10th AA419 Flash mob

AA419 are holding their tenth flash mob tomorrow.

Visit The Lad Vampire to hog some bandwidth.

Holographic Data Storage

Ok so 1Tb optical discs may be released by 2010... but IBM might beat them to it with their Pb Holographic discs.

Storage Wars!

1Tb Optical Disc

One terabyte optical disk developed

BOFFINS AND boffinettes at Imperial College London are developing a new optical disk that can store a terabyte of data.

That would make tape backups obsolete for one.

I don't think that the combined HDD space of the six machines in my house is over a Tb yet but I'm sure by 2010 we'll have plenty of stuff to fill the space with.

Violent Femmes

I'm listening to the toe tapping beats of the Violent Femmes. I haven't listened to them in ages.

It always amazes me how music can evoke memories of places and feelings from long ago. The Femmes remind me of (among other things) cheap read wine and comfy couches.

GBrowser?

Google plotting Explorer rival?

Clues point to the company developing a series of Web features -- including a Web browser.
September 24, 2004: 6:19 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Move over Bill Gates. Google Inc. may be working on a new Web browser to compete with Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer.

Interesting. I think I would probably give it a try if it is released but the fact that they are starting to get a piece everything related to the web is a bit worrying.

On the other hand, they shook up the search engine market when they released Google and the same goes for when they released GMail. Can they do the same for Browsers?

Interviews

Well, I went for another interview today. The position that I was going for would be very close to what I'm after but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Six months in an admin role with very little development work has dulled my senses.

Yahoo! doing cruel and unusual experiments on humans.

Internet junkies in chilling cold turkey experiment

If you've ever seen a smack-head handcuffed to a bed gibbering uncontrollably because he can't get a fix, then be afraid, because that's what you'll look like after two weeks of internet-free cold turkey.

Yahoo! should be put away for their "Internet Deprivation Study".

Luckily in RL it's getting more and more difficult to find places without access to the internet (Not that anyone in their right mind would specifically want to find such a hellish place).

Whether it's through your mobile or an Internet cafe, there should always be some place relatively close by where you can get your fix.

Weerd!

64-bit Games

Atari launches 64-bit AMD 64 game

CHIP FIRM AMD has got itself very excited because Atari has released a game that takes advantage of 64-bitness.

It's about time. Microsoft need to get into gear and release a proper 64-bit version of their OS.

At least somone is taking the lead in creating 64-bit applications. There were rumors that a 64-bit version of Far Cry would be released but I haven't seen it for myself yet.

Crime doesn't pay?

Sven Jaschan has just got a job at a Security company according to this article.

I suppose having "Responsible for 70% of viral infections for the first half of 2004" doesn't look too bad on your CV.

Can't Sleep

Falling asleep in front of the tv this afternoon was a bad move.

I'm going to end up tired and cranky at work later...

A9

Amazon have been dabbling in the Search Engine market with A9.

Other than showing your search results on the web (powered by Google), you can turn on columns that will show matching results from Amazon's books, images also from Google, Movies from Internet Movie Database and Reference from GuruNet.

Bolt Off - Bolt On

Yes, well... it would have been a quick job if the biggest bolt hadn't been rusted in solid.

In the end we had to saw off the old exhaust and modify the bracket to fit onto the old bolt that wasn't going to budge (especially after we sheared it's head off.)

I'll be able to tell if it made any difference to performance (other than the noise) tomorrow on the way to work.

SIP Exhaust

Cool. I just found instructions on installing the exhaust. My main conecern was where I was going to mount the springs because the existing exhaust dosen't have any...

Quality Time with Vespa

At last my Vespa is functional again.

I spent most of the day replacing the broken bit on my Vespa. I quickly realised that it was going to be more of a mission than I originally thought. I forgot that there were so many wires and bits going through the headset. I think I managed to get it all connected up correctly again (everything seems to be working as I was expecting them to).

Now I just need to bleed the front brakes and see about putting on that exhaust tomorrow. I'm just a tad worried about replacing the exhaust... I think some slight modification is going to be required but we'll see.

Firefox

Mozilla have released Firefox Version 1.0 this week.

You can get it here.

Now they talk back...

Isn't technology wonderfull... ever wished that your plants would add a bit to the conversation while you were talking to them?

Ka-on will sort that out.

They beat me to it!

Vespa scooter gets webcam, mini-ITX upgrade.

Damn, that's my ultimate custom pc. I think I'll ditch the idea of getting another Shuttle and get myself another Vespa to cutomise instead.

Another week of the Tube

Well, I guess it's going to be another week of taking the tube in to work. The bits I need for my Vespa are only arriving on Thursday.

Somehow that feels a tad longer than the four day turnaround time that was mentioned on their site.

Robot eats flies to make power

Cool. I wonder if they will be releasing a PC that will do the same.

Panasonic DVD Recorder

Nice.

I think Video has had it's day.

Godalming pub crawl

I had a great day yesterday doing a pub crawl through Godalming.

We stopped for a curry after the thrid pub and managed another 8 before we started loosing members and decided to call it a night.

I think I need to do one in my area. It's a good way to check out the local pubs. (If you can remember the ones that were any good.)

1) The Kings Arms (Didn't get a picture)


2) The Sun


3) The Lounge Bar


4) The Thani Moon (Lunch)


5) Sports Bar 2000


6) The Jack Phillips


7) Slug and Lettuce


8) The Star


9) The Red Lion


10) The House of Blues


11) The Richmond Arms


12) The Anchor

New Vespa bits!

Just ordered a new steering yoke from www.sip-scootershop.com and got a few extra bits while I was at it... Most notably a new exhaust *grin*.

I hope their delivery time is as good as their site.

...perhaps I'll get a NOS kit the next time I visit.

The Tube

Traveling in to work by tube is pretty entertaining despite the crowds and stifling heat.

This morning there was a gentleman standing in the center isle of the packed tube that I was in, carrying a plastic bag containing a toner cartridge. Unfortunately I think he must of forgotten that he was carrying it (being early Monday morning and all) because he decided to use that hand to grab the overhead rail, accidentally pouring black toner over himself and the people around him in the process.

In true British style, nobody said a word and just grumbled a bit as they tried to get the toner out of their clothes. I hope the rest of his week's better.

Vandals!

Some piss-cat broke the mount underneath the headset on my Vespa last night.

Either someone was trying to steal it and break the steering lock or a drunk stumbled into it on the way to the station. It's more likely to be an attempted theft. You'd have to bump into it pretty hard to break the cast iron bracket.

I need to set my web cam up on it again.

Well, I guess it's a good excuse to go browse around scooter shops next week.

Fun with SQL Server

Ok, so it wasn't quite as quick a solution to my SQL server problems as I would have hoped. I'll crack it this weekend some time though. I have a feeling the login problems IIS is having may be as a result of me changing the machine's name.

Anyhoo... this has been a nice short week. I think I should work three day weeks more often. Roll on 17:00!

XP SP2

security Placebo?

The Register has an article up on their site with their views on XP SP2. They also have some tips for home users on what services should be shut down on machines with internet access.

Fun with Windows

I spent most of yesterday trying to move my site to a Windows 2000 Server from the XP Pro machine that it was on to start with.

Loads of fun trying to get XP to route HTTP requests to the new machine. Eventually I just moved the modem onto the new machine and have that controling the internet connection.

It doesn't help not having a monitor on the machine and it seems to be a bit touchy about that when restarting.

..but I think I have it set up ok now. FTP & HTTP are working fine(ish), ASP & PHP are set up, now it's just a matter of getting my stats software working. At least I can host multiple domains on the one machine which XP Pro wouldn't let me do.

This evening I have to fix the mess I made of the old machine which is handling the SQL server. That shouldn't be as much of a problem though *fingers crossed*.