Kerblam! by Christopher.

The most sense I've read all month

2008-12-01T16:13:00.003Z

Hello, I'm not dead yet! Been superSUPER busy recently but I'm keen to get back into the blogging (just as soon as this latest batch of brain-zapping coursework is over and done with). In the meantime, this, from the latest Zen customer newsletter, made me smile: GRAMMAR SCHOOL Even the most educated readers and writers can fail to get a complete grasp of English grammar. The book: 'Eats,

I go away for a while, I doss around a bit, I order a Zalman NC2000...

2008-08-25T03:21:00.004+01:00

"What the bloody hell are you on about?" is something you'll no doubt be uttering - don't worry, it'll all become clear imminently. Long story short, my PC's currently out of action, I'm ordering an entirely new rig in September. A side effect of this is that I've had to keep up with all the work I would have been doing on the desktop, but on the laptop instead. It's an alright laptop, An Acer

Oh smashing, now I can stop using Dictionary.com all the time

2008-06-12T22:51:00.003+01:00

Great though it is, Dictionary.com has its shortcomings. I've used Urban Dictionary for a long while too, but there's other great sites out there that provide functionality you'd otherwise have to pay for. LifeHacker has the lowdown (click to read the article - I love Gawker blogs!). I'm really busy at the moment, so blogging's gone onto the backburner. Sorry to any of the (semi) regular readers

Personal debt, and amusing placenames

2008-05-20T02:39:00.003+01:00

I was somewhat alarmed to re-read on the BBC News site last weekend that personal debt in the UK passed the one TRILLION pound mark almost four years ago - and it's well on the way to doubling. That's a huge amount of money (and a UK trillion is far more than a US trillion). I also learnt that, according to the BBC's Hugh Pym, "If you took �1 trillion worth of �5 notes they'd cover a county the

Windows error codes, know thy master

2008-04-11T20:51:00.004+01:00

Those fscking Windows error codes really annoy me sometimes - how am I supposed to remember what 0x00002740 stands for? (It's "Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. WSAEADDRINUSE" aka errorcode 10048, incidentally). If, like me, you don't have a photographic memory (or months to memorise what each code stands for), there's a couple of useful

The definitive 2008 guide to multi-network psyBNC setup and configuration

2008-04-06T17:28:00.011+01:00

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence. This tutorial is published under the "Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales" licence. If you want to provide this tutorial on your site for the benefit of your users/customers, you can do so providing you attribute the original to me. I put a lot of time and effort into compiling this, so my only real request is

Speaking Freely... Or, why in the future you may never have to use a computer to blog again

2008-04-06T02:18:00.002+01:00

"One of the advantages on keeping your eye on technological developments is something comes along once in a while. It's actually quite interesting. I'm actually writing this blog post with voice using SpinVox which is www.spinvox.com, you can write blog posts. You can use it as a voicemail system so it transcribes incoming calls and you can also have recorded your own memos which were emailed to

Feel old? Yeah, so do I.

2008-04-05T09:20:00.006+01:00

I just cleaned about 10gigs of MPEG-2 video files off my PC (DVB-T rips)... At about 2 gig per hour, they soon build up. Three DVDs later, 10 gig more free space! Woo and yay. My first PC had a 10 gigabyte hard drive in it, and I just remember thinking "cor, I don't think I'll ever fill that up..." How wrong could I be: my fileserver (other machine) has more than 1 Terabyte of (mostly filled!!!)

F1 comes home to the BBC!

2008-03-20T12:16:00.003Z

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! $deities be praised! The BBC has secured the television rights to show Formula One in the UK from the 2009 season. The five-year deal for an undisclosed fee marks F1's return to BBC screens 12 years after it switched to ITV. The contract covers all platforms and will see F1 broadcast on the BBC Sport website, as well as on TV and radio. F1 supremo Bernie

I was on BBC TV! And for a good reason, too...

2008-03-05T22:56:00.002Z

Crossposted from my Uniblog. Preface: a while back, I wrote a case study about damage to my own hearing after prolonged exposure to loud noise over a period of years (musician, drummer, listen to loud music etc... I'm sure you're the same or similar, or you know someone like me). Anyway, on Monday, I was contacted by someone from the RNID, who said they were launching a new campaign called "

My fave links in the week of a day that shouldn't exist

2008-03-02T14:02:00.003Z

(A very convoluted way of saying 'the week containing February the 29th'). Has your girl proposed to you yet? Links of interest for the week with a day that shouldn't exist (29th of January). The Dangerous Ground Project has a very clever web site illustrating the difficulty millions face on a daily basis with unexploded landmines. Apparently, it takes just �1 to clear one square metre of

Saving the world by doing nothing?

2008-02-24T19:02:00.003Z

There's few people who can attest to doing nothing to save everything, but Stanislav Petrov did just that - and kept schtum about it for decades. What am I on about? Give this a read, and then thank your lucky stars that there are still some sane people in this world, keeping their heads (when all around them are losing theirs)... Hope you're having a peaceful day, see you soon.

My favourite links this week (22/02/2008)

2008-02-22T12:09:00.001Z

My links for the week: flac-113 "...was written to allow users to convert their FLAC archive from previous versions of FLAC to the latest version. The script was written when 1.1.3 was released, thus the name, but can be used for any version of FLAC." Full instructions and links to download (with other utilities) too - start your surfing from http://www.synthetic-soul.co.uk/files/flac-113.txt.

Lekker?

2008-02-06T22:49:00.000Z

Lekker lekker lekker, lekker lekker lekker lekker lekker... So goes a Noisia breaks tune from a little while ago. I'd been wondering what lekker means for ages, because I was sure it wasn't a Dutch word... Turns out it might be a South African word (it'd make sense anyway): lekker (lekk-irr with a rolling r) - Nice, good, great, cool or tasty. Definition from SouthAfrica.info That is all. :)

Woo - Roni Size is re-editing New Forms!

2008-02-03T21:28:00.000Z

Sometimes I'm a little sceptical of artists when they "re-edit" a classic album and rerelease it, but I have faith in the Size. He doesn't mess with a classic formula, especially one which is good enough to win a Mercury Music Prize (before it became shit). I got this email from the V Cycle shop the other day. D&B fans rejoice! Roni Size/Reprazent�s New Forms was a benchmark for not just the

Another blogging platform gets $30million... Share the wealth?

2008-01-23T17:43:00.000Z

WordPress just announced they're getting $29.5 million for their B round of funding. And they said the bubble had burst. Nice! There's still hope for my search for $65m in VC funding for my interactive wacky wailing inflatable arm-flailing tubemen social networking site. I know that $30m only equates to about �4.69 in pounds sterling, but it's still an incredible amount for what's nothing more

Come fly with me...

2008-01-21T13:42:00.000Z

Some inspirational and mind-boggling photography: here's a panoramic collage taken by Charles M. Duke (Lunar module pilot on the Apollo 16 moon voyage): There's tons more imagery and multimedia on NASA's Apollo 16 multimedia pages. I've been meaning to make a note of this page for at least a month now! And while you're perusing these images, you can go download and listen to some of the music

How many five year olds could I take in a fight?

2008-01-17T23:31:00.000Z

Evidently, more than enough. Great success. 23

Vimicro USB PC Camera 301x drivers - free

2008-01-07T04:05:00.000Z

Always nice to have something for nothing... I have a really cheap webcam (one of those purchases you make from eBay because hell, even if the thing never arrives, it only cost a few quid so it's no big deal). Anyway, various people sell it under a variety of guises, but in its OEM form it's a Vimicro USB PC Camera 301x. Drivers for this thing used to be fiendishly hard to find, too (the most

Why are banana sandwiches so good?

2008-01-05T02:28:00.000Z

There's something about a cheeky banana sarnie (made with freshly-cut white bread, of course) at 1:30am with a cup of tea to follow it which really satisfies a snack craving - and in a moderately healthy way, too! Can't really beat that, can ya... I wonder what my housemates' weirdest late-night snacks are, gonna have to go ask them now. :D

... Hello 2008!

2008-01-01T01:26:00.001Z

Yay for Comedy Connections on BBC2, taking me through the small hours. That, and some nice cups of tea. Happy new year, happy Year Of The Rat and United Nations International Year of Planet Earth, everyone :)

Goodbye 2007...

2007-12-31T23:57:00.000Z

As the seconds tick down to midnight, the one thing I regret about 2007 is that they couldn't time the production of the next James Bond film to get released this year!

This is beginning to get a little ridiculous

2007-12-22T23:50:00.000Z

My housemate just invited me to a Facebook group... You have a Five Year old Fight invitation.Adam Powell sent an invitation using How Many Five Year Olds Could You Take In A Fight?: Adam wants to know how many five year olds you can beat up! Answer eight short questions and find out instantly - it's that easy! ... Though I did laugh hard! I've seen some utter shite

Christopher <3 his new speakers

2007-12-22T18:38:00.000Z

I love it when a plan comes together... I had a bad driver in my previous units, so after the third time it was sent off for repair, the guy at the DV store just said "we'll arrange an exchange for you" - completely unprompted! And now I have them, oh yes I do, I have them yes I do, just before Christmas. And to make things even better, Samson have updated the R6A design, so I have two

Vista drops its kill switch, pirates wonder what all the fuss is about

2007-12-04T16:35:00.000Z

Noticed that Microsoft's removed (or is going to in the next Windows Update, anyway) the kill switch which crippples Vista if the machine fails its WGA. Too many false positives spoil the OS. More about this on the relevant BBC article (and other articles around the web for that matter, I just like the BBC site). All the pirates proper are wondering what all the fuss is about - piracy of Vista