This plug is also made for PC, but obviously doesn't ship in this box.
The DBT-120 has a CSR chipset which is supported by the Apple bluetooth firmware update, the DBT-122 has the more common Widcomm chips so it is *not*.
The Belkin adaptor technically worked, and still does, but it was always a little flaky and used to choke my Bt keyboard and mouse connections when I tried to run iSync.
This plug is also made for PC, but obviously doesn't ship in this box.
27.6.05
Back to Orkut
Out of curiousity, I'm finding myself logging back into Orkut (Orkut? That thing *still* around?) to check out what's up, who's live, who's not.
I'm pruning my groups list. If 80% of conversation is in a language I don't speak, if my association with the group is either not representative of reality (*cough*DomainsRUs*cough*) or really quite funny (St Augustines Alumni?), it's gone. GONE baby.
I sort of hope the first wave of internet locusts have moved on from Orkut and the servers now stay up.
Pictured is the Hudsons on Elizabeth Street, it is comfy and that corner is ideal for controlling your Internet Empire from a laptop. Except for the Optus bill I guess.
I'm pruning my groups list. If 80% of conversation is in a language I don't speak, if my association with the group is either not representative of reality (*cough*DomainsRUs*cough*) or really quite funny (St Augustines Alumni?), it's gone. GONE baby.
I sort of hope the first wave of internet locusts have moved on from Orkut and the servers now stay up.
Pictured is the Hudsons on Elizabeth Street, it is comfy and that corner is ideal for controlling your Internet Empire from a laptop. Except for the Optus bill I guess.
19.6.05
X&Y
Today's Earworm- Coldplay X&Y, White Shadows
Ok there's been an awful lot of things going on since last post.
I've got Coldplay's X&Y, and it is better than the Foo Fighter's 'In Your Honor' for getting stuck in my head, at least at the moment.
Square One, White Shadows, Talk, Low and Twisted Logic are my current favorites, but the others on the CD could grow on me sooner or later. X&Y picks up geek points for its use of made-up code on the CD booklet. Figuring out what the graphic on the back page of the CD booklet said made my train trip a bit more interesting (downside of iPods, no instant gratification on new CD purchases).
The Foo Fighters new CD is *good*, but nothing's really standing out at the moment. It might grow on me later. I should mention I like the acoustic CD more than the other CD.
Today's the first day I've really felt better after having a bad cold for a good week at least. I dragged my carcass in every day until Friday when I had to admit defeat to laryngitis and a pickaxe of a sinus headache. I couldn't do much except watch tv. That's nowhere near as fun as it sounds. If I tried working on my laptop the stabby sick headache would get worse. I couldn't believe how bad it was, all the way up to throwing up once. I was really irrational and upset with D for not being there the whole time, you know, for being out selfishly getting groceries for the both of us rather than holding my hair back or ferrying ibuprofen. Its hard to whine with your vocal cords in wet cement, though. I guess it's funny in retrospect.
I'm about 95% better now, better than I've been for at least the past week. I have a 7am shift start so my circadian rhythms are going to be a little out of whack. At least the afternoons are free for shopping ^H^H^H^H studying so I can get further up the ladder.
Oh yeah. MacTel. I'm over that. I think. I fully expect post-Longhorn WinOSen to run on PowerPC arch. You heard this baseless spec here first! I'm looking forward to badass new PowerBooks, which I'm *almost* tempted to start saving for now.
Ok there's been an awful lot of things going on since last post.
I've got Coldplay's X&Y, and it is better than the Foo Fighter's 'In Your Honor' for getting stuck in my head, at least at the moment.
Square One, White Shadows, Talk, Low and Twisted Logic are my current favorites, but the others on the CD could grow on me sooner or later. X&Y picks up geek points for its use of made-up code on the CD booklet. Figuring out what the graphic on the back page of the CD booklet said made my train trip a bit more interesting (downside of iPods, no instant gratification on new CD purchases).
The Foo Fighters new CD is *good*, but nothing's really standing out at the moment. It might grow on me later. I should mention I like the acoustic CD more than the other CD.
Today's the first day I've really felt better after having a bad cold for a good week at least. I dragged my carcass in every day until Friday when I had to admit defeat to laryngitis and a pickaxe of a sinus headache. I couldn't do much except watch tv. That's nowhere near as fun as it sounds. If I tried working on my laptop the stabby sick headache would get worse. I couldn't believe how bad it was, all the way up to throwing up once. I was really irrational and upset with D for not being there the whole time, you know, for being out selfishly getting groceries for the both of us rather than holding my hair back or ferrying ibuprofen. Its hard to whine with your vocal cords in wet cement, though. I guess it's funny in retrospect.
I'm about 95% better now, better than I've been for at least the past week. I have a 7am shift start so my circadian rhythms are going to be a little out of whack. At least the afternoons are free for shopping ^H^H^H^H studying so I can get further up the ladder.
Oh yeah. MacTel. I'm over that. I think. I fully expect post-Longhorn WinOSen to run on PowerPC arch. You heard this baseless spec here first! I'm looking forward to badass new PowerBooks, which I'm *almost* tempted to start saving for now.
1.6.05
Train Wreck
Today's Earworm- Technologic by Daft Punk
Today was the sort of day that leaves you really reconsidering your work/life balance. It began with all kinds of human-error transport issues. I started the ball rolling by forgetting my train ticket. I also managed, in the rush, to punch in the wrong ticket zone, but, fortunately the ticket inspectors were fairly forgiving of that.
Train (#2, #1 having departed whilst i searched for my ticket and fumbled with the machine) serenely cruised onto the platform slightly late.
Escaping from Flagstaff, the screen on the tram terminal assured me that the next tram was going to arrive in 20 minutes. *Delightful*. That blew away any buffer time I had. Also, as a footnote, the screens belong to a firm I had a fairly excruciating sysadmin/support interview with a few months ago, followed by deafening email silence. It was the sort of morning to be thinking of that sort of thing. Nobody is ever going to give me a break.
Have you any idea how hard it is to flag down a cab in the Melbourne CBD of a morning? Now I do. The tram arrived just as I managed to flag one down with the assistance of another cab that was waiting for a fare. The cab driver was great. Couldn't fault him. Traffic abysmal. Got to work, had to hit the phones right away, there's difficult paperwork I have to complete (late), there's a uni assignment I should have handed in (also late), the stress of managing my own panic at not knowing nearly enough answers yet, by 3:30 I'm vibrating with stress and I can't picture making it to the end of the day, let alone however long one normally stays in this sort of role.
I collapsed earlier on this evening but now I'm too tired to sleep and I don't know how I'll get through this week.
My job is somewhat less than ideal for my personality. Actually my personality is only ideally suited to ordering about a few personal slaves while I read trashy books on a remote beach. But its where I am for now. Any energy I have for bettering my circumstances has to come from outside work. I have to recharge my batteries by remembering to lead a meaningful life outside of work, remembering my friends, my home life, my interests and my dreams, because despite being a geek *I will not find meaning at work*. Not being a tiny cog in someone else's machinery. And I've been guilty of only sleeping and working and wondering why I haven't got anything else going on in my life and feeling downhearted and overwhelmed. Can't recharge the batteries on 24 hours a day stressing about career.
By de-prioritising work in my realm of things, it will take the pressure off me to be good enough, and maybe I'll get better at it? Maybe with enough energy left over for my other projects, maybe that will open more doors, even live off those in future?
Today was the sort of day that leaves you really reconsidering your work/life balance. It began with all kinds of human-error transport issues. I started the ball rolling by forgetting my train ticket. I also managed, in the rush, to punch in the wrong ticket zone, but, fortunately the ticket inspectors were fairly forgiving of that.
Train (#2, #1 having departed whilst i searched for my ticket and fumbled with the machine) serenely cruised onto the platform slightly late.
Escaping from Flagstaff, the screen on the tram terminal assured me that the next tram was going to arrive in 20 minutes. *Delightful*. That blew away any buffer time I had. Also, as a footnote, the screens belong to a firm I had a fairly excruciating sysadmin/support interview with a few months ago, followed by deafening email silence. It was the sort of morning to be thinking of that sort of thing. Nobody is ever going to give me a break.
Have you any idea how hard it is to flag down a cab in the Melbourne CBD of a morning? Now I do. The tram arrived just as I managed to flag one down with the assistance of another cab that was waiting for a fare. The cab driver was great. Couldn't fault him. Traffic abysmal. Got to work, had to hit the phones right away, there's difficult paperwork I have to complete (late), there's a uni assignment I should have handed in (also late), the stress of managing my own panic at not knowing nearly enough answers yet, by 3:30 I'm vibrating with stress and I can't picture making it to the end of the day, let alone however long one normally stays in this sort of role.
I collapsed earlier on this evening but now I'm too tired to sleep and I don't know how I'll get through this week.
My job is somewhat less than ideal for my personality. Actually my personality is only ideally suited to ordering about a few personal slaves while I read trashy books on a remote beach. But its where I am for now. Any energy I have for bettering my circumstances has to come from outside work. I have to recharge my batteries by remembering to lead a meaningful life outside of work, remembering my friends, my home life, my interests and my dreams, because despite being a geek *I will not find meaning at work*. Not being a tiny cog in someone else's machinery. And I've been guilty of only sleeping and working and wondering why I haven't got anything else going on in my life and feeling downhearted and overwhelmed. Can't recharge the batteries on 24 hours a day stressing about career.
By de-prioritising work in my realm of things, it will take the pressure off me to be good enough, and maybe I'll get better at it? Maybe with enough energy left over for my other projects, maybe that will open more doors, even live off those in future?
The pink sector of technology
Wellll.... weekend before last I did some shopping on Glenferrie Rd. There's a decent sized Mac store there. Check out the giant Wacom Cintiq if you go there. OMG. If I was any sort of real artist I'd dream of nothing but owning one. Also, cinema displays, iPod paraphenalia, and SpeedBalls (pictured) to lift my iBook's butt off the desk and allow better circulation. I dunno if it helps the iBook run cooler, but they are fun to play with.
There's a computer store there too, which looks less like a store and more as if a tilt-tray truckload of boxed computer bits was avalanched into an empty shopfront. More fun are two local yum-cha computer stores (by local, I mean 'near $newwork'). Western computer manufacturers (other than Apple) don't really understand why squishy wrist rests shaped like koala bears, pink-scarfed girl penguin screen chamois, or any other pink or pastel peripherals are cool.
I don't think that gadgets should *only* be marketed to women in pink, but I like the option being there.
There's a computer store there too, which looks less like a store and more as if a tilt-tray truckload of boxed computer bits was avalanched into an empty shopfront. More fun are two local yum-cha computer stores (by local, I mean 'near $newwork'). Western computer manufacturers (other than Apple) don't really understand why squishy wrist rests shaped like koala bears, pink-scarfed girl penguin screen chamois, or any other pink or pastel peripherals are cool.
I don't think that gadgets should *only* be marketed to women in pink, but I like the option being there.
13.5.05
New cast sketch
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.
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.
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