Posts from 2004
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Blog software without a database?
The other half has decided she wants her own blog. So I've been looking around for some blogging software she can use. Blosxom is all well and good for geeks like me, but she needs something that does…
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pred.txt arrived
I just got my copy of pred.txt, the book form of the collected writings and rantings by pivotal C@talyst hardware geek <predator> who died this year and will be sorely missed. The book collects his va…
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Omega by Jack McDevitt
Just finished his book. It's a great sci-fi novel in the post-space opera vein. The story is quite understated, but involving. Drags you in but isn't an adrenaline rush. Basic story is this: A future…
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DVD rental gold rush
There's currently something of a gold rush mentality going on with the DVD rental companies here in the UK. Dozens of them have sprung up in the last few months and they're all trying to get your busi…
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Lazy-arse tube drivers
Tube drivers on the Picadilly Line are on strike today. Apparently they're upset because one of the drivers was demoted for running through four red signals. These bastards, with their £35,000 salarie…
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Music on wheels
Finally got my little radio transmitter sending Minidisc music to the radio on the handlebars of my bike. Now I don't have to be subjected to the horrors of British breakfast radio (where every DJ is…
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Hawkshead are spammers
I ordered from this company once. Fortunately I used a Sneakemail address so I can delete it. Postal spam isn't going to be so easily solved. In a short time, this email address will start bouncing. R…
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New policy on bands
To avoid ending up like my parents (who recently saw Simon and Garfunkel) I've decided to adopt a new policy. I won't see any bands unless they have put out new material, even crap new material, withi…
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London Perl Workshop
I went to the London Perl Workshop on Saturday. It was very good and I learnt a lot. The "Gimmes" session taught me a few things that were useful. The session on sort was very useful, as I've never re…
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Network Solutions suck!
Yes I know I know, I should have moved registrars when Network Solutions lost their monopoly on.com,.org and.net domains. I didn't get around to it. Certainly should have done it when they hijacked th…
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Nick Cave and frapaccinos
Just listening to Nick Cave's latest album, Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus and there's a great line in "Abattoir Blues": I woke up this morning, with a frapacinno in my hand. Oh dear. Nick has b…
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MPD is great!
I finally got sick of xmms being so flaky and installed mpd which was discussed on gllug recently. It's brilliant! In the Unix tradition, it is a collection of small tools that do one thing well, and…
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Weird foreign-language forums
I seem to be getting a huge number of hits to my photo of a jar of snake wine from our trip to Vietnam. Sure enough, if you look on a Google image search, it shows up on the first page of results. Not…
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Tourist Engineer goes global
My hacker tourist site now supports latitude and longitude for any location on the planet. Thanks to the geniuses at Openguides, the software handles it instead of the former British National Grid, wh…
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Finally booked skiing
I've finally booked our ski trip. Staying at this apartment in Vallandry. Eurostar to get there. Can't wait! And there's already snow!
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New PDA
I just bought an Ipaq 5450 off a gadget-mad colleague. Nice little piece of kit. Most importantly, it has built-in wireless and expansion memory slot, which was the big problem with the old Ipaq I had…
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Nut brown ale
Just brewed up a Munton's Nut Brown Ale kit. Added 200g pale malt, 900g dark malt and boiled a handful of the cheap, crappy Fuggles hops for a while. Should be good. Following a successful brew, I cra…
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Guantanamo Baywatch
Just went and saw Guantanamo Baywatch, one of the trilogy by the same writer as The Madness of George Dubya. That hysterical counted as the funniest live comedy I've ever seen. Baywatch was good too,…
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Snowboarding in Slovenia
I'm in the process of booking a week of skiing at Kranjska Gora in Slovenia for next February. Managed to convince Holly to come at last, so we're both going to learn to snowboard. There will be eight…
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Juniper?
Anyone know where to get juniper berries? We're off to Scotland this weekend with a bunch of friends. We'll be cooking up eight pounds of venison and the recipe calls for juniper berries...
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New edition of McGee's On Food and Cooking
A new edition of Harold McGee's amazing book On Food and Cooking has been released. The original book is an amazingly detailed and interesting look at how food and cooking works from a scientific poin…
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Lions: 1, Christians: 0
Who says Darwin got it wrong?
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Dance music is dead?
Interesting article in today's Grauniad about the death of dance music. Is it dead, or just going back underground?
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British radio sucks!
I bought one of these handlebar-mounted radios from eBay recently. It arrived yesterday and I listened to XFM on the way into work this morning. Over my 35 minute commute they played three songs and s…
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Another Belgian Wit
I brewed up another Belgian Wit kit on Monday night, this time a Brewferm Tarwebier. I didn't add any orange peel or coriander this time, just to see, and used only glucose. We'll see how it goes. I t…
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New public key
I have a new public key for anyone wanting to contact me. Impetus for getting this was Rob Kaper coming to the wilds of NW London to exchange signatures with Steve and I.
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Wheat beer and IPA
Just bottled my exceptionally bitter IPA. Brewed from a Coopers IPA kit and it's certainly damn bitter. Should be nice when it's ready. Also just cracked into my Belgian Wit which I thought was going…
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What a lovely area!
My work is in such a delightful area. Apparently there was a shooting just outside the office last night around 1800. This morning I get to work to find Police and Fire Brigade around the building bec…
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John Peel RIP
The only good DJ left on Radio 1, John Peel, has died. A very sad day for all music fans. This man has broken more new bands, giving them their big break, than probably any other. His incredibly broad…
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Cider making weekend
Over the weekend, Scott and I went cider making in the Forest of Dean. Was a great weekend away in beautiful countryside and we learnt the pleasures of making traditional cider. We also got to bring b…
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Bloody hell my foot!
I seem to have injured my foot. Possibly a stress fracture, according to the quacks. Hurts like buggery ("Nothing hurts like buggery" - Doug Anthony All Stars) and was throbbing all night. I'm off to…
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Now part of Openguides
My geek tourist site now has an Openguides address: engineer.openguides.org.
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Not lovin it
What part of no junk mail were you having trouble with, McDonald's?
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Suck-in-your-cheeks bitter!
Put the Coopers IPA in the bucket yesterday. I boiled up a huge couple of handfuls of Fuggles hops for half an hour to try and get a bit more bite in. Fuggles is, supposedly, an aroma hop and I got th…
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Reminder why I'm in a different country
Well, apart from this, anyway. I just spotted this out the back window of our flat. As you can see, autumn is well under way and the squirrels are gathering their supplies.
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Snowdon
A couple of weeks ago, Andrew Allen took us up to Snowdonia to climb Mount Snowdon. Of course, being Andy, the nice easy tourist walk wasn't dangerous enough and he convinced us to climb the hardest c…
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Coopers IPA
Just doing my water treatment (boil it all, nothing more) and yeast starter for my next brew, a Coopers India Pale Ale which I'll brew up tomorrow. Will make according to directions with 1kg glucose f…
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Geek travel guide
My latest project is a geek travel guide. It's currently kinda limited to the UK because the Openguides software doesn't quite handle coordinates outside the UK, well not in an ideal way. The idea is…
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Warm glove time
I switched to full-finger gloves on the bike today. Had the heading on briefly last night too. We all know what that means! cold weather here we come!
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Chilling effect...
I've been thinking about the election result this morning. It's very depressing, but has to be done. If Howard's agenda with control of the whole parliament is as radical as I would expect, things cou…
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Emigrate
Need I say more?
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Are Australians this fucking stupid?
It's crunch time. The election is on tomorrow and I'll know by London lunchtime whether Australians have goldfish memory. The result also has a very big bearing on whether I head home to Australia in…
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Xmas beer in the bucket
After quite a long break over the Summer, I've finally started brewing again. On Monday night I put a Woodeforde's Wherry all malt kit on. I'm gonna keg this one and have it for xmas day at Rachel's p…
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Joke of the campaign?
Bob Brown, to the news that logging trucks were going to blockade Launceston in support of the PM on forestry: "This is the axles of evil on show".
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Shock: Pot calls kettle black
A beautiful quote from Howard in this article about Labor's long-awaited Tasmanian forests policy. " It's a grubby preference deal " which is pretty amusing coming from the party that is preferencing…
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Ouch! Snowdon
Holly and I went hiking in Snowdonia over the weekend with Andrew Allen and one of his mates. Andy, being the gung-ho type, insisted on doing the hardest route via Crib Goch which was more a rock clim…
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Fame at last!
I'm now, clearly, super-famous in blogistan. W00t!
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Bookmark manager solution?
Steve points out an interesting use of Firefox's new "Live Bookmark" feature. Point it at the RSS of your del.icio.us account and you've got instant synchronised bookmarks. This is a problem I've talk…
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Liberal attack-dogs in London too
My, isn't this a surprisingly on-message letter to the The Australian Times from one "Cameron Reynolds"
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This movie doesn't want to be seen
We keep trying to see Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut and being foiled. A week ago we tried to see it at The Other Cinema only to be foiled by the person I spoke to giving me the wrong time. Then we…
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London Open House
On Saturday Holly and I went to see some buildings as part of the London Open House thing. For one weekend each year, buildings, or parts of buildings, that are normally closed are open to the public.…
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Server is back
Craig has left his job at an ISP and so his server, where this site has resided for about eight years, went off the air. Back on now, on my own server in the US.
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Thin client
I recently bought an IBM thin client machine on eBay. Very nice piece of kit. The plan is to stick the jet engine-sounding machine in a cupboard and use the thin client as the actual desktop. Depends…
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Satellite navigation for bikes?
Yesterdays ride ended up about 120km. My legs are very very tired, but it was a good ride. Good preparation for our big ride in a couple of weeks too. Gonna be a few days around that distance! Part of…
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Summary Offences revistied
An email on the Critical Mass Sydney email list brought a court case involving the NSW Summary Offences Act to my attention. My last clash with this insidious piece of legislation was when organising…
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Now I see why it's called "unstable"
I run Debian unstable, because I like life to be exciting and want the latest stuff. This isn't without its problems, though... Today, during an apt-get upgrade, the upgrade of libc6 somehow broke eve…
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Caught in Blogistan's spotlight
Seeing my logs scroll past, it looks like my Circle Line Party photos have been a hit in Blogistan. Loads of hits there, when all I did was stick 'em up, stick 'em on my blog and post them to the Circ…
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Bunch of new photos
Got a bunch of new photos up. This new camera sure takes beautiful pics! Visit to Utrecht to visit Mani and Joachim. Bike ride to Eastbourne as part of training for our big ride up in the North of Eng…
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Dark wheat beer
This week the Great British Beer Festival has been on at Olympia, which is very close to our house. I think my favourite has been the dark German wheat beer I had last night. Delicious! Might see if I…
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Canadian blonde bottled
I bottled the Canadian Blonde last night. Should be a nice, light beer with loads of hop aroma. I bottled with 100g glucose priming and a handful of Fuggles hops boiled in for a few minutes. Tasted pr…
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Where's my fridge magnet?
Looks like the UK is finally getting a propaganda booklet about terrorism and emergencies. As usual, the poms are years behind everyone else. What's more, it doesn't sound like it's going to be a frid…
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New photos
Phew. Mammoth photo upload session and here they are. Memorial ride for James Visit to Sam, Stu and Alfie in Leicester Birthday drinks last week
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Summer?
So has summer finally arrived? BBC weather forecast has five days of sunshine. First time I've seen that in a long time! We're going cycling on Saturday, so some sun would be good!
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Is Latham also a suckhole?
So now Mr Latham is trying to prove he's not beholden to US policy. So where's the condemnation of Howard voting the US policy line with esteemed suckhole company of Marshall Islands, Micronesia and P…
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Alternative to allmusic.com?
I've used allmusic.com to find out information about musicians, albums and songs for years. It's always been a clunky, slow web site. The most annoying thing was that they used Javascript instead of a…
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Wow that was quick!
I brewed a Coopers Canadian Blonde kit on Sunday night with 500g glucose and 500g pale malt. This morning the yeast foam was all gone and I was worried something was wrong, so I chucked in another dry…
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Seems I do have a vote
Spoke to a very helpful woman at the AEC and it turns out Holly and I are enrolled to vote, just not at the address we expected. I'm sure we enrolled and registered as overseas voters from my parents'…
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Asian food madness
Yesterday Holly, Kev, Marg and I went out to Oriental City in Colindale. This is a huge asian (or, as they say here "oriental") food complex with a massive multicultural supermarket, food court and sh…
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Wit bottled, Canadian blonde on the way
I bottled the Belgian Wit yesterday. It's tasting great already, and can only get better. I must have messed up my measurements of the original and final gravity, as they make no sense. Either that or…
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I've been Florida-ed
I just checked on the AEC web site and it seems I've been dropped off the electoral roll in Australia. This is despite the fact that I registered as an overseas elector before we left the country. I h…
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Belgian wit in the bucket
Over the weekend I made up a Hoegaarden-style belgian wit ale, in the style of Graeme's fabulous recipe, the results of which tried while we were in Oz. Muntons Connoisseur wheat beer kit 1kg light ma…
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Back home
Well we're back home. I'm waiting for Holly to finish in the shower so I can get clean, at last. Sad thing is, I have to go to another gig tonight. I booked tickets for Tortoise without realising it w…
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Glastoblog
Orbital. Oh yeah! -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender directly by using the phone number listed i…
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Glastoblog
Rainbow during Supergrass. -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender directly by using the phone number…
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Glastoblog
James Brown, after a downpour. -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender directly by using the phone nu…
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Glastoblog
Mud! Sun's out though. -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender directly by using the phone number lis…
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Glastoblog
The sun comes out. Briefly. -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender directly by using the phone numbe…
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Glastoblog
The Flying Elvises -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender directly by using the phone number listed…
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Glastoblog
Flags near the jazz stage. Hey if you're looking at these, send of a text. -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or pho…
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Glastoblog
Spearhead through the rain. -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender directly by using the phone numbe…
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Glastoblog
Mmmud. Watching Spearhead again. Good antidote to the rain. -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender d…
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Glastoblog
Yep. Rain and mud. We've got wellies though, so no disaster. -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender…
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Glastoblog
The Glade, just after Infusion's set. Very good. -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender directly by…
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Glastoblog
Goldfrapp. Best act I've seen yet. Amazing! -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender directly by using…
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Glastoblog
Franz ferdinand -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender directly by using the phone number listed in…
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Glastoblog
Sun is shining. Hard to believe tomorrow's forecast is heavy rain. Let's hope they're wrong. -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply,…
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Glastoblog
Stilt walker. -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender directly by using the phone number listed in th…
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Glastoblog
Holly in festival mode. -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender directly by using the phone number li…
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Glastoblog
Jazz Stage -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender directly by using the phone number listed in the s…
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Glastoblog
First band. Bright Eyes. Bit of a sombre start but this guy is a great songwriter. -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please tex…
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Glastoblog
BBQ breakfast. Yum! -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender directly by using the phone number listed…
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Glastoblog
Here at last. It's really crowded in the camping area already! -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sende…
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Glastoblog
Stonehenge from the bus on the way to Glastonbury. -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender directly b…
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Glastoblog
On our way! Soon as National Express get their shit together. -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender…
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Glastoblog
Our camp site. Photo from Scott. -- This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS phone. If you would like to reply, please text or phone the sender directly by using the phone…
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Orbital - The Blue Album
Orbital's new, and last album, The Blue Album has hit the stores. It's pretty damn good! Mixing the sounds of many of their earlier albums, particularly some of the ravier sounds of the Brown Album. H…
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Glastoblog
This will be my Glastonbury moblog. The weather has improved enormously, though it's still going to rain on Saturday but the forecast is down to 10mm from the 20mm they were predicting yesterday. We'r…
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Build an ark?
We're off to Glastonbury tomorrow night but the weather looks, erm, dicey. English Summer and all, I guess. It's been raining all day today but should clear up tomorrow. The big worry, however, is the…
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Election night television coverage
I don't normally pass these things on, but this is a classic. Forwarded from a friend... The Sydney Morning Herald's Monday "TV Guide" has a section devoted to home entertainment with a Q&A column whe…
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Brewing again
I finally got all my brewing kit over to our new pad (thanks Jamie!) so I can start brewing again. Last night I got the first batch underway. A Cooper's Brewmaster Pilsener kit. Nothing fancy in the m…
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These train prices are crazy
I just went and booked £500 worth of travel for the future. We're doing a fair bit of moving about this Summer. Heading to Utrecht to visit Mani and Joachim, Leicester to visit Sam, Stu and Alfie, Gla…
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Silent Running
Got my bike serviced yesterday ( Mend-A-Bike in Fulham, very good) and oh what a joy it is now. All I hear is the wind whistling through my ears, which makes a change from the grind-crunch it's been m…
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Peter Garrett sell-out watch episode 1
Peter Garrett has already sold out on one of his main principles. He now doesn't want to see Pine Gap shut down, which puts him in line with ALP policy but puts him a long way from his own Nuclear Dis…
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Peter, what are you thinking?
Peter Garrett, WTF are you thinking? I can just see the thought process here: "I'll change them from within". Poor, deluded fool! The ALP is a single-minded organisation. They have one aim: to get int…
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Predator has left the building...
My good friend and partner in activist geekery, <predator>, died over the weekend. He had been battling it out with cancer for some months. The world, and Sydney's activist community in particular, ha…
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Glastonbury tickets!
Our Glastonbury tickets just arrived. Wahoo! So getting up at 5am in Sydney to buy the tickets was worth the effort.
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Bush invokes Godwin's Law
Well it looks like Bush has invoked Godwin's Law in the debate on the fight about terror. Application of Godwin's Law means that he has, of course, lost the argument.
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Moved house...
We've moved into our new pad in Barons Court. Very nice place! Lots of sunlight in the lounge room and both rooms are very big. Now waiting on Ikea and their crap delivery service so we can get the re…
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Stock options are worth something?
Wow, apparently my work's stock is worth something, which means my stock options are actually worth something. Well, there's a first time for everything! Must be time to buy into Bubble Goo again.
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Ljubljana again
Well I'm in Ljubljana again for work. It's been a bit less stressful than last time, and we're making progress on the work. Tonight I caught up with one of the girls I met with my colleage Jen last ti…
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Orbital to break up
According to their web site, Orbital are breaking up after the next album. Fortunately, their last UK gig is at Glastonbury for which I have tickets...
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Photos from our trip
Photos from our trip to Sydney are now online. Loads of photos of friends and places. When we move into our new place and I get all set up, I'll scan in the photo of us on top of the Sydney Harbour Br…
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Ahhh Kooky
Three and a half years ago, Holly and I spent our last night out in Sydney at Club Kooky. All this time on, and it's gone through moving location, stopping for a time and now it's back at Club 77. I w…
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Anti-semitism on the rise in Europe?
There have been recent press reports about an unreleased report on anti-semitism in Europe claiming it is on the rise. I'm not sure it every went away. On that note, you may have been on the receiving…
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Back in London
Well we just arrived back in London. I'm surfing the jetlag express. Oh what fun! Pretty soon, I'll be hallucinating, no doubt. Just as soon as I finish chatting to the purple numbat sitting on my mon…
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Beds are Burning?
They say travel broadens the mind. Well I guess it does. Tonight I was reminded that the horrors of BBC Radio 1 are nothing compared to the pain of Eurotrash radio stations. Sitting in a pizza joint i…
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Critical Mass rides again
Wow what a ride! That's right I'm talking about the monthly Critical Mass rides in Sydney. Every last Friday of the month, hundreds and even thousands of cyclists head for Hyde Park and ride around th…
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Got twee indie pop?
Deerhoof, a band that fans of twee indie pop will love, Shonen Knife fans especially, are playing in London next week. Check out this song if you wanna hear what they're like.
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Hiking the Ridgeway
Holly and I went hiking along The Ridgeway over the long weekend. Looking at that map, we started at Avebury and climbed the ridge, then kept going for three days. We ended up at Wantage. A great thre…
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Hue and on to Hanoi
Not much to report. We spent the day on the bus from Hoi An to Hue. It's still raining (sounding like a scratched record). Tomorrow we'll try and get onto a boat ride on the Perfume River to see the t…
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Kraftwerk
I saw Kraftwerk play at the Brixton Academy on Saturday night. It was a midnight show and they played for about two hours. Wow! Absolutely amazing. This is a band I've wanted to see for many many year…
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Ljubuljana and cross-country skiing
I'm sitting in my hotel room nursing a beer (they stop selling take away beers at 9pm, so it's a minibar one that will have to be replaced before the maid gets here and counts them) and revelling in a…
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More spam Dada poetry
This one made the mistake of mentioning the word "Viagra", which means a quick trip to the junk bin. However, the attempt to get around the Bayesian filters is amusing. urban centres with stable and p…
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Psychisation
Psychisation n - the sudden realisation that the person with whom you are conversing is a bunny-boiling psycho.
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Put it back in the ground!
"History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exchausted all other alternatives." - Abba Eban The great news is that ERA have abandoned the Jabiluka mine in possibly the most i…
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Some new photos
My parents have been in town, though they're heading back to Sydney tonight. We've been out and about a lot, including a week in France and a weekend in Norfolk. This weekend we spent in London. Yeste…
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Spammers discover Dada poetry
My good friend, Furlough S. Megabytes, just sent me a wonderfully bizarre poetry with Subject: chlorates aweless bescrape chamois. This was quickly followed by my old mate Grudging T. Creamiest with S…
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The little red button
I'm sitting in an Internet cafe in Moscow around the corner from Nate and Jen's flat. There's a little red button next to the monitor. If I press it, a waiter comes out and will refill my beer. Moscow…
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The Psychedelicatessen
What's Rangoon to you is Grafton to me is an amazing radio play done by double-J, an Australian youth radio station, in 1978. It's amazing stuff. Check it out here.
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Weekend in Glasgow
I had some frequent flyer points that were about to expire, so we went to Glasgow for the weekend. We had a very nice time in lovely weather, actually warmer than London. The Scottish Riviera? Anyway,…
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Weekend in Norfolk
My folks are in town so we bundled into a hire car early on Saturday morning and headed to Norfolk for the weekend. We finally joined the National Trust and visited a couple of great historic houses,…
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When will Carr make his move?
Recently there's been speculation about Bob Carr making the move to Federal politics in Australia. But when will he make his move? He'll let Crean stumble through the next election, handing another vi…
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Audio Sync and DXR3 Cards FAQ
Version 1.1 4th November, 2002 Getting audio in sync with the dxr3 card can difficult. The problem is that the video decoding can take a different amount of time than outputting the audio. To start wi…
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Beer is coming along
Well if you've been following this, I've been brewing some beer recently. I now have something like 60 litres of beer conditioning, and another 20 litres fermenting at the moment. The first two batche…
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Bread!
I've long harboured an interest in breadmaking. I eat a lot of the stuff and really appreciate the good stuff. When an old flatmate had a bread maker, I was very very happy. I'd always vaguely conside…
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Can you find something more brain damaged?
I'm thinking of getting a driving licence, so I check out this site from the Automobile Association. And they have this little gem of idiocy: Get a £24 discount when you sign up for lessons online. Cl…
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Converting to Maildir
Well I've finally decided to take the plunge. I'm going to convert to Maildir for my mailboxes tonight. The impetus has been Squirrelmail, which Holly uses for her email. It needs an IMAP server and I…
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Email down
By the time we arrived in Oz, my computer seemed to have lost contact with the outside world. The ADSL it's on might have crashed, but who knows. Major pain in the arse. If you're in Sydney, you can c…
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Fantomas playing the Astoria
This is what I love about London: any band that's doing any sort of tour ends up playing a gig here. So in May, Fantomas are playing at the Astoria. Yay! I've wanted to see a Mike Patton band for year…
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Franz Ferdinand
I'd heard about Franz Ferdinand before, but hadn't heard the music. So I got hold of the album and it's excellent! Kinda New Wave in a way, a bit Stranglers or Clash even. Energetic, witty, intelligen…
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Getting sound happening
Oh boy Linux has a ways to go yet when it comes to usability. Try dropping a new piece of hardware into your box and see how easy it is to get it going. Sure it'll be rock solid once you get it workin…
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Globalisation isn't working
I thought globalisation was supposed to mean prices were the same around the world. No more of these ridiculous price inequalities. Well not in electronics, they certainly aren't! I'm looking to a dig…
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Got Glasto tickets
Well here's an example of how not to handle ticket sales for a large, high-profile event. Glastonbury tickets just went on sale, which meant getting up at 5am here in Sydney to start trying. It's now…
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Guess this needs a rewrite
This site has been mostly the same since 1998, at least structurally. It's been tweaked here and there, a few kludges hacked upon, a ghastly colour scheme updated to something more sedate, but never r…
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Hmmm... Blogger eh?
Well all this time I was going to get around to rewriting my random thoughts thingy in PHP3 myself as an exercise in learning. Course life gets too busy for non-work oriented learning. I need to learn…
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Hojicha
Many years ago, my mate Martin introduced me to a Japanese tea style called Hojicha. It's made by roasting the leaves and twigs of the tea plant. The roasting gives it a distinctly nutty flavour, and…
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Homeless?
Well after weeks of dicking us around, the landlord of the flat we intended to move into next weekend has finally given us no option but to not go ahead with it. Every communication with him has seen…
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I fought Easycar and won (for now)
A month or so ago, I tried to hire a car from Easycar. First mistake, of course, with their ridiculous policies and puny (100km/day) mileage allowance. But anyway, I attempted to do it. I use Mozilla…
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Is there some way to sync bookmarks?
I have a simple idea, but I haven't been able to find any software to do it. I have a browser at home and a browser at work. Both are Mozilla Firebird. I want the bookmarks to be the same in both. The…
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Jean Grae: The Bootleg of the Bootleg EP
I've followed the career of Jean Grae since her collaborations with The Herbaliser (as "What What") back in 1997. Since then she's changed names, crews and producers, making her very difficult to trac…
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Kraftwerk at RFH
Turns out, after looking at their site, Kraftwerk are also playing at Royal Festival Hall which means there are cheaper tickets, but seated, available. Not sure which I'll go to. While looking at the…
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Kraftwerk playing Brixton
Ooh! I just discovered that Kraftwerk are playing at the Brixton Academy next March. Yay! I'll definitely be grabbing some tickets.
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Linux aint there yet
Every now and then I get a bit overly excited and proclaim that Linux is 6 months off dominating the desktop. In some ways this could happen, particularly in corporate environments where it's importan…
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Love my mouse
I just started having trouble moving my excellent trackball. Pretty funny because when I pulled the ball out there was so much gumpf around the bearings it rolls on that the ball was having trouble mo…
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Merry Xmas
If you're reading this and I missed you from the mass mailout of our xmas card, I apologise. Here's what you should have received.
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Mmmm. Bandwidth
I love my cable modem. I spend much of the day listening to Dublab on an 80k stream which is interesting. Those of you who've heard me rant will know that I think Internet radio is a stupid idea. The…
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New musical discoveries
I've just discovered some new, and re-discovered some old, music worth passing on. Ellen Allien has been around for years but I've only recently discovered her music. She has an excellent mix on her s…
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Off to Sydney
Holly and I are off to Sydney tomorrow morning for three weeks. If you want to call me, I'll mostly be at my parents place: 02 9879 0308. Should have access to email while I'm there too. Holly's havin…
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Power is back
London can't let New York edge us out for crappiest infrastructure of a so-called modern city. No, we had our own little power outage this evening. I was in the tube but fortunately the power cut out…
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Quicksilver
My copy of Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver arrived last week and I've been reading it. Quite good so far, though not the roller coaster ride that was Snow Crash. Anyway, page 92 appears to abruptly end.…
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Shoe voodoo
Last night I went shoe shopping. I normally buy shoes in outdoor stores. They tend to stock hiking-type shoes which suit my lifestyle, plus I don't wear bright white shoes. Ugh. Anyway, I'm going thro…
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Short term memory loss
I've been thinking about the nature of Microsoft and why they write such crap code. There's been a lot said about their "unique" software processes, but I think there are other factors. It seems incre…
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Spearhead gig
Holly and I went to see Spearhead last night. As usual, an excellent gig. Spearhead are one of the best bands you can see live, but it's kinda hard to recommend their uniformly cheesy and dull albums.…
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Still in Sydney
We're still in Sydney, until Sunday this week anyway. If you haven't managed to catch up with us, get in touch. Probably do drinks in Newtown on Thursday night. I'm actually working in the Sydney offi…
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Summer is here at last
Well it looks like summer has finally hit here in London. It's a beautiful sunny day outside. Last night we slept with all the windows in the house open. Great, except for the annoying fly buzzing aro…
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Sustainable fish consumption?
Recently I've noticed a few guides to the fish you can sustainably eat coming out. There was one for the East coast of Australia recently, though I can't remember the link. This one covers the West co…
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Warp does digital music right
One of my fave record labels, Warp Records has just launched their digital downloadable music site, Bleep. At last, someone has done it right! Have a look at this little exerpt from the EULA: You shal…
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We're moving
We're moving house tonight. It's been a bit of a drama so we're technically homeless for the next month or so. We had found a brilliant place in Baron's Court, but that fell through from the landlord'…
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We've moved
Well it was a very long weekend, but we've managed to move house. We're staying with friends in Blackheath until we're back from Oz when we'll look for our own flat. Computer is off the air until toni…
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Why do web browsers still suck?
Back in 1994 when web browsers were new, we expected a little instability. Hell the operating systems on which they ran were pretty damn flaky too. When Netscape came out, we all justified the flakine…
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Yummy strawberry tart!
I made a delicious strawberry tart on Saturday, pictured here. The recipe I used was this one with the refinement of turning the strawberries the other way and glazing them with a mixture of hot lemon…
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Recruit scum volume 1
(first installment of a trilogy in eighty-three parts) What is it about recruiters that they're uniformly clueless, lying scumbags? But getting more specific, why are they all terrified of email? Sure…
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Untitled
Playing with Friendster I know it's perhaps a little old news now, but I finally got around to playing with Friendster. It's an interesting concept, and the implications are pretty huge. In case you d…
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Off to Slovenia
I'm off to Ljubljana on Sunday night for two weeks doing test support on a client site. I'm looking forward to seeing a new city and country. Spring is on its way here in London. Leaving work at 17:30…
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Okay indie pop fans...
I've been enjoying this great online radio station recently. The Global Pop Conspiracy plays a suitably eclectic and fun mix of indie pop music, with a bit of pure pop shoved in for good measure. Nice…
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Looks like I have another favourite director
I've got a new director to add to my list of favourites. Sofia Coppola has now joined the other two directors whose films I will always see (yes, even if they cast someone ghastly). Lost in Translatio…