October 2004 Archives

The Doctor Who logo for the new Chris Eccleston series was revealed today. Do we like it?

Sure, why not? Very new-SF and shiny

The desktop-sized version shows more detail. Just what are the strange cylindrical structures behind the CTO and WH?

Things I've noted while reinstalling Windows:

1. The process is far more painful than it should be. The biggest problem is, of course, every piece of hardware needing software drivers. Plug and Play never really did work...
2. More software needs to keep its settings somewhere other than the registry. I discovered that FireFox must do, because reinstalling Windows wiped out all the settings, extensions and bookmarks. This added extra hassle to an already annoying procedure. In contrast, software like Pegasus runs without me having to reinstall or reconfigure it. This Is Nice. (Of course, even FireFox's way is better than IE, where I have to download the browser all over again.)
3. Downloading 40 different critical updates is stupid. Microsoft should package them all as one, and update the critical update package every time they issue a new update. Update.

Am currently installing DirectX 9.0c so I can have some games working again. Apple's range of computers is becoming more and more attractive.

Addendum: Am now downloading MSN Messenger, which brings up two more good points: (a) 6.7MB is way too big for an instant message program. (b) "setup9x.exe" is a dumb name for an installer. In three weeks, how will I know what application it's for?

Moby reports he's finishing his latest albums to be released next March. I have no idea what single he's talking about there though...

New Zealand can no longer feel superior to the US regarding the bungling of elections. The recent local body elections here have been well and truly screwed because the computers counting the votes somehow "lost" a good portion of them, throwing the results into doubt.

Florida, eat your heart out.

On BlogShares, this weblog got voted into the sarcasm industry. I was surprised and mystified - I didn't think any of my previous entries had been significantly sarcastic.

I ordered a couple of copies of the DVD of Greg the Bunny from Amazon a couple of days ago. GtB is a brilliant series which was cancelled after only a handful of episodes. It's currently screening here on TV3 late on Monday night.

Although Amazon says the DVD is supposed to be released on the 19th, I got an email today saying it had been shipped. It must have come out early or something. Cool, anyway. When it gets here, I intend to make some GtB LiveJournal icons.

I also bought the two Matrix sequels on DVD today (for $20 a piece. Niiiiice) bringing my total DVD count to Too Damn Many.

As I've mentioned before, I've been having trouble with Paradise's proxy server in that it tends to serve up old versions of documents from tetrap.com without consulting the server. I discovered today that you can prevent this by setting a header when the web server sends the page out. By setting the "Cache-Control" header to "proxy-revalidate", you instruct the proxy server to always recheck the server to see if there's a new version.

Setting this for the NZDWFC message board was trivial. Since it's a CGI script, I just had it write "Cache-Control: private, proxy-revalidate" as one of the headers. (The private argument specifies that the proxy server should not return a copy it cached for one user to a second user. This is essential if you do any sort of personalisation.)

However I wanted to set the header on the NZDWFC index page as well. Here's where it gets tricky. To set the "Cache-Control" header for the index document, I'd have to use the Header directive in my .htaccess file. Unfortunately when I attempted this, it broke the site. I suspect this may mean that the server is not compiled with mod_headers, which it would need to be in order for me to use the Header directive...

I've dropped a question in on the HostForWeb forums to find out if mod_headers is compiled in or not. If it turns out it is, I'm probably just doing something wrong. :) If not, I'll have to find another solution.

Mr. Rogers' Ghost Terrorizing Children, courtesy the Weekly World News.

"His ghost is the same as he was in life -- sweet, friendly, soft-spoken -- but when you're a floating, transparent wraith, the effect is totally different. Saying 'Howdy, neighbor' and 'Can you say "death"? ' to a five-year-old when you're a spirit is terrifying to them. Children have been freaking out," says Specter.

A workmate 'o mine stumbled on this software called SBaGen which uses your computer's soundcard to generate Sequenced Binaural Beats. From one of the accompanying text files:

The basic idea of binaural beats is that by applying slightly different frequency sine waves to the two ears, a beating affect is created in the brain itself, due to the internal wiring of the brain. If, in the presence of these tones, you relax and let your mind go, your mind will naturally synchronize with the beat frequency. In this way it is possible to accurately lead the brain to various states, according to the frequencies that you apply.

Groovy.

The radio at work keeps playing the Maroon 5 song "She Will Be Loved". Apparently they find it necessary to play this song at least once an hour, as it seems every time I finish listening to one of my own CDs, the radio is playing the same damn song.

Is there a dearth of songs, perhaps? Decades of pop music, millions of songs to choose from, and the radio is stuck playing the same group of songs hour after hour?

This is why I stopped listening to the radio. That and the fact that all the advertising and DJ chatter meant that you got maybe three songs in a given half-hour period.

Sony abandons copy-protected CDs

Sony Music Entertainment said it would stop producing the CDs because its message against illegal duplication has widely sunk in.

I am happy I'll be able to buy Sony CDs online without the fear it'll turn up and be unplayable. Hopefully the other music companies will do likewise.