tin_the_fatty weblog

About eight months ago, the Lady’s Dell computer ran out of space on a 5G HD. So I ghosted the disk onto a spare 20GB WD HD lying around.
Then on Saturday the HD was giving out some squeaky noise and some odd errors. Ghost to the rescue! I ghosted it onto an old IBM 40GB [...]

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I am getting over 100 spam pings everyday. Adding the domain names into my spam database, deleting the pings and rebuilding my site, then deleting the notification emails are mechanical, and althou it only takes a few minutes, this is totally unproductive and certainly not fun.
There is no easy way to turn trackback off and [...]

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Excellent stuff.

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I went to an introductory course on LaTeX in university. WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS was much easier to use. My final year project report was done with WP5.1.
In my first job in publication I started to appreciate the finer things in the TeX and LaTeX systems. The thing was, I was doing primary school books, [...]

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The combo drive in my out-of-Applecare TiBook seems to have died.
I bought a few CDs last nite. iTunes ripped the first 2 CDs w/o a hitch. On the third CD it hanged half way thru. iTunes refused to respond, althou the rest of the system seemed to be okay. Killing iTunes rendered the combo [...]

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We were taught in school that the Chinese invented paper money.
And we watch on TV and in movies people in Medieval China doing transactions with paper money.
It was all crap.
Although paper money was invented in the Sung Dynasty and it might have seen some circulation in the Yuan Dynasty, in the Ming Dynasty circulation [...]

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Apple’s new pro software for photographers. “Only” US$499. Needs a G5 to run, but prefers a dual G5 (so it was written w/ multiple processors in mind, which is good). Eats RAW files for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The workflow seems slick.
This may shift a bunch of PowerMacs.

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released. Longer battery life, higher resolution screen, digital audio in and out, DL DVD writer, backlite keyboard, supports massive Cinema Display™.
Mature, reasonably priced, last (and best) of the PowerPC generation. Most tempting.

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Jasper demonstrated to us that he knew how to wipe his own backside. Apparently they went thru it at the nursery, while discussing excrement. Not bad at all.
Now they are discussing the food pyramid.

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A law firm an ex-colleague works at has implemented a 5-day week, with no increase in office hour. Secretaries still work one Saturday every month, but everybody else don’t work on Saturdays unless requested by their supervisors.
A 2-day weekend is generally a good idea. People already work long hours, so time-off is highly beneficial to [...]

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This is Jasper’s favourite DVD. He must have watched it hundreds of times. He’s got the whole series.

We bought him a dinosaur colouring book on Monday. He asked me what colours to fill the pterosaur in. I told him that noone has actually seen a live dinosaur before, all we have found were fossils of [...]

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Took Jasper to see Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit on Tuesday.
Since getting the full Wallace & Gromit collection on DVD, Jasper’s been a great fan of the duo. He absolutely loves the new movie.
Oh, and they showed a short-ish movie before the main thing, starred by the 4 psycotic penguins in [...]

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As reported by Dpreview.
My first reaction: WTF?

Digital image processing technologies? [...]

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Aka Kamikaze Girls. Good movie. A lot of fun. Recommended.

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Thanks James!
Update (10/10): Check out Alec and his Sopwith Camel.

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The story of the Densha Otoko.
It has absolutely nothing to do with our little shopping yesterday. Honest.
Oh yes, a friend went shopping yesterday, and wanting to watch and cheer our friend spending money for good stuff, I tagged along.
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Yeah, I feel so gay.
Or, Straight Eye for the Densha Otoko.

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I really like the photograhy and presentation in this movie. I even like the beginning and up to the middle of the movie, but the big show off and the ending of the movie were not only bad, they were embarrassing. Not wanting to spoil the ending for anyone, let’s say it was naive.
All the [...]

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I first read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series when I was in the sixth form. It was simply mind-blowing. Psychohistory was very convincing and fascinating to this (then) simple sixth former. What is not to like about a science for predicting the future?
In the Comparative History course I am doing, we learn about Theda Skocpol and [...]

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Excrement.”
Yeap, that’s what Jasper’s class wants to do, according to the class journal. The teachers had some doubts, but decided to respect the kids’ idea.
“Some shit is long.” Jasper suggested in class.
I spoke to Jasper last night. While the topic is somewhat interesting, and I find the kids’ sense of humour amusing, getting carried away [...]

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