Josh

UK DEBT AT ALL TIME HIGH, PANIC PANIC PANIC

2009-09-19T08:33:50Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article6840749.ece

...Wait, no. Sorry. Panic over.

It is really starting to irk me that those calling for massive cuts in public spending, and saying that continuing to spend at this time would be "economically illiterate" can't handle very simple economic concepts like growth and inflation.

Computer horror

2008-09-19T18:51:07Z

So, I bought a new laptop. It looks nice. It runs well. Even Vista doesn't suck as much as I thought it would.

However.

The DVD drive appears to be fubared. It displays ok, and I can read files. Plus I managed to install Microsoft Office. But it seems to become randomly disconnected. I get "the device is not connected" messages when I try to install from a CD. Or worse, it starts installing and stops halfway through with a similar message.

I've tried uninstalling the driver, and reinstalling (well, Vista does the latter automatically). But I'm thinking this is a physical problem with the DVD drive.

Anyone recognise this error? Is there an easy way to fixenate it, or shall I just call the manufacturer for a replacement?

Edit: It looks like I fixed it, by uninstalling an "AHCI controller", whatever that means. Vista reinstalled it, of course, but with a different (earlier!) version of the driver. *shrug*

(I got this idea from an internet forum, of course. I don't even know what the above process was, or why it worked!)

Hyperinflation

2008-06-21T08:54:57Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/cartoon/

I know it's just a cartoon, but. Hyperinflation?! Do they even know what the word means? Sometimes I think the newspapers hanker after the days of world wars and cold wars and tumultuous economies. They want the world to be like that now.

Or maybe they just want to make it sound that way, because it sells more papers. Yes, I think that is it.

Silence in the Library

2008-06-06T18:09:46Z

Just caught up with it on iplayer. How awesome was that! Steven Moffat is doing exactly what I've been wanting for ages. So glad he's taking over from Russel T Davies.

Secrets of the Universe

2008-04-24T12:20:22Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/apr/24/physics.sciencenews

Summary: Dark matter - it was under the ~~sofa~~mountain all along.

Zimbabwe

2008-04-24T11:54:09Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/24/zimbabwe.china

Summary: South african dockworkers refused to unload chinese weapon shipments bound for Zimbabwe. They have been turned back! South Africa's President says there is no crisis in Zimbabwe, but it looks like his people don't agree. Good on them.

Du jardinage

2008-04-20T17:15:15Z

It is very difficult to find time for gardening. When I get home I'm tired. Even if I can be bothered to do the work, it's often raining, or just unpleasantly cold. And of course socialising, gaming and other such activities get in the way.

Nevertheless I have been making slow progress on the Vegetable Plot MK II. For the 8 months or so, this area has been covered with old carpet material - enough to keep the light out and kill the grass but let the soil breathe (I have no idea whether soil really breathes). For the last couple of months I have been methodically digging up the (dry, withered, but still apparently intact) turf, and the soil underneath. Having dug a nice big hole, I place the turf in the bottom (roots up) and cover it with soil again. It is my fond (albeit basically unfounded) hope that this will stop the grass growing back in the short-term, while allowing me to plant over the top.

After all that time, I have managed to dig over an area 6 foot by 7 foot, enough for three rows of 8 potato plants each. My pace is accelerating though, as the days grow longer and the weather less horrid. I hope to increase the size of the plot by a little over twofold, so there's also space for a mixed bed of leeks and carrots (the leeks allegedly repel carrot-fly). The last frost is supposed to be in the next week so I can do some planting soon.

frax has a little set of tomato and chilli plants growing in the living room, too. We're aiming to grow less plants but give them more time and care this year, in the hopes that we will get more in the end. Then there's the fruit trees and bushes, which were neglected over the winter (no pruning, tut tut), but which seem in good shape despite that.

Hopefully it will be a good year!

Zimbabwe

2008-04-14T13:19:42Z

What I don't understand is, how can you call for a recount when you supposedly haven't seen the results of the first count?

Stupid shakes

2008-04-07T08:58:50Z

Today in the work canteen I noticed for the first time, next to the smoothies, a new[*] product called a thickie. Like a smoothie only thicker, one presumes. I'm not sure whether I approve of this development.

[*] It may not be new. I'm not much of a smoothie person, so don't normally study the smoothie fridge in great detail.

"Classic" Science Fiction according to amazon.co.uk

2008-01-17T17:58:37Z

#1 The Doctor Who Encyclopedia
#2 Machiavelli's "The Prince"
...
#13 The Chronicles of Narnia
#14 Tales of the Greek Heroes
...
#17 Mary Poppins
...
#20 The Neverending Story

I mean. What the fucking fuck are they on, anyway? Mary Poppins?!

Free range issues

2008-01-11T15:15:15Z

So, what with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver and the rest publicising the poor conditions of battery hens, frax and I have been contemplating our diet. We only buy free-range eggs and meat anyway; but what we hadn't really considered previously was the produce that goes into such things as:

- KFC
- Chinese takeaway
- Ready meals
- Pre-prepared chicken sandwich
- Cakes, mayonnaise

These are in order of perceived obviousness. So, KFC - don't buy it, get a pizza instead (though presumably meaty pizzas hit the same territory). Chinese takeaway, much the same argument. It isn't as notorious as KFC for being skanky chicken, but presumably isn't free range. Ready meals - don't buy them if they have meat in. Chicken sandwich... I'm verging on the point where I can't be bothered. I buy a sandwich at the work canteen or Pret most days, and I like variety so occasionally it's chicken. Should I be boycotting this stuff? Or writing to them about the free-rangeness of their chicken? Cakes... now we're into really tough territory; do I really have to stop buying cakes because the eggs in them probably aren't free range? That's going to rule out a lot of potential foods. Mayonnaise, for example.

I don't want to buy battery-farmed (or in general non-free-range) produce if I can help it. But it usually isn't too hard - and for someone on my wages, too expensive - to get free-range meat and eggs. The question is, am I willing to put up with substantial inconvenience in this cause? Is it even possible to get mayonnaise with free range egg in it? Do I have to make my own?

Damn you, Hugh.

cardinalsin @ 2007-12-27T18:33:00

2007-12-27T18:34:22Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article3097464.ece

Is it illegal to advocate the killing of a journalist? How about a heavy beating?

Help!

2007-11-27T21:46:53Z

For a while spam wasn't a problem on my vapourspace email address. Then maybe a year or two ago I started getting annoying spam messages, which I began to filter out using outlook's message rules. This has recently got to the point where I'm filtering out perhaps 100 messages a day, and substantially slowing my downloading.

As a result, I'm thinking of moving to a better provider, who can spamassassin the stuff before it hits my connection.

However I've just started getting another few hundred messages a day which appear to be autoreplies of various kinds, apparently responding to spam sent from my address. Now, there's no evidence from my sentbox that it's actually being sent from my computer, and I suspect it's just the address being spoofed.

Is there anything I can do to stop this, or is the best I can hope for to block the zillions of emails I'm getting as a result?

Ding!

2007-08-02T08:58:01Z

I just gained d4 hit points, +1 BAB, and some extra spells.

Or in other words, I have been promoted!! Huzzah!!

Actually, the letter is from the people who run the interviews (they are outsourced) saying that they are recommending me for a team leader post. That means I should at least get a "ticket" saying I'm worthy of posts the next grade[*] up from my current one, enabling me to apply for such posts without needing to be assessed; it probably means that I'll be offered such a post immediately. I should find out in the next few weeks.

But in general: Yay!

[*] next two grades up, actually, because of the way the fast stream works.

cardinalsin @ 2007-07-02T17:59:00

2007-07-02T17:00:00Z

The "Y" key on my keyboard is starting to go. I am going to have to cut down on my adverbs.

That settles that, then

2007-06-12T04:00:20Z

At 3:24am I crit-failed my fortitude save, and my body finally succumbed to the lurgy.

Review: The Lies of Locke Lamora (Scott Lynch)

2007-05-21T18:55:28Z

In brief:

This is a fantastic fantasy thriller/mystery book centering on the antics of a gang of con-artists ripping off high society for ludicrous sums of cash, who find themselves even further in trouble than the aforementioned job description would suggest. Wonderfully viscious, fast-paced, witty and with a well-developed background. The only downside as far as I was concerned was that it was really very pretentious indeed; but in the end I felt it lived up to the pretensions.

The book starts off a little slow, by way of scene-setting and generally lulling you into a false sense of security that the book is about plot A when in fact it is about plot B. It begins in prelude-territory and repeatedly returns back to prelude-land at appropriate junctures. You'll be given a chapter or two about how character A learned his skills, just before he first uses them in the main story. I liked this technique, and it served to produce effective cliff-hangers at times (maddeningly).

Things hot up very suddenly, and you move all at once from the story of how the aforementioned con-artists are going to make stacks of cash from unwitting nobles to something quite different. From this point on the book becomes quite harrowing. I've never seen characters in a book so mistreated (and I've read George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire). Some of the most eye-watering, toe-curling torture and general bad shit happening to people.

The above could have just been needlessly bloodthirsty, and perhaps it was - but given that this is a book about the criminal underworld, probably not. The fact that you are introduced to the characters and their past in great detail helps - you really care whether they're going to make it through or not. They are slightly stereotyped, but again I wound up feeling that they were more like archetypes than stereotypes. They're the kind of characters you'd get in a really good roleplaying campaign, where all the players have taken ages to work out the twiddly details of their characters. And we're talking a high-powered campaign, too - virtually all the main characters are unbelievably good at what they do, although within a sufficiently specialised area that you don't feel too disbelieving.

The finalé is worth the wait and I'll definitely be buying the next in the series.

Motorways: the verdict

2007-05-21T18:05:48Z

Piece of piss.

Losing the fight against physics

2007-05-07T16:40:08Z

This weekend was Bladelands LARP. I won't write it up in too much detail, but for me the [high?]lights were:
- Shooting arrows right into melee all weekend and not hitting a single ally
- Learning the limits of latex arrows - they ricochet off *leaves* and can be easily parried out of the air
- Being suddenly possessed by Something Evil and compelled to attack our top mage, in the middle of archery practice. Taking him down in one shot.
- Tons of compliments on my l33t archery skills (can you tell I enjoyed the archery?)
- Learning the limits of sneaking around at night: never sneak with a fire behind you (doh!), and never try to move within hearing range of anyone
- Learning the limits of my own body (tenderised buttocks, nearly unusable legs, aching back and bleeding hands featured strongly)
- Drinking "Unicum's Whack", probably the nastiest booze in the world... repeatedly ;o)
- Learning the limits of our car (exhaust pipe fell off. At the front. In Stevenage. On Sunday. With no garages open. And once the garages did open, no spare parts)
- Learning the limits of our breakdown policy (as it turns out, you can't have your car jury-rigged so you can get back to the campsite to pick up your stuff *then* go to the garage... sadly we only learned this after we got to the campsite, to our great cost)
- Squaring off against heavily armed anti-changeling racists despite being a total combat wuss.
- Meeting lots of cool people and drinking their booze ;o)

Sadly our car is still in Stevenage, awaiting repair. But we made it home in one piece, and in time to have a decent relax before work tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the next one - just not too soon ;o)

R E S P E C T

2007-05-03T17:15:19Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2071099,00.html

The above article - about the perennial problem of people behaving inconsiderately in public places - is worth a look. The author confronts misbehaviour on several occasions and seems to meet with complete lack of any comprehension.

This stuff genuinely worries me, but I don't know what - if anything - should be done about it. Cameron burbles on about social responsibility but doesn't want to do anything about it, while Blair et al have tried the ASBO route - which may or may not be working, but certainly doesn't cover the behaviours described anyway. I have my doubts that lack of respect is really a new phenomenon, but it still amazes me the lack of shame people have in such behaviour when confronted.

It's a culture thing, it seems. Some people seem to feel free to act however they like, and most people are either unwilling or unable to confront it; perhaps that lack of confrontation is what encourages the first group to carry on acting that way, and instils the belief that any confrontation which does happen is abnormal - the result of some busybody getting involved - and not their problem. But how can anyone change this culture?

Could it be that some people think this culture is "right"?

Annoying DVD crappery

2007-05-02T17:30:34Z

We have in the past 2 months acquired three(3) copies of Peep Show 3 on DVD. None of them will play, either on my PS2 or my laptop DVD player. We don't have a proper DVD player so I have no idea whether they would work on that.

Anyway: does anyone know whether this is due to me trying to play them on something other than a dedicated DVD player? Any idea what might be wrong? The problem is that they get stuck on the first (menu) page, with the music kinda flickering on and off.

W00t!

2007-04-30T09:38:09Z

I just passed my driving test! With no minors![*] I'll be driving to work from now on! No more 2 hours wasted on the bus every morning! No more 2 hours wasted on the bus every evening! Huzzah!

[*] Not counting the first 8, obviously.

RP Humour

2007-04-27T16:07:17Z

So, thanks to the wonders of rp_discuss, I have discovered "DM of the rings", the webcomic where you find out what Lord of the Rings had been like if it was being run as a roleplaying game. Probably only funny if you've roleplayed before, but that said if you're almostalady you'll probably appreciate it for the pictures of Sean Bean.

The whole comic is viewable here... they've only just reached Minas Tirith, so you've hardly any catching up to do, honest ;o)

Yay ... daemons!

2007-04-27T10:36:51Z

Edit: Ok, so it's a ~~mouse~~ladybird. But given that previous incarnations were a wolf and a spider, I think we can surmise that it's a killer ~~mouse~~ladybird with ninja powers. :D

Eeeeevil

2007-03-31T07:33:22Z

Just reading this Grauniad article. I know, I know - I shouldn't read these things - it's bad for my blood pressure. Nonetheless:

"I struggle to see how anyone can doubt the reality of evil. It seems to me almost axiomatic that there is a force of evil that threatens us all, day in, day out, and in a few horrific cases takes full possession of human beings. When someone commits a terrible, inhuman crime, I can see no better explanation than his possession by the power of evil. The alternative is either to deny that his deed is evil, or to call him intrinsically evil. It makes more sense, and is surely more humane, to see him as a temporary tool of evil. It means that he can he be redeemed."

Maybe it's just the fact that I'm ill and it's making me grumpy, but this paragraph annoys me intensely. Let's try the logic for something else shall we? "I struggle to see how anyone can doubt the reality of the stupid. It seems to me axiomatic that there is a force of stupidity that threatens all journalists, every article they write, and in a few belief-beggaring cases takes full possession of individual authors. When someone writes an awful, near-unreadable article, I can see no better explanation than his possession by the power of the stupid. The alternative is to deny that his article is stupid, or to call him intrinsically stupid. It makes more sense, and is surely more humane, to see him as a temporary tool of the stupid. It means that he can be redeemed."

And that's without even thinking about the counter-argument that "possession by evil" as an explanation for misdeeds appears to excuse those deeds by effectively absolving the doer of the deed. Or indeed that there is nothing specifically evil about evil acts except that the force of evil is involved.

Grrr, and now there's over 200 comments there so any ranting I do in response will disappear into the cacophony of voices.

I guess it's just as well. I'd only have wasted a load of time arguing against total nonsense. Oh, wait.