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As you may recall, a few months ago I bought myself an Asus Eee. I said at the time that it was great - almost perfect in fact. And I stick by that statement. I bought it just as a toy really, a pure impulse buy; but for a toy it’s been spectacularly useful. Combined with blanket Wi-Fi coverage across the various Uni buildings, a small notebook (”Netbook”, I think the preferred term is) is absolutely ideal for looking something up quickly, or having access to all your lecture slides/past papers/tuition sheets when revising. I said when I got it that the biggest flaw was the screen. So, when the new wave of netbooks trickled onto the market - almost all of them with larger screens - I was intrigued. The other week, I splurged on an Acer Aspire One. It’s very closely based on the Eee, but with an 8.9″ screen running at 1024×600. It also has a slightly better keyboard, which is useful. In terms of hardware, this thing is probably better than the Eee. It’s much more usable, which isn’t to say that the Eee was unusable, just that this one is slightly better. The only thing that lets it down is the software. One of the things I really appreciated with my Eee is that everything was really well thought out. For instance, there was a command on one of the menus in the file browser thing to mount network shares from Windows-based machines. That makes it so easy to use the Eee as part of a network, which is probably a vital part of a machine like that. On the Acer, you get the feeling things were rushed slightly in development. The biggest error that I can see is that an old driver was used for the graphics which meant that dithering didn’t work properly, meaning that fewer colours were displayed. That was really noticeable as banding on gradients, such as on the BBC website I use as my homepage. Or the menu screen that the thing initially boots into… It also doesn’t have an easy way of seeing Windows shares (to use winsock names you have to edit one of the config files. And even then you have to mount the share from the terminal, rather than a nice friendly window). Once I’d mounted my shares - so I could listen to music from my desktop - I discovered that the included media player is the biggest pile of shit ever. So I had to install something else to do the job (incidentally, Amarok is now my new favourite player and I wish I could use it in Windows too). Oh, and while I’m talking about the media player, I should mention that it doesn’t support DivX/Xvid natively. Also, at one point it stopped loading the network manager tool at boot (purely randomly), and I had to run it from terminal if I wanted to connect to a network. One thing I will say in favour of the software is that the “easy mode” is based on XFCE, which is probably my favourite WM (from my previous brief forays into Linux). I turned easy mode off fairly quickly. Now, I don’t mind having to do all these hacks to get the system working as I want. Actually I quite enjoy it - I’ve learned much more about Linux by tweaking this than I ever did from using the Eee. But I can just imagine someone non-techy getting one and having all these issues with it, would make Acer look fairly daft I think. Which is a shame, because it really is a good device - the screen is absolutely stunning (now that I’ve updated the graphics driver…). A worthwhile upgrade from the Eee, I think. I have to say, I really love devices like this. It just makes sense to have a small, light device that boots up quickly (about 20 seconds) and can do simple things like get online, or quickly edit a document. Actually I’d happily work all day on the Acer, the keyboard/screen are that good. I can imagine that for schools, it’s be really great to give kids one each instead of textbooks and whatever, and throw a wireless network across all the school. They’d be able to access all their books at once then, as well as get online to get other info. Of course, it’s completely unrealistic to do that, but even so. Anyway, it makes me wonder why someone didn’t come up with the idea sooner. It’s just pure brilliance. /waffle Posted by Dickie :: 3 Comments
Part I It just seems like such a basic thing, in this always-connected world we live in. That said, there are probably more pressing things to sort out on the rail network… Anyway, I write this en-route from Cardiff to the joy that is Birmingham New Street, which is probably a good example of something that needs sorting, actually. As is the way the train keeps bouncing from side to side, making it bloody hard to type. I digress. Last week was spent in Devon, in a lovely little place called Slapton. There are a couple of interesting things about Slapton. Firstly, it has a big freshwater lake (Slapton Ley) which is separated from the sea by a narrow shingle bar, and the whole site is a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), because it’s home to some rare birds or something and because it’s a really good example of that sort of habitat. Secondly, during the 1940s, the whole area was evacuated so that the Americans could practise invading it. Apparently it has a lot of similarities to Utah beach (the western-most beach they landed on during Operation Overlord). However, during the exercise (codenamed Exercise Tiger), a bunch of German ships happened to come across the landing craft just as they were about to land and managed to sink a few. As a result, there were about three times as many casualties during Ex. Tiger than there were on Utah during Op. Overlord. Well, I thought that was interesting, anyway. It was a pretty good week, all things considered. True to form the weather was pretty poor (after the weeks of gorgeous sunshine we had during the exam period), but it seemed to stay dry during most of our outdoor stuff, which was good. I quite like the field courses we have, because its a nice to get a chance to spend time with and get to know people that I wouldn’t ordinarily talk to. That said, it also means I had to tolerate some of the people who really irritate me, but gotta take the rough with the smooth and all that. Actually, one of the nights spent down t’pub was somewhat eye-opening. There were a bunch of us in this tiny (usually quiet) pub, being studenty… I noticed after a while that the only people talking were those who were the loudest. There wasn’t really a conversation going, either; they just seemed to say something, then wait for other people to finish talking, and then say something else. We were there for a good few hours, and no-one really said anything. Now I don’t expect every conversation to be deep and meaningful; considering the meaning of life and other worthy questions. But I do think that conversation should be interesting, not just based around “this one time, I was really drunk…”, or whatever…. Eventually they got round to playing drinking games (loudly), which was just embarrassing. OK, drinking games can be fun, but there’s a time and a place. A quiet pub, where you can piss off all the locals, really isn’t it. The next night we all went to Torquay (for a fun night out!), and I spent it with a different bunch of people. We ended up in this cramped little pub, where there was a guy with a guitar playing away in the corner. A guy with a guitar who seemed to be able to play any song you requested. Most people went to a club I think, but all present at the pub were in agreement that they missed out. Horses for courses, I guess. The trip kinda got me thinking about where I’d prefer to live: a small place like Slapton, right next to the sea; or in a city. I really love the sea and being near it, so I think I’d really love to live near it. Cardiff is technically by the sea, but most of the city is a teensy bit inland, so I never really see the sea. So yeh, I’d love to live somewhere in an ickle coastal town, I think, but at the same time I do love cities. I love the atmosphere, and the way there’s always something happening. I think that when I’m rich and successful in years to come, I’ll just buy a house in a city and a place by the sea, and alternate as the mood takes me. Don’t know which city, and which place by the sea though… Part II I had to get off the train, so I had to stop writing. I’m now writing from the sofa at home, a few hours later. Watched the Monaco Grand Prix earlier, which was really very good. I really felt sorry for Sutil (he’s in one of the worst teams, and was in 4th place until the current world champion crashed into him a few laps from the end). Hamilton was bloody lucky – his puncture earlier on in the race gave him a real strategic advantage over Massa and Kubica, and apparently he got a puncture on the slowing down lap after crossing the line. Lucky the race was shortened, then. Speaking of Massa, he’s driving fantastically at the moment. Dare I say it, title hopes? He seems to be doing better than Raikkonen at the moment, it has to be said… Doctor Who the other day was really bloody good. Most of this series has been pretty poor, to be honest. It’s almost as if the writers have tried to make it comic because they’ve got Catherine Tate, but it’s really not worked. It’s been cheesy, almost slaptstick humour. Thinking back to the first “new” series, with Christopher Ecclestone as the Doctor, that was really rather witty and that’s the way it should be. Apart from that, it’s been predictable as well. Like “The Doctor’s Daughter”. Who didn’t foresee her getting shot? And then who didn’t see her re-generating (and keeping her form)? Bad. Just bad. Anyway, the last episode was good. It’s properly dark, and not at all predictable. And I really like the way that it addresses the fact that the Doctor is a time traveller. For those that don’t watch the show, I’ll explain what I mean. One of the characters in the episode knows the Doctor, but first met him at a time later than the meeting we see in the show. So she knows the Doctor and has known him for years, but he has no idea who she is. It’s pretty clever. Can’t wait for Moffat to take over the direction of the show. The Lost season finale came out the other day as well, and I have to say I thought it was pretty good. It did exactly what I expected – answered a few questions, introduced some new ones, and basically revealed a little bit more of the story. I have to say I really like some of the issues and themes that Lost looks at. Things like Good vs Evil, Science vs Faith, Fate or Destiny vs Free Will, and so on. That, and the entire story is pretty magnificent. If you haven’t watched it before, I urge you to acquire it and to spend a few days watching it all from the start. It’s really worth it. Posted by Dickie :: 8 Comments
If I try to do any work at my desk in my room, it doesn’t happen. I either gaze into space and listen to music, or watch a dvd, or play a game, or aimlessly browse the net, or something. But if I go down to the library, I manage to get loads done. I have most of the same distractions, cos I take my Eee and my MP3 player with me. So I can still end up wasting time listening to music and browsing the net aimlessly, but I just don’t. I even sit next to the window, looking out over the green grass (and the train line. Ahem), and theres plenty of distraction there as people walk past on their way to/from lectures, or looking at the pretty shapes in the clouds. But instead I ended up writing a load of notes on English law and the court systems (for my Civil Engineering degree. Crazy talk! Incidentally, this amused me somewhat. The idea of trial by combat being an acceptable way to decide the outcome of a trial is delightfully mad. Shame they repealed the law, would’ve made Paul McCarthy vs Heather Mills somewhat entertaining. She could’ve knocked him out with her peg leg. Anyway, I digress). Actually it’s not too much of a conundrum at all. My room-desk is just tiny. What with the monitors and speakers and keyboard and mouse and assorted desk-clutter, there’s really no room to work. Annoying. I mentioned the Eee there, and it’s a really brilliant little tool for revision. Cos of its size, it’s really easy to carry in to uni in the first place, and then when you’re there it takes up a tiny proportion of the space of the desk, so it’s not in the way at all. A proper-sized laptop would be too heavy/bulky to carry in (along with all my other revision materials), and would take up a huge amount of the desk. As it is, the Eee is just the right size for looking up notes or past papers from the intranet, or for looking stuff up on t’net when your notes make no bloody sense (Wikipedia ftw!). I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Best Gadget Evar! In other news, design coursework is proceeding nicely, and will be done in the next couple of days hopefully. Maths coursework is EVIL, and is probably going to take me as long as I’ve got (and probably a bit longer). Yesterday I did my first bit of ironing… well for years, really. My phone has just run out of credit, I need to go get food (yeh its late cos I got in from the library and started eating biscuits. Fail), and I didn’t get to sleep till 4am last night. Oops. I don’t know why anyone would care about most of that last paragraph (I don’t), but meh. Meh, I say! I’m already bored of the way this site looks. Theres a few things I like, a few things I don’t like, and a few things that are unforgivable. Theres also a few things I want to add to it anyway. I’ll probably change it when I have time/can be bothered (not soon then). 22 days till the end! (Excluding the field trip) Posted by Dickie :: 6 Comments
Okay, first things first (because I forgot on Monday and feel ever so slightly guilty), a motorsport thing… :-( I’ve been reading a lot about motorsport in the 50s-70s lately, and of course been watching the F1 retro thing that I mentioned in the last post, and there are several things apparent. The sport now is much more professional, more corporate (James Hunt, 1976 F1 Champ, had a badge on his overalls that said “Sex: Breakfast of Champions”. You can’t imagine anyone getting away with that these days…), and much more expensive. F1 specifically is touted as one of most technically advanced sports in the world (with good reason), yet theres much less room for truly inventive and radical thinking. If someone came to the game with a revolutionary part nowadays, other teams would probably try to get it banned. In the past, they’d just try to make something better… But for all that motorsport fans witter on about “the good old days”, we forget the bad things. Reading about the era, or watching that programme, it’s really scary how many drivers died because of the sport. I literally can’t imagine that, and I have no idea how people drove the cars in those days knowing that they were likely to die in them. Whilst I’m on the subject of motorsport, a word about Max Mosley: lolz. About bloody time the arrogant tosser goes (assuming he does, of course). Anyway, now time for rant the second. I talked last time about the net, and the whole “brave new world” thing. Well, now the flip side. On the one hand, I can’t believe that ISPs think the BBC should pay for them to upgrade their bandwidth. The BBC is just a content provider, and I fail to see how that means they should pay for the bloody network as well. It’s purely the ISPs responsibility, and frankly it serves them right. Broadband in this country is shockingly bad when you compare it to other places, and it’s about time it was sorted out. On the other hand, I’m really not surprised. All infrastructure in this country (roads, trains, post, communications, etc) is overpriced and shit. We seem to have this aversion to investment, the philosophy of “oh well it works ok at the moment, we’ll just patch it up”. Okay, but that means that infrastructure doesnt grow with demand, meaning that service gets worse. I don’t know if that’s a result of privatisation, poor regulation, or just The Way We Are, but it’s really inexcusable. Again, if you compare something like our trains to pretty much any European ones, then you notice how woefully bad ours are. Actually, making the point about privatisation, it amuses me how most large companies seem to massively miss the big picture. Taking the example of the trains, if they continually invested in stations/trains/tracks (and I mean basic maintenance as well as updates for faster service or whatever), surely over the long term that will save or make them more money? Provide a better service, then more people will use it… I see the same kinda thing when I work in the Bank (but with different things. There it’s the way they treat staff), and I just find it amazing. Ho hum. Posted by Dickie :: 4 Comments
So yeah, I’ve been pretty lax with the whole blogging thing lately. Not just with my own blog (although I did finally get around to upgrading Wordpress the other day. Unfortunately, it was a couple of days before 2.5 was released, so I’ve ended up doing it twice in the space of about a week…), but generally. There have been quite a few posts that I’ve read and wanted to comment on, but I generally thought “meh, do it later”, then forgot. Sorry. I’d love to say I’ve been too busy doing work, but that’d be a blatent lie. I wrote up a list of things I need to cover on my whiteboard when I got home, and even drew up a revision timetable. It hasn’t happened though; the days have generally been a mix of sleep all morning, get up and watch TV (ESPN classic is running a series of programmes covering each F1 season from 1970…), then browse the net/play games for the rest of the afternoon. And then of course it’s too late to work… I was talking to my Mum the other day about the internet, as you do, and I let slip that I have this site (she didnt know beforehand). She was pretty surprised, and kept asking what sort of stuff I write about. It’s something I have trouble with, to be honest. I don’t like recording minutae on here (”today i went to a lecture and it was really boring so we just ended up playing hangman and so-and-so didnt know the alphabet LOL!”), because unless you know me in real life (and are part of a specific friendship group, in that example), I’d imagine too much of that thing would get pretty dull. I don’t like writing things which are too personal (i.e. if I’m feeling crap, a ranty woe-is-me post about whatever), because I’m well aware that the internet is open to all… I write those sorts of things elsewhere, and when I look back at them, oh they make me squirm. Also, I generally think that no-one would be interested, which probably isn’t true, cos humans are inherently nosy beings… So when I write a post, I generally have something I want to “say”, and know what I want the thing to be about; whether it’s a rant about religion, my musings about music, or just some random thought I’ve had. I guess there’s a happy medium to be had; if it was entirely entries of “saying” stuff, addressing issues, then it makes for a pretty dull blog. If it’s entirely “woe is me!” stuff, I guess it’s pretty inaccessible to anyone who doesnt know you, besides the fact that it makes you look like an emo… The great thing about blogs though is that they’re pretty personal (compared to, say, the print media); by reading my blog, you could probably make a few fair inferences about what I’m like, and about what I’m interested in. And you can immediately respond to posts. I love the communicative aspect of it all; not just in comments, but the spillover between blogs. The fact that theres a number of people who all read each others stuff probably spurs us on to write more frequently (certainly in my case…), and maybe also spurs us on to write better things. I think theres probably a crossover of ideas too, which is rather cool. The Internet generally at the moment seems to be at an interesting point. I’m fairly sure we’ll see a proper revolution of the music industry in the next few years (especially given the way people like Jonathan Coulton are getting a decent amount of success purely by running things themselves over the net, and embracing the downloads rather than fighting them). Projects such as Wikipedia (flawed as it may be) make it easier than ever to find information, things such as Facebook are making it easier to keep touch with old friends, and things like blogs or YouTube or whatever mean that it’s easier than ever to share ideas. I think that’s the difference. Traditionally, the Internet has been almost an extension of the real world. Okay BBS and IRC is an exception, but for the mainstream, what has the internet meant? Initially, it was a way of getting cheap CDs from Amazon and to send letters instantaneously to Auntie Bertha in Timbuktu. That stuff still happens, yes, but the whole Web 2.0 (hate that term…) shebang means that theres so much more to it. It’s about ideas, about people. It’s pretty cool. So there you go. I can’t really be bothered re-reading this, so it’s probably rambly and incoherent (more rambly and incoherent than usual, I’ll say it before anyone else does…), but hey, there was dissent in the ranks on the comment page for the last post, so I thought I should write something… :-P Closing thought: is it me, or are pretty much all the contestants on the Apprentice this year almost completely useless? Posted by Dickie :: 4 Comments
Fantastic author, I can’t begin to list how many good books he’s written. The Rama and 2001-3001 series stand out though, and are well worth reading. As are his short stories. Actually, all his stories are well worth reading… “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” R.I.P. Arthur. Posted by Dickie :: 1 Comment
Usually when I write a post on here, I have some vague idea in my mind of where I’m gonna go with it, and what I’m gonna say. Tonight, I’m just bored and feel like writing something, so no “plan” as such, more stream of consciousness. I go through a sort of internal argument with myself every so often, where I try to work out what the hell to write here. I don’t like doing writing down everyday minutae, diary-style, because I always think that other people (i.e. you!) would find that a bit boring. So usually I end up ranting. Most of the time I don’t really care about that; I’m fairly opinionated, so having an outlet for that is fun for me, at least. But then sometimes I think “Does the Internet really need another idiot spouting his opinions on everything?”, and kind of lose confidence in it. Like I said last time, I write a lot of things where I get half way through and decide not to carry on, cos I don’t think its a decent post. Why do we blog at all? I suppose I’ve partly answered that in the last paragraph, for myself at least. I enjoy writing it, and I guess as well I like that other people read it. It’s great when people leave a comment on something you’ve written. I think I try to make people think about things which they might not think about ordinarily (reading that line back, thats not exactly what I mean, but I cant think of another way to put it which is more accurate and less arrogant). I don’t know how well I do that, but meh. In other news, the Eee is still great. I installed WinXP on it last week, and it handles it surprisingly well. It doesnt boot quite as quickly as Xandros (the default operating system) did, but i think its still <60 seconds to desktop, which is pretty good. And once its loaded it’s just as responsive. Pretty good. I took it to the Uni IT people last Friday to get it registered on the Cardiff network (for wireless internet goodness at Uni). When I took it out of my bag to give to the lady for her to set it up, her reaction was “aww, I’ve seen these!”. Amused me. I love being able to use the net in more places than just at my desk. I’ve taken to using the Eee to check my emails/read the news/whatever in the mornings, because its small and quiet and because bed is nice. And tonight, I got bored of sitting in my room so I came downstairs to watch a DVD, with the net to accompany me. I watched Pink Floyd live first, and now somehow Heima seems to have worked its way into the DVD player… I’ve said it before, but damn I love this film. Changing topic somewhat… I find it kinda weird that it’s already half way through February. I say this a lot, I think, but the rapid passage of time always kinda shocks me. In my head it still feels like early Feb, not almost March. Not that I’m complaining. As much as it surprises me, I do kinda like time’s winged chariot. The inevitability of time whooshing by is somewhat comforting to me, for some reason. The knowledge that the future will come, that now is but a fleeting moment… I’m not articulating myself nearly as well as I should be here. Of course, as much as I like the passage of time, I also seem to get hung up on the past. And occasionally on the feeling that I’m wasting the “now” with daily monotony. But that’s an unhealthy way to look at the world, and if I feel like that I just remind myself of the small pleasures in life which make “now” so exciting. For me, one of those pleasures is music. I don’t think I’d get through a day (and remain sane) if I couldnt listen to at least one song. I love the way that if you’re feeling depressed and alone, music can take those feelings and make you feel elated and involved, but if you’re feeling on top of the world it can amplify those feelings and make you feel fantastic (driving whilst listening to music always seems to help that process, which is one of the reasons why I miss driving so much…). I think its because I find so much pleasure in music that it annoys me when people don’t appreciate it fully. I know people don’t have to, and I’m sure that someone who loves antique furniture could say the same about me because I happen to not appreciate antique furniture. But I don’t say “antique furniture is crap”; everyone seems to have an opinion on music, even if that opinion isnt well thought out. Anyway, I was talking about time and got sidetracked. Uhm… oh yeah, middle of February shocker. I think I’ve said before here that I don’t much like the first 2 or 3 months of the year. Too dark and grim and miserable. So I’m kinda glad it’s passing quickly, cos then its done. Of course, getting through the first part of the year also means that various motorsport series start up again, which may have something to do with my not liking the winter… I’m not gonna write down my predictions now (other than Ferrari and Raikkonen look like they’re going to walk the F1 championships, and I reckon Giovanardi could do the double in BTCC. As long it’s not Matt Neal, I don’t mind…), I shall save that for a later date. Which gives you all something to look forward to (he says, knowing that pretty much no motorsport fans read this…). Anyway, I think I’ve gone on for long enough, so I shall go enjoy the rest of Heima. G’night! == Final thought: why is it that I never read back things I write for Uni before submitting them, but I always read back my blog posts before posting? I’ve only just noticed that I do that. Posted by Dickie :: 2 Comments
So I suck at self-control and patience, and splurged on an Asus Eee. So I’ve dared to leave the cosy confines of my bedroom, and relocate to the comfy reclining chair in the living room… First thoughts are that this thing is small. Way small. I knew it would be tiny from the pics online, but you dont realise how small till you see it. Yes, that means that some webpages look poor (cos you have to scroll), and yes its kinda hard to type on the keyboard, cos i have chubby fingers. But you can scroll the pages (and tbh with firefox in fullscreen mode, its not too bad), and I think I’ll get used to typing; it’s certainly better than things like Graffiti used to be on PalmOS. Other things are how easy to use it is. I was toying with the idea of putting Windows XP on here, but that kinda defeats the point. This has found my network shares on The Beast (my desktop) remarkably easy (and by the way the built-in speakers are better than most full-sized laptop speakers ive heard), and found the wireless flawlessly. It has everything I want to use (i.e. messenger, firefox, music and office stuff), and it runs really well. I’ll probably swap from the “Easy” UI to a normal desktop, but I’m not even sure of that… I say “almost” perfectly formed… Thats because the screen could be larger without pushing the form factor up, or affecting the price too much. And because I’m not getting on with the trackpad too well at the moment, but then I’m yet to meet a trackpad that I do get on with… So far then, this thing is great. It’s small enough to make carrying it to uni a practical idea, but big enough and well-featured enough to make it genuinely usable. I honestly can’t see the point - for me - of spending more on a laptop. I use my desktop for gaming or stuff like that, and I’d never use a laptop for that. Actually, for a hell of a lot of people, I can imagine something like this is all the PC they’d need… It’s a slightly scary thought that this cheap little pc is significantly more powerful than the first PC I had as a kid. Huzzah for technology… (btw, in the space of writing this post, my typing’s got much better. I reckon in a day or so it’ll be fine) Posted by Dickie :: 5 Comments
So I just had to top up my phone. I won’t name the network, but lets call them Yellow. Usually when I top up, I just use their website and do it all online. Takes a couple of minutes, and saves me getting up off my lazy arse. Anyway, apparently the site is closed at the moment for maintenance(!), so I called up to do it that way. Anyone who uses Ora-, I mean Yellow, PAYG knows that they’ve just redone all their phone menus with a different, friendlier-sounding person. And that’s fine, but I think they’ve tried to re-do it all to make it sound like you’re actually dealing with a real person. Some of the things she “says” are exactly the same things that ill-educated dolts say to try to sound polite. Like, after I enter my details, and how much to top up, “I’ll just put that through for you…”. Okay, fair enough, but do you have to then, 3 seconds later, say “I’m just putting that through for you”, just to fill the silence? As if I’m sat with the phone to my ear, thinking “damn, what am I actually doing here?” and need reminding that something is happening? NONONO! Finally, when it’s all done, does it have to say “By the way, did you know you can also use our website to top your phone up?”… AAARRRGGGHHH! Actually, one of the less painful phone menu things that I’ve used. Some of the ones I’ve used at work are just.. urgh. Anyway, I need to finish drawing a flow net. Joy! Posted by Dickie :: 5 Comments
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