Steve the Duck – the partially sighted superhero from Lincolnshire – has just launched his new blog.
Forgive him the typos – typin’ ain’t easy when you have webbed feet.
Email Exchange of the Week
April 25th, 2007By now, many of you will be well aware of my hatred for all things MySpace-related. Here’s a typical email exchange, illustrating just why I detest them…
- Subject: you are downloaded stuff to my computer without my permission
i do not know why u r pop up on my screen but can u please tnot pop up
Sure, I can ‘tnot pop up’. Suspecting another d04.net scam, since the email had come in via the d04.net account, I wrote back:
- Hi,
D04.net does not download anything to anyone’s computer. It is a simple web page. Please read about what d04.net is before emailing. Thanks.
http://www.d04.net/
What link did you click on to get to the website? What site did it link to? (should end in d04.net is it’s on our service).
D
Of course, that didn’t actually make the writer stop and think…
- yes it does it putting nasty web sites on my comnputer thank i have alrwady report it to spam any way u do not know what u are talking about every time i trying to send someone a message a my space your web site po up why
Oh noes! I’ve been ‘alrwady report to spam’! I write back again…
- Please tell me what address is at the top of the page. Do you see a blue bar across the top with a ‘Report This Site’ button on it? If so, please click the button and I will know what site you are talking about.
Please don’t tell me what my site does or doesn’t do – I wrote it. If you are not willing to answer the questions I ask, I can’t help you.
D
But no, I was WRONG! I obviously DON’T know what my own website does…
- yes it does when i try to get on my space to send message to some one why do your web page come up u know i am going to report u to spam
Perhaps my web page comes up because.. I dunno.. you’re not looking at MySpace anymore or something equally impossible? Honestly, I couldn’t be bothered to write back after this because it was only going to go downhill from here. Sheesh!
Camping Preparation
April 24th, 2007I dug the big tent out at the weekend and K and myself kipped in it on Saturday night. This was an excuse to ensure it was still in one piece and not leaking like a sieve, and all seemed to do just fine. Everything went up fine, and the only problem was with one of the spring-tensioned canopy poles, but it’s still usable.
We had beer, we had burgers, we had more beer and it was all pretty cool. We talked crap into the night and fell asleep around 10pm. Some of us have to work hard in the day.
Come August, I’m heading up to the Outer Hebrides for a few days – probably stopping off at Fort William along the way. I’ve even convinced my mum to tag along since she’s never been up to Scotland. Pics will follow if that happens.
SA – Finding Lost Relatives a Speciality!
April 18th, 2007Responding to a post on this SA thread I posted the phone number of the last known employer of this particular goon’s dad, said goon called the number and within a few hours was talking to his long-lost father in Cyprus.
Which is pretty damned excellent, whichever way you look at it.
How to Set the MySQL Timezone
April 16th, 2007K found a problem with the server returning funny dates which we eventually tracked down to the server’s MySQL Timezone being set to ‘EDT’ rather than GMT, BST or whatever.
Kev wrote a neat little bit on how to Set the Mysql Timezone so I’ll let you read his post rather that duplicating it here. The oddest thing is that we explicitly told MySQL to use the SYSTEM timezone which was set correctly – bizarre.
4oD – Channel 4 On Demand
April 15th, 2007
The Main Browser
Week at a Glance
My Downloads
Video Playback
4oD is the latest initiative from the UK’s Channel 4, and features Video on Demand from the organisations film and TV listings. Almost anything from Channel 4 and FilmFour is available to download and play on either a free ‘catch up’ or a rental basis.
Not having a Windows XP machine, it took the arrival of the new laptop to allow me to sample the delights of 4oD. The service interface is an XP-only download (though XP Tablet Edition works just as well, as should MCE) and appears to make heavy use of Flash and WMP DRM. The interface is clean and uncluttered, and resembled the 4oD/Channel Four websites.
Both TV Shows and Movies are divided into your usual categories of Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi, Documentary and so on. TV can be downloaded on a ‘Catch Up’ basis to allow you to watch things you’ve missed in the past week, or on a ‘Book It’ basis so you can set your machine to download a show once it becomes available. There’s a mix of Free and Pay offerings that pretty much covers the whole of Channel 4’s output.
Movies are Pay Only items with prices around £1.99. Presumably if the service takes off, newer films (EG, new FIlmFour releases) may be made available at a higher cost. Currently the most recent films available are from 2002 (Thunderpants, Miranda and Talk to Her) but hopefully this will be improved. There are a few classics, so it’s a decent start.
The actual 4oD software runs in your system tray at all times and will download your selections in the background, or you can watch them streaming if you prefer. Speeds are good – certainly it appeared to be able to max out my 10Mb connection with a 176MB (24mins) download of ‘Derren Brown: Trick or Treat‘ completing in just a few minutes. The estimimated download time was 48 minutes, but the actual time was nearer 5-10. Obviously, network conditions and your broadband speed will affect this. Most programmes are 24 or 48 minutes long – indicating they’re free of ads.
Video quality isn’t bad on the TV shows we’ve tried. The stream appears to be 320×240 but the software does a good job of scaling it up to whatever resolution you happen to be using. On the 1024×600 notebook, things were perfectly watchable. The play allows double-size and full screen modes, and the application’s control panel is very professionally rendered.
Maybe it was just us, but we were unable to simply drag the slider to a random position on the video progress bar and watch the stream from there. Rewind and Fast Forward seem to work as indicated, however. Once you’ve started watching a download you have 48 hours to finish watching, then it’s automatically deleted from your list.
On the whole, the service works very well. It’s intuitive and speedy, and the bare minimum usage – that of being able to download free stuff from earlier in the week – makes the service very useful indeed. It would be nice to have all UK channels served up in this way – perhaps the BBC et al should take note?
Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook P1510
April 12th, 2007After much looking around in places like PC World and so on, and a good fortnight of hunting around the Internet, I finally settled on a new notebook – the Fujtsu Siemens Lifebook P1510. There were several criteria that had to be met: Full Windows version, decent screen resolution, Compact Flash adapter (or at least PCMCIA), wireless and a proper keyboard.
Weighing in at 1KG and being the approxmate size of 2 internal HDs, the P1510 features an 8.9in screen with 1024×600 pixel resolution. Despite these dimunitive dimensions it is sufficient for most tasks if you minimise wasted screen real estate by hiding the taskbar and browsing in full-screen mode. The screen is bright and clear, which certainly helps, and the unit runs Windows XP Tablet Edition.
Obviously a reduced screen and case size means the keyboard will be smaller too, and Fujitsu have made a decent stab at cramming a usable one onto the P1510. Keys are approximately a centimetre on a side, making them smaller than everything bar your mobile phone, and while this inevitably leads to more typos than normal, it’s in no way as bas as, say, the Sony Vaio UMPCs. The trackpad has gone as well, in favour of a pointing ‘nipple’ betwen the G and H keys and a full touch screen – a stylus tucks away in the bottom right corner for the latter.
The attention to detail is really something else: The extended battery just out at the front of the unit, giving you a mini wrist-rest; the screen rotates 180 degrees to fold flat into a tablet PC; the catch on the lid allows you to lock it in either orientation and the screen bezel has dimpled strips on either size for added grip in tablet mode. There’s a fingerprint reader which doubles as another scroll device and sockets for LAN, Modem, USB and VGA-out, as well as built-in Compact Flash and SD-Card readers. Another nice edition is the hardware switch for Wifi, plus there’s Bluetooth built in for transfer between compatible devices.
This obsessiveness continues with the USB CDRW/DVD drive that comes with the P1510, which has options to power it from the mains, a second USB lead or the built-in rechargable batteries. It’s a laptop drive in a case not much bigger than a CD – very impressive.
Expect another post and final thoughts when I’ve used it for a couple of weeks.
Sony Playstation 3 UK Failure
April 11th, 2007The lads over at UK:Resistance have been keeping us entertained for weeks with the massive buildup and subsequent catastrophic failure of Sony’s PS3 marketing machine. The Playstation 3 – arguably the most powerful console in the world ever, hit the UK shores with a resounding ‘Ho hum’ and has completely and utterly failed to sell in any noticable volume.
The latest photos say it all: Snaps of Argos stockcheck machines showing an average of 35-40 unsold PS3s in every store, while the Nintento Wii continues to outsell Sony’s white (black?) elephant, even though it’s incredibly difficult to find them on the shelves anywhere. Think about that – a machine you can’t get hold of for love nor money is outselling a machine that is available everywhere you look. Nice one, Sony!
Some good news though! Apparently the PS3 outsold the XBox 360! Er.. in Japan. Where Microsoft have traditionally had a hard time selling to the gaming crowd. At least the Playstation 3 isn’t last everywhere now.
Climbing Ben Nevis… Again.
April 9th, 2007
Whoops – I completely forgot to tell anyone outside of work that I was going away for Easter, off up to Scotland again for another crack at climbing Britain’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis, near the town of Fort William.
As per usual, I stopped in the handy Glen Nevis campsite/caravan park at the foot of the mountains after driving up there through the night. My reasoning is that it’s easier to get a good spot if you arrive early, and as they open at 8am, I should be there.. well earlyish. In fact I got there at 7am and just mooched about for an hour.
Friday (Bank Holiday no.1) was spent getting set up and doing a bit of shopping as well as keeping one eye on the weather – a largely pointless task since one can have bright sunshine one moment and pouring rain the next. Such is the weather in the glen. It was mainly dry, and it was looking good.
Saturday I went up. I started out at 7am on the grounds that I knew it would take me ages. I’m 36 and three stone overweight so I wasn’t exactly going to sprint up the mountain. As it was, someone had already started out ahead of me and I could see him a few turns further on. This year I used the bridge near Cafe Beag, rather than the one at the Visitor’s Centre, since it was closer to the camp and a shorter climb, albeit a steeper one. Still, my legs were fresh, right?
My failed attempt from last Easter at least prepared me for the day’s festivities and I took a lot less weight with me this time. I had two pints of water, a honking great block of Fruit & Nut, emergency blankets and my mobile phone, with camera. I probably carried one third of the crap I had previously, and with my newly-purchased hiking pole (the vertical one, right) I made pretty good progress for a fat fella.
Some time around 1pm I got to the top with the help of a mad Scotsman called Bob who decided to cheer me on every step of the way up – effectively preventing me from dropping out from pure shame. Bob was taking some photos of the route up for a bunch of guys in Milton Keynes (“I’ll nip up at the weekend and take a few snaps for you!” – as you do). It was a hard slog but I got there in the end, and Bob took a photo to mark the occasion. Hopefully I spelled my email address correctly and it’ll be in my inbox before long.
Coming down I.. uh.. actually I fell asleep on a bit of ground that was less rocky than most parts, and only woke up when some young lady shook me to ask if I was alright. I think I did pretty much the same thing last year as well.
Sunday was a day full of pain and stiffness. My calf and thigh muscles feel like they’re made out of wood, and are driving splinters into my nerves whenever I try to do something complicated like stand up, or sit down. I spent most of Sunday drinkin cups of tea and reading ‘The Skin Gods’ by Richard Montanari, which wasn’t a bad way to spend a day when all’s said and done. The rescue helicopter was out in the afternoon, plucking people from the lower slopes.
Today, Monday, (Bank Holiday no.2) is still pretty bad, even after soaking in a nice hot bath for an hour and then having a shower on top of that, but I can move a little bit. I think I’ll take the lift at the office tomorrow, all the same.
ImageShack Spam
April 4th, 2007The war on Spam Filters continues with a new assault – images hosted on ImageShack. You receive an email with just a couple of lines of random text and a link to an ImageShack image. That’s your lot.
ImageShack themselves seem to be pretty quick about taking them down, possibly because others have already reported them, as I’ve never actually seen one working. This leads me to suspect spammers have become even more retarded than previously.