WTF is going on??? 6 episodes into a brand new season of Deep Space 9, halfway through a “to be continued’ episode and what do they do? Cut it and replace it with Voyager. Not even new Voyager episodes, mind you, but Season 1 reruns. Screw Channel 9!! Nonetheless the pilot episode is an interesting watch, but I’ve seen it before and I want DS9 back.
“At ease before you sprain something.” (Janeway to the fresh, young, Harry Kim)
This hasn’t been a great couple months for the old sites. “Uncle” Dennis closed up shop recently (taking his 1001 layouts with him). Sad to see him go, but at least we know he’ll have more time to spend with his kid who’s on the way :) Have a good one, mate.
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ElevenfiftynineRevived
Sungs (he’s back, this time sporting a “Solo’s bitch” sign :)
I managed to cram and summarise 400 previously unread textbook pages within one day. Now we just got to work on retention. It’s another perfect day outside, and guess who still has 4 exams to go?
Moved
The Factor
That Thin Line
Looks like I’m stuck with 56K.
Dear Sir/Madam,
In response to your query regarding ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line), we regret to advise that iPrimus is currently unable to provide you with this service.
We anticipate extending our network coverage, however, this will take some time.
Thank you for your interest in iPrimus’ ADSL product.
It’s a beaut day today and I’m stuck inside studying. I am not amused.
I saw the third book of the Riftwar Legacy, Tear of the gods, in Angus and Robertsons, which was surprising since Amazon has its US release date as March 2001. I figure they are releasing it here before the US. I almost bought it, but that would invariably mean I would have to read it, and being smack bang in the middle of exams, that would not be a good thing (although exams haven’t stopped me before, from doing that).
This is Playstation 2 week, with the units going on sale on the 30th (Thursday). It goes without saying that they are initially going to be obscenely priced (not that that will matter to anyone), and within a few months I’m sure the price of them will halve, or at least drop by a couple hundred bucks. Since I’m going away, I’ll wait till next year and then consider getting it. It may double as a DVD player, but apparently since it only outputs PAL, and not NTSC, it can’t be modded to be a region free one. Ah well.
Buy.com’s Australian presense closed shop a few days ago. Australian market not big enough to support such a company? That’s worrying… Perhaps that’s why Amazon doesn’t have an Aussie branch, either.
Actually, thinking about the “quite mysterious” post below… if you don’t know what these sites (eg: ECrush & Pimpin’ Cupid) are, they allow you to list who you have a crush on. The target of your affection/stalking gets an anonymous e-mail saying they have an anonymous admirer, but of course, don’t know who. Instead, they have to go to the site and list who they have a crush on. The flaw lies in the fact that they are, more likely, going to list who they think has the crush on them (as opposed to who they have a crush on). If one of the listed e-mail addresses matches, then the site sends both parties a “you’ve been matched” e-mail. The idea of those sites seems quite appealing at first – anonymity. But they don’t account for something else – curiousity. Chances are, when someone is matched, they are going to list a whole bunch of people and when they match you, it’s not necessarily cause they like you as well (as is the site’s intention), but because they want to find out who you are. Of course, inadvertently, they also end up sending an “I’m interested in you” anonymous email to everyone else they thought had a crush and the cycle continues (most likely, they are so curious they don’t think this far ahead).
There is another interesting way to approach this (whether you are targetting someone, or have been targetted). Set up a dud email account you can check (hotmail or otherwise) and use that. Your “target” gets curious, does the check thing (or may ignore the e-mail entirely), and you might end up with an e-mail in your “real” mailbox saying someone has a crush on you. However, this time, you haven’t initiated the contact sequence (not with your real e-mail address, anyhow) and have maintained anonymity at the expense of theirs.
Another strategy – list someone, immediately remove them. When they list you, you get the “first” e-mail, onus is on them. (I don’t know if, when you remove them, they get a mail saying “you got removed”, though).
But of course these things aren’t serious, and really shouldn’t be taken so. If anything, they are insidious gossip generators :)
They’re in!!! 10 6210s have arrived in the Telstra shop at Narellan. Unfortunately, Telstra shop = Telstra accounts only. I want Vodafone… I wonder how much it costs outright…
I just got one of those “pimpin’ cupid” mails (y’know, the spark ones?). I’ve got no idea who it is. (I’ve got a good idea of who I’d like it to be, though ;).
This guy plans to encase himself in a block of ice, only wearing pants and shoes, for over two days.
New
SimplewriteFacelifted
Uptohere.net
When the ACCC says so. Optus can’t claim its cable is “unlimited” anymore.
At last! The local exchange lines around country-town Camden have finally been upgraded to digital and I now pack a crappy 56K connection and not a crappy analog-line restricted 28K! Woooh, the speed, the speed. My load times have halved! (Shut up Dave, Pro, and all the rest of you cable whores. Stop laughing or you’ll suffocate.)
And thanks to CompleteUnknown for plugging UODU. You others should take note :)
Old Games. Some absolute gems (Doom, Dune etc.) in there! (Site’s in German, but not hard to navigate it). Thanks Doz :)
Another mover and shaker episode. Let’s do a recap of the Alpha Quadrant as it stands.
The Cardassians have formed an alliance with the Dominion and are in control of DS9. A self-replicating minefield devised by a “diabolical” Ferengi stands between the Alpha Quadrant and a truckload of Jem’Hadar reinforcements (who must be getting quite edgy in the Gamma Quadrant). Meanwhile, Bajor lives under a non-aggression pact signed with the Dominion. The Federation is fighting a war on a frontline, which now extends past DS9, allied with the Klingons by necessity. Gul Dukat heads Cardassia alongside Weyoun and a female changeling. This episode sees the Dominion making a breakthrough – they have begun to bring down the minefield (Damar having leaked the news to Quark over yet another booze sharing session).
Dukat is having family problems with Ziyal. Both Kira and Damar are right in saying he cares very much for her. What is in question is, is Dukat really an “intergalactic despot” or does he really care about Bajor? Evidence points to the former, but there is still that ounce of doubt. We also see Damar get bashed up by Kira (how humiliating!). There is a priceless scene where Weyoun is trying to evaluate the aesthetic qualities of one of Ziyal’s paintings, another insight on the genetical engineering of the Founders. Can genetical engineering dictate whether an entity has the ability to appreciate a good painting? Eyesight and hearing, yes, but to alter judgement of aesthetics – an intangible process? An interesting question they’ve subtlely raised (whether that was a point the writers were trying to make, I don’t know, but that’s what I got from it). Anyhow, as I was saying, they’ve started taking down the minefield. La Résistance manages to smuggle out a message warning Sisko of this via Morn leaving the station for his mother’s birthday. Sisko decides they can’t wait for the Klingons to join in and decides to grab two fleets and head for DS9. En route he runs into the defending force of over 1200 Dominion/Cardassian ships. Outnumbered two to one, we have to wait till next ep to see what happens. Odo meanwhile has been locked in the link, an experience more fufilling than the “limited form of intimacy” solids have (man, that must be really something… linking is better than sex and Odo was in it for 3 days straight!) I really am starting to believe that the Founders are a bunch of megalomanical, egotistical nymphomaniacs. So what of Odo? In the closing scenes, we see him start to do what looks like a 180. As they say, absense makes the heart grow fonder, and it seems love springs eternal (ok I’ll stop it with the proverbs now :). He chases after Kira and apologises. However, she, in a cold rage, correctly points out, “we are way, way, beyond sorry.”
Quick question for you PHP gurus – how do I do the equivalent of an SSI exec command in PHP (ie: run a perl script and include the output in the page). Mail me. Update: sonic let me know of these 2 API functions:
NDAs on the P4 chip expired a night or two ago and reviews have sprung up all over. Ars links to several sites with the scoop. Seems like the P4 is nothing to write home about (at this point in time), even though most benchmarking methods have not been optimised for the P4’s instruction sets yet. Dan has a good writeup about it. Of course the fact that they are DRDRAM only (unless Intel licenses out rights to Via for SDRAM mobos), means that P4s + RAM = shit expensive.
SEA-ME-WE3, a 20Gbps cable carrying 60% of Telstra’s international net traffic got cut about 100km off Singapore’s coast. I was wondering why certain US sites became suddenly inaccessible. News article. Telstra is not hooked up to the new Southern Cross cable yet.
If you look at this link (off Dark Magnet) you’ll see a sudden drop in traffic originating from Aus.
It’s nothing but me, a book full of obfuscated text lawyers call law, and the soothing strains of some Café Del Mar CDs to help me maintain my sanity. Ambient music at this hour is terrific.
Facelifted
Dynaleet
C’mon, deface it with comments :)
It’s rather elaborate.
The first one was close but no cigar. The other two were…interesting…but wrong.
1) #1 cuts off a third, and let’s say #2 decides to take it. But #3 thinks the third was too big. Hence #3 is unhappy.
2) Obviously kid C thinks all slices are equal. But what if B thinks the slice A took was too big?
3) This requires compromise which does not guarantee all three will be satisfied.This is how its done (let’s see if I can type it out after getting 5 hours sleep in the past ~50 hours)… NB: A person is satisfied (happy) when they think that they have received pieces equal to or bigger than everyone else. Noone has qualms about watching someone else take a slice they consider too small.
Person A cuts what he considers to be one third of the cake, and offers it to B. B either thinks it is too large (goto 1) or too small (goto 2).
(1) B cuts the third down to size as he sees fit, the remainder becoming part of the remaining 2 thirds. He then offers his third to C. C thinks it’s either too big (3) or too small (4).
(3) C takes the slice. Then, B thinks he has taken one that’s just fine, and A thinks it’s too small (leaving all the more for him). Then it remains to divide the remaining 2/3 of the cake between A and B – this can be done as per the method with 2 people. Hence, in this case the solution is complete. #
(4) C thinks the slice is too small, so he refuses and gives it back to B. B thinks the slice is the right size – he cut it. A thinks it’s too small – his original slice has had some amount removed from it. Hence B takes the slice, and all are happy. The remaining two thirds are divided as per the method for 2 people. Solution complete. #
(2) B thinks the slice is too small. He passes it straight on to C. C either thinks it’s too large (5) or too small (6).
(5) C thinks it’s too large. He takes it. A thinks the slice is just right – he cut it. B thinks it’s too small. All are happy. The remaining 2/3 are divided as per method with 2 people. Solution complete. #
(6) C thinks it’s too small. He passes it on to A. A originally cut this slice, so he thinks it’s fine. He takes it. B and C both thought it too small. B & C divide the remainder as per method with 2 people. Solution complete. #
McHotels is the latest venture of McDonalds. What a troubling thought.
Rumour has it, some teenage girl got so attached to EverCrack that when Verant took away her moderator (guide) status, she apparently committed suicide. Here’s preliminary coverage, followed by evidence of a hoax, followed by another post about the matter. People who reach this sorry state (be it truly suicidal, or with intent to perpetrate a hoax) require a different kind of attention that an online community is a poor substitute for. It’s certainly not Verant’s direct fault.
The week I attempt to cram the 14 weeks of work I’ve been neglecting into one is what we all fondly know as stuvac. I was studying IT Law (license agreements, to be exact) at some early hour of the morning when I coincidentally came across this cartoon. It was amusing at the time.
Sisko obviously longs for the bridge but his elevated status has relegated him to a desk job planning the “Bolian Offensive”. Meanwhile Dax has taken command of the Defiant and has successfully gone out and destroyed the Argolas Array. The war is going badly for the Federation, even though we hear of these successful missions. Kira, back on the station, realises this too and is determined to proceed with her Resistance movement. Things are not going too well for her either. Quark (“I just had Kanar… with Damar!”) learns Damar has discovered how to bring down the self-replicating minefield, and an attempt to thwart this sees Rom ending up in jail. All this being Odo’s fault who seems to have taken a sinister turn after being linked with another Founder. In a strange turn, Odo seems to have developed a superiority complex that transcends his feelings for Kira. The Link must be really something. Odo has described being linked as a “sexual experience”, so one can only conclude that being in the Great Link must be the shapeshifter equivalent of a planetwide orgy. Ok. Moving right along…
People sent in these answers:
Person #1 cuts off what he believes to be a third. #2 takes either the third or the two thirds. #1 keeps the other one. Whoever has the two thirds divides it with #3 in the original half-cake way.
–Shish—
Okay, three hungry Kids: A, B and C. How about we have Kid B decide which of the other two cuts the cake… If he picks Kid C, then Kid C cuts the cake into what he perceives to be three precise slices. Because the task of equivalency is Kid C’s alone, he gets the last slice. Since Kid B has chosen who will cut the cake, but has not cut it directly, he can be said to have had partial authority. He gets to choose his piece before Kid C. But Kid A, having had no real authority in the decision-making processes, gets first choice of slice. Does that sound logical?
–CU, of EveryNothing.comP.S. It goes without saying that these rules must be explained to the Kids beforehand. We can assume that at least one of them will volunteer to function as Kid B.
—
A friend of mine and I discussed the cake problem today on break and we came up with this solution. In order to cut the cake into 3 equal pieces, you would need to give each person a knife and tell them that they will each make a cut and when the cake is cut, each person will take the slice of cake opposite to their knife. The people are instructed to cut the cake in this way: Each person puts their knife above the cake, simulating where it will be cut. By cooperating with the other two people, all three agree on where their own knife and the other knives should be in relation to the other two before they cut knowing that they will be receiving the piece opposite to their knife, a piece which they themselves are not cutting. By giving all of the people the same amount of power in determining how the cake is cut in conjunction with a person receiving a piece of cake their knife did not participate in making, you are assured that the combined efforts of all three will insure the cake is cut into thirds as perfectly as it can be.
–d00m
Sydney got hooked up with a 120Gbps transPacific pipe a few days ago. It’s actually an 18mm fiber optic cable. Tech specs.
Long, drawn out, and not terribly interesting. Save your money and see something else.
Wacked out (along the lines of Event Horizon and House on Haunted Hill but not as shocking). This film’s plot is actually understandable. A vaguely intriguing movie. See it if there’s nothing else on offer.
We went to Xerts last night. It was an… interesting, dining experience. Xerts is a space-themed restaurant based on the premise that the restaurant is actually owned by an enterprising race of hyperactive aliens called Xertians who have set up a restaurant in orbit around Earth. The restaurant cost $35 million to build, so I was quite curious to see what the big deal was about.
From the building’s entrance, there’s no indication that it’s a restaurant other than a poster on the window that read “Waiter, there’s a flying saucer in my soup!”. Instead, the entrance is a Xerts merchandising shop full of expensively-priced cheap gimmicks. The restaurant is actually hidden inside the building and to reach it, employees lead you into a gondola – a room with a massive wallscreen designed to simulate being launched into space. A poor effort (cute animations, but the actual motion of the gondola consists of three or four soft shakes), but it’s obviously designed to amuse the kids (and it works, given the enthralled stares of the little kids standing up the front of the room). But to a bunch of 20 year olds like us, it was just a touch embarrasing :)
Inside the restaurant there are a plethora of plasma TVs and flatscreen monitors. Displays on the wall simulate portholes in space with stars and the occasional spaceship drifting by. Each table is a booth seating at most 10 people. There are no larger tables, so you’re not going to be able to get a large group to this restaurant without splitting the group up. Each table is also equipped with a touchscreen and cordless trackball (for those who can’t reach the screen). All ordering takes place through the screen, followed by a waiter turning up with what you ordered. It’s both convenient and inconvenient – you have to endure the lengthy animated menus, but can order on a whim without having to call a waiter. Which is just as well because the human waiters would not know what “customer service” is if it was rammed up their nasal passages. Simply put, their service sucked royally. While we were settling in, a waiter came over to greet us. The conversation went something like this:
Waiter: “Hi.”
Us: “Hello.”
Waiter: “Are you guys alright?”
Us: “Pardon?”
Waiter: “Fine.”
And then he walked off without another word. Shrugs all around. He came back a bit later – we were still playing around with the touchscreen and he shot in a comment about one of us “never getting past the toilet training stage”. Whoa. Another encounter, when we were asking about how large the pizzas were, somehow resulted in him branding two of us Losers (complete with hand motions). The guy wasn’t having a bad day, I reckon he always was like that. Furthermore, I have never heard a waiter warning us to stay away from several dishes (Burgers and the Kid’s menu). Neither have I seen a waiter attempt to mount the table (ahem). One more thing – when I motioned for a waiter to come over to collect the bill, he mimicked me in a spasticated copy. In a final stuffup, they added two items onto the bill that we hadn’t ordered. And you guys want a tip?? Fuck that.
The food was mixed – some was quite decent, some was not so good. The mocktails were delicious. Mains are in the $15-20 range, so the restaurant’s quite affordable. I don’t know how they are going to recuperate the capital they spent on building the place. They’re not going to get it through tips, that’s for sure. You really can’t go to this restaurant in a serious or cynical mood or you’ll have an abysmal experience. Although it appears to be a kid’s restaurant (and for the most part, it is), there is a fully licensed bar on the side catering for the adults. Just prepare to spend half the evening playing with the touchscreen (complete with games, movie trailers etc.) and the other half being insulted by waiters. I would only recommend it for a once off visit.
Finally complete, Up Over Down Under is a travel diary that a group of friends and I are going to be keeping updated whilst overseas. Check it out, I’ll be updating to that site instead of Hear Ye! for the 2 and a half months I’m away. You can request a postcard from us too.
The first of the International Space Station astronauts/cosmonauts are up there. They made it! Interesting write up here.
>It’s a worldwide survey 3COM is conducting. Check it out, fill it out. The results are very interesting.
I put up the article I co-wrote for a uni assignment. It’s about the Napster v RIAA case and covers what Napster is arguing in court, and what the RIAA is arguing. There’s also stuff about Australian legislation and how it deals with Napster-type situations.
As if assault with a “homemade phallic device” wasn’t bad enough, the charges have been upgraded to 11 counts of group rape. Full article appeared in the SMH last Saturday, viewable here, but the meat of the story is this:
Four boys from Trinity Grammar committed sex offences against two of their schoolmates over a four-month period, Bidura Children’s Court was told yesterday.
The four have been charged with 15 offences, including 11 counts of group sexual intercourse without consent between May and September this year at the Summer Hill school.
The charges comprise aggravated indecent assault and aggravated sexual assault and common assault.
Yikes.
The return of the riddles… as supplied by Vic:
Cutting the Cake
Imagine we have a cake and 2 people between whom the cake is to be equally divided. However, if we simply cut the cake in half, one or both of them may be dissatisfied, thinking that his “half” is the smaller. How to effect this so that both are happy? Simple – one of them takes a knife and cuts the cake into what he believes to be 2 equally sized halves. The other person then gets the choice of which half they want. Thus, the person who did the cutting thinks both halves are the same and doesn’t mind which one the other takes, and the person with the choice will pick the half they consider larger, and both are happy. How can we similarly divide a cake between 3 people, so that all of them are satisfied?
This episode, as its title references to, is about Worf’s Son, Alexander “I’m a gronk” Roshenko, and Dukat’s Daughter, Ziyal. Interestingly enough, they are both cross-bred: Alex being ¾-Klingon and ¼-Human, and Ziyal half Bajoran/Cardassian. I didn’t care much for the Alexander-Worf plot, it did very little except resolve what happened to the kid (24th Century equivalent of “Where are they now”?). As I recall, although I could be wrong, he never prominently features again. So now we turn our attention to Ziyal. Dukat may be evil, but he I must say he is quite charismatic. Ziyal returns to the station, overjoyed at meeting Kira again. However, she’s caught amidst the high tensile conflict between Dukat and Kira. The scene where Ziyal is talking about her drawings was a little unsettling in that she was being praised simultaneously by the two of them while Kira and Dukat virtually ignored each other (I didn’t think they were trying to one-up each other with who could praise Ziyal more, but they certainly weren’t reinforcing each other’s praise). The scene where Dukat surprises Ziyal with the “gift” dress was amusing, and very telling of his personality. Not a great episode, with an inconsequential A-Plot, but the B-Plot sets up another variable…
Sidenote: I can never get used to the Klingon rituals where they cut their hands. It makes me cringe every time. Almost as bad as seeing someone slit their wrists.
That 6 D-Cell Maglite you have under your pillow is not for illumination purposes. It’s a maiming device, so stop pretending it’s not, and get one of these. That’ll scare any “monsters hiding under your bed”.
I almost got bogged again in the car park today. Even a small drizzle will turn the dirt field muddy. Today had constant rain and by the time I got back, the place had turned into a muddy swamp full of huge puddles masking deep holes. Not only that, but some total fool parked so that he completely blocked the exit to the car park, such that anyone wanting to get out had to drive off the kerb and straight into a roundabout to get out. But it is a field, and there are no laws regarding parking in a field (I think). Nonetheless, a bat taken to the windscreen of people who do stuff like that should deter further recurrences.
Can anyone tell me what is the cheapest way to build a dual CPU system? (Cheapest mobo/cpu combo, speed of cpus not important, but they should be available on the market today)
ISO Paper Size specifications. Includes stuff like where holes go, and how big they are, in loose-leafed refills. A bit of trivia… the “A” family of paper follows a 1:sqrt(2) aspect ratio, starting from A0 paper which has an area of 1m2.
Speaking of trivia, Foil has a growing list of it.
Dan’s Data had a good article on CD-Rs about a month ago. I reckon buying a platter of those multi-coloured CD-Rs would be a nice change from the regular Kodaks… and the black PSX-look-a-like ones look pretty slick.
I know, I know – the Olympics are well and truly over. I’m still trying to think of something to replace the medal tally with.
Find out here. Thanks Dan.
Yep, $300 for a basic Celeron 500 computer with all the necessary peripherals. You also have to fill out monthly surveys for the next 2 years (a minor hassle, I suppose). If you could do with an extra computer, find out more information here. The offer seems to be internationall available for several countries (US, UK, Aus, Canada etc.). As always, caveat emptor:
i heard of a scam similar to this… apparently there are only a few computers (e.g. <2), but what happens, >50 or more ppl send in $500, which is >$25 000, they bank in for a Short Term interest e.g. 3% for 2months [8-9 weeks the processing time]. They get $750 for nothing, and then at the end mail back to the ppl that all the comps have been sold out. They distribute the 10comps and everything is legal. But u never know, could be perfectly fine…. there’s a lot of money in marketing…
–RedRuskie
A friend of mine, Pete, wanted me to plug a site he created: vibewire.net. It’s also got a subproject called Nexus which is meant to be an aimed-at-youth web portal. Check it out.
This thing rocks. I mean, it’s not so good that I’d have paid the RRP (rec. ret. price) for it, but it’s great. Sound quality is great, and it comes with an FM tuner and voice recording (hmm… lecture note gathering & gossip spreading, anyone?). It’s USB enabled and can also be used as portable storage for files other than mp3/wma. And it’s so small! I’m sure the novelty will wear off in time, but not any time soon…
The only thing I can’t figure out is that it has an option between headphones output and line out. The problem is, there’s no line out hole (is it possible for line out to exit via a 3.5mm headphone connector?
When I get back from uni today, I should be holding a Nomad II with a 64 & 32 meg smartmedia card. Managed to buy one through a friend for only AU$250. I think I’ll be forgoing the usual sleep on the train on the way home today…
Nicely filmed episode with a somewhat bittersweet ending. We get an interesting insight into the Jem’Hadar and just how far they have been engineered for absolute loyalty (“It is not my life to give up, Captain … and it never was” is a confirmation of that). This is who the Federation is up against. This episode was directed nicely with the final fight scene lapsing into some well shot slo-mo sequences accompanied by a good musical score. Not only do we get an insight into the loyalties of the Jem’Hadar, but also of the Vorta to the Founders. Despite the Cardassian occupation of the station, Odo has managed to establish a Bajoran security detachment on board (much to Dukat’s dismay) – simply because he is a founder in the eyes of Weyoun. The dissent between Weyoun and Dukat is also something to keep an eye on. While this occupation isn’t as horrific as The Occupation several years prior, the opposition is just as strong as evidenced by the Vedek’s suicide on the promenade – an act which zaps Kira into taking action in the form of a “new resistance”. Till next week, then.
It’s been a while since the Season 5 finale, but as I remember, DS9 was occupied by the Cardassians and it’s clear that the Feds aren’t getting it back any time soon. From here on in, the episodes have a high degree of continuity as the war really starts to kick off. Sisko blows up a ketrecel white production facility but ends up in a badly damaged Dominion ship with no viewscreen. Dukat, on the other hand, is loving it. Time to sit back and observe what happens… this is going to be a fantastic season.
What’s the difference between battery types anyhow?
A fairly slow, quiet and long movie very much like the archaic, dusty books the plot revolves around. The movie turned out to be quite intriguing and kept my interest levels up, with an ending that resolves just enough for us to be satisfied, while leaving the rest to imagination. Watch this film only if you’re in the same mood it is, otherwise you could find it too slow. (Review)
Flash animation I spent the afternoon doing for a presentation tomorrow…
Remember how I said you could dial any US phone number via MSN Messenger? A2ZConnect does it for any Aussie or NZ (non-mobile) phone. Screw Optecom… this one doesn’t have ads interrupting every 2 minutes. Works quite well – even over my modem connection there’s only about 1 second of lag.
Farewell to Simpleminded. One of the oldest sites out there, Theseus has decided to shut down early this week. Cheers, you had stuff on there that was worthwhile reading.
New
Saltified: Diary of a Canuck
The FactorMoved
Boiled Pudding
Simulated Bleeding (formerly Lakman Productions)Facelifted
Burgatronics – now an e-zine (e/n-zine? :)
Florida’s being recounted… damn it’s close.
Yeh it’s that time of year… exams. I had 7 assignments and 3 tests on my plate two weeks ago, now it’s down to 3 assignments and 1 test. One week of uni left, then stuvac.
It runs twice a week. Tuesdays & Thursdays. I’ll try to review both in one go, once a week. Rocks and Shoals on Thursday, and as I remember, it was a bittersweet, but well written, episode.
This, is cool. Thanks Fuzz!
Well the Nokia Australia site come online recently and is advertising the 6210. Does that mean it’s out soon? I’ve been waiting a few months for this phone… if any Aussie sees it, please let me know!
November 15 Australia will get that rush of speed. Anyhow, that’s thanks to Southern Cross Cables – what is more interesting though, is that the site has info on how they actually lay the cable, and how they repair faults in it. I’ve always wondered how they repaired a cable fault in waters 3km deep. Now I’m wondering why I didn’t figure it out myself beforehand :)
Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha. Learn how to spell it. It will come in handy at trivia nights. You will be able to write down the answer to “what is YKK short for?”. When the judges think your team has cheated and they ask you to spell it, you can prove them wrong (instead of just standing up and mumbling, “oh shit”). Hmmf. No one said that you couldn’t access Google via a mobile phone call to answer any of those questions last night… Other trivia.
Now this is a good flick you should definitely go and watch. Pretty good stuff for an Aussie production! (For Americans, I don’t know if it’s being released there though…)
This Tuesday. Hence, reviews will too. (I know I’ve seen all but three eps from DS9’s final 2 seasons, but they deserve a review.)
Remember how I was talking about the assault charges laid on a few Trinity boarders a week or so ago? Now, what if I told you that the dildo (apparently nicknamed the “Damaging Dildo”) was not only used to bash the Year 8 kid, but to sodomise him as well? You’d say, “bullshit that can’t be true”, right? Well, that’s what I thought. Until today:
Daily Telegraph, Nov 2, 2000 (pg. 2)
“Homemade phallic device” is a euphemism if I ever heard one… I only hope they sanded down the thing which was made in woodwork class. Can you imagine the splinters if they didn’t?
(Man… can you imagine what the Knox boys would be chanting at the CAS carnivals now? I’m so thankful this didn’t happen while I was still in the school…)
This month’s E-Mag is out. As usual, it rocks. There’s a feature about Japan and has various articles about the Japanese culture which is very interesting. Coincidentally one of the articles is about the abundance of vending machines there and the foodstuffs (among other things) they sell (see yesterday’s post). Man, it’s a whole different world there.
Facelifted
Aherdofturtles – not quite, but he wanted a plug, so look out for the “80% complete” redesign.
FUBAR – I spent too much time looking through the “hidden” messages in that text splurge…Revived
Crackerjap – why oh why does Jap look like he’s a member of the Aum Shinrikyo cult? :)
So that’s what they’re called…
US$25 for a mousemat (only about AU$1000 these days)? Yeah, it’s gotta be fancy… it comes in a metal tin, fer goodness sake…
How about some Calpis Water or ‘Sweat (Pocari Sweat, that is… both are “concentrated lactic acid beverages”)? Or an Every Burger? (hm lost something in the translation there…) There’s also this thing called “Glico Collon“. Described as a shortbread tube filled with chocolate, I think they put one too many L’s in the name. Yep, get your Japanese snacks here. The scary thing is, most of those products are labelled as “out of stock”.
Read about the Singapore airlines crash in Taiwan. I think this means that Qantas is the only airline in the world with a zero-fatality rating. (But it’s only a matter of time, unfortunately. Let’s hope, a very long time.) SIA completely ripped down their site and turned it exclusively into providing news about the ill-fated flight SQ006. I’ve never seen a company do that before.
| 58 days spent in current location | |
| Previously | Copenhagen, Denmark |
| » Currently | San Francisco, CA (4/10/24 1:48pm) |
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