Archived Posts for June 2001

Display Tech

Organic LEDs – cheaper, clearer, smaller and require less power than LCDs. Perhaps the future of display technology?

  12:30am (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Science & Technology  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

Shrek

Cartoon for adults. Hillarious, irreverent, and witty! Anyhow, the main Bad Guy’s name is Lord Farquaad. The first time they said that I cracked up laughing, but no one else seemed to get the joke. So they’re saying Farquaad-this and Farquaad-that all through the movie and it’s still flying over peoples’ heads. (Don’t get it? Say it slowly. Farq. Quad. Don’t make me spell it out for you.)

  12:30am (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Movies  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

Session of Hell

The exams are over! The session is over! Unfortunately I have only one and a half weeks of holidays. Then I start working at EDS. Oh well, will be heading down to Kangaroo Valley for a few days with friends to relax a bit, will make the most of it.

  12:30am (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Life  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

Napster Alternative

Ok we all know Napster has crap all on it now. I haven’t had time to try the 100 different alternatives floating around out there, but Morpheus does the job quite nicely. It’s got the usual file resumption and segmented download features. More importantly, it reaches around a quarter million users trading 100 terabytes of files during peak time. Pretty reliable (for a dialup connection) and it finds most of the stuff I look for. Seems to be growing too. (Download)

  7:00pm (GMT +10.00)  •  Music  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

Illusion

This illusion is addictive. Stare at the dot and then move your head towards and away from the monitor.

  11:00pm (GMT +10.00)  •  Miscellaneous  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

Other News?

Nothing interesting ever happens during exam time. Although I have noticed Neoflux has turned into “Why America’s high school system is so damn stupid.” Only in America :). Anyway, excuse me, I have to get back to overcoming my “evil impulses”.

  6:40pm (GMT +10.00)  •  E/N  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

Hear Ye!: Now Banned in 5 States

Well not quite, but I, pornographic distributor extraordinaire (hah!), got this in the e-mail which I thought was quite amusing (and evidently, so did the prankster who submitted the URL in the first place):

It has recently been brought to our attention that you are, or have been, in violation of the Net Authority Acceptable Internet Usage Guidelines. It has been reported that you both distribute and view offensive materials over the Internet.

Net Authority has investigated these claims by checking your webpage at http://hearye.fissure.org and verified that they are true.

As a result, your personal information has been added to one or more Net Authority Internet offender databases. Your information will be stored in the databases until enough evidence has been gathered against you to warrant further actions. To help avoid such a situation, it is strongly recommended that you cease your immoral actions on the Internet at once.

You have been added to the following databases:
 – Hate Literature Offenders
 – Pornography Offenders
 – Child Pornography Offenders
 – Bestiality Offenders
 – Homosexual Pornography Offenders
 – Interracial Pornography Offenders
 – General Blasphemy Offenders

If you would like more information about Net Authority or the Net Authority Acceptable Internet Usage Guidelines, you may read the details at http://www.netauthority.org/. It is imperative that you fully understand the guidelines if you wish to avoid further prosecution.

While the individual who reported your actions to us will remain anonymous, he or she wished to pass these words on to you:

“Stu, you are one dirty bastard!”

May God be with you as you struggle to overcome these evil impulses. You will be in our prayers at night.

God speed,

Net Authority Investigations Department
investigations@netauthority.org
http://www.netauthority.org/

“Interracial porngraphy offenders”? What the? Oh so it’s not ok to be racist, but it’s alright to discriminate pornography based on race? Interesting categorisation, eh?

  6:40pm (GMT +10.00)  •  Site News  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

Update

Another monolithic update during a break from studying the finer points of link-layer protocols (networks exam is next Tuesday). I now “know” more than I ever wanted to know about PPP, multiple access protocols and 802.11. Handed in that bastard revised research proposal yesterday.

Everyone’s been drooling over this 61″ (1.55m) plasma TV from NEC. I’d hate to think of the cost. A 40″ one goes for about $13k, a 51″ for about $40k+.

An interesting archive of subway/train system network maps all around the world. The full New York MTA map is simply gigantic.

I have a Malaysian flatmate and he’s got the typical thick, distinctive Malaysian accent. He speaks fluent Manglish. Anyhow the Coxford Singlish Dictionary has a rather comprehensive list of Singlish/Manglish phrases. (Singlish is Singaporean English, Manglish is Mangled (Malaysian) English. Because those two countries are a melting pot of cultures and language dialects, many expressions from dialects such as Hokkien, Cantonese and Malay are integrated into English. This, combined with a restructuring of English grammar, produces a unique variant of English. Sometimes very blur one, lah.)

Here’s a few things I got for my b’day:

• HP Scanjet 5370c
• Newton’s Cradle
• Southpark figurines
• A couple DVDs
• Some clothing
• 2 brandy schooners
• “A Cookbook for a man who probably owns only one saucepan” (yeh that’s me :)
• A lesson on how to drive a manual. I got my Ps on an auto, and the only time I’ve driven a manual was briefly on a friend’s 100-acre property using his ute… So my cousin got a rental car from Thrifty and spent the day teaching me how to drive car with a gear stick. The only problem with learning at this stage of driving is I didn’t have L or P plates to hide behind. So whenever I stalled, people just think “what a shit driver, how did this guy get his license?” (never got horned though, funnily enough). I had problems with shifting into first gear smoothly without jerking the car… he was going to make me drive through Burger King drive-through, but I talked him out of it :) “Would you like an air freshener to go with that burning clutch?” Anyway by the end of the day most of the problems I had were straightened out and I now know how to drive a manual.

  6:00pm (GMT +10.00)  •  Life  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

Update

You would not believe how fucking busy it has been over the last month. Hell, I can’t believe it myself. It doesn’t end until the 26th, when session ends. I hereby promise to return to regular updates after then. But for now…

• Networking assignment I had to do was enough to turn me off Java for a very long time.
• Air in the computer labs is bad (talk about B.O. and computer/software engineers!). I reckon I caught the flu from a few too many hours in those labs.
• Had a birthday dinner last night at a Spanish restaurant on Liverpool. The paella is better in Spain than in Sydney.
• Pearl Harbour (yes, spelt with a “u”) is not worth it.
• Valentine is certainly not, either.
• Moulin Rouge may or may not be worth it (depends on your tastes).
• Series 7 is worth it (considering I got in for free :).
• Went to a Trek convention yesterday. Guests were all from Voyager – Roxann Dawson, Garrett Wang (pronounced “Wong” apparently), and Tim Russ. All Trek actors seem to have two things in common. They are all (1) theatre trained and (2) wannabe singers. It was an expensive day. The convention organisers are running a mint when they hold those events. Managed to nab a few autographs (at a price, like everything else there). Nonetheless it was an absolute blast, more details later.
• This site rocks.

  3:00am (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Life  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  •