tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75979157911285800912011-10-01T19:44:56.116+02:00Stuff. Serious Stuff. Daft Stuff. Big Stuff. Trivial Stuff. All The Stuff You'll Ever Need. In other words...the trials of Information Technology; Heroes and Zeroes; Mathematics; Philosophy; Mythology; Anthropology; Linguistics; Budapest; Specific Concerns vis-a-vis Quantum Mechanics, Cosmology, and Reality (mine). Stuff in All GeneralityMr Stuffnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-85778275095956578172011-01-15T11:49:00.000+01:002011-01-15T11:49:49.194+01:00

If you want to know the answer to a tough question, ask the experts... Doing exactly that over at Physics Stackexchange. You can follow progress there.

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-46868019463701115992010-12-22T18:49:00.000+01:002010-12-22T18:49:13.607+01:00

I say "a solution" advisedly: Excel warns that another application may be using the clipboard - thereby preventing it being cleared (because e.g. the other application has "locked" the clipbaord.) But even if it were true, how does one identify the offending app? The hard way... quitting them one by one and seeing when the fault goes away. As a result of which I found an offender: the Skype

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-39862828890876486622010-06-07T14:28:00.012+02:002010-06-07T14:53:27.363+02:00

A chorten (the Tibetan form of stupa) is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, typically the remains of a Buddha or saint, used by Buddhists as a place of worship There are rather a lot of them in Ladakh... This photo is of just a few on the slope below Shanti Stupa in Leh, Ladakh The Chortens of Ladakh     Chortens crowd the valley floors,     Chortens mount the steeps

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-12233838505489033812009-12-22T17:04:00.003+01:002009-12-22T17:22:44.003+01:00

Well, at long last (and it's a very long last - nearly four years since I pitched up in Budapest just to "finish IT off") - and despite the many, many impediments presented by a cold December Monday yesterday, the book, "IT" was finally uploaded to the printers and the order emailed.It is done: the text, the design, the illustrations - all of it.Except for the bits that aren't, whatever they

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-13071055654274295232009-10-20T17:45:00.004+02:002010-02-21T14:24:50.813+01:00

The proof-read. Only took 16 weeks (from 29th June to 20th October 2009). Just a bit more reading aloud (a bit behind with that - have been doing that in parallel) to catch up on and then it's all spell and grammar check, typesetting, printing... When will it be finished finished? Pretty damn soon. Then home. I'm exhausted; I'm tired & broke, and I need a holiday. Nearly there.... But, if I say

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-59173853722399279522009-10-08T09:50:00.004+02:002010-02-21T14:31:28.228+01:00

The basic problem with electron microscopy is that it's no good for looking at living things - it just fries them with electron radiation. So, of course, someone is looking for a way around that problem - they might be onto something. However, what really caught my eye was the analogy used to explain just how nasty it would be to find oneself in an electron microscope. The radiation dose

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-70613396467186014742009-09-06T10:22:00.008+02:002009-12-18T16:30:17.744+01:00

Did you know that those amazing maps of the so-called Cosmic Microwave Background were produced by a webcam placed inside a painted sphere in a studio in Pasadena? Just another put-up job like the moon landings!No? You mean you actually think the Big Bang - or something rather like it - actually occurred about 13.7 billion years ago?Good - we can proceed.The conspiracy I was actually alluding to

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-88698698824700711562009-08-27T11:30:00.004+02:002009-08-27T11:45:44.812+02:00

Writing, as I do - more than I usually care to admit (which I am nonetheless obliged to on this occasion) - somewhat parenthetically, I have perceived, in the course of writing IT, some apparent deficiencies in English punctuation ( in addition to a lack of words for certain things and other minor irritations* with the language as a whole).I am therefore pleased to note that I am not the only one

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-40879779674014643042009-08-25T21:13:00.002+02:002009-08-25T21:25:04.339+02:00

(Click the photo to go to the photo's page on Flickr)August 20th is the anniversary of the foundation of the Hungarian state and traditionally the fireworks begin at 21:00 and the rain begins at ~21:10. But this year - no storm this year!These were the best fireworks I have seen in ages... the line of green, red and white (the colours of the Hungarian flag) are nicely presented along the Buda

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-20981622113107280482009-06-29T16:44:00.003+02:002009-06-29T16:47:10.556+02:00

Narrative finished 12th May; unresolved issues finally cleared up by 17th June; miscellaneous comments, potential improvements etc. in the Scratch column finally cleared up on the 29th June.Now "all" I have to do is re-read it from the beginning and polish it up.The recession will probably be over by then... so I ought to be able to find gainful employment after that!Progressive Stuff

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-35135048485562314342009-06-26T15:35:00.002+02:002009-06-26T15:37:59.336+02:00

That is, four hours, thirty three minutes of non-stop Michael Jackson.And now... Johnny Cash singing "A Solitary Man" - is that just coincidental commentary?Ah... normal programming has been resumed - at last.

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-78550119157439688482009-06-26T13:42:00.003+02:002009-06-26T13:47:42.254+02:00

Yes, I will finish & post the entry (with pics! see what real darkness looks like!) on caving, but for now I simply wanted to share my pain with you...Michael Jackson is dead...and since I arrived at 11:00 (it's nearly 2pm now) that's all that's been played in Castro Bisztro.I fear my appreciation for the late Mr Jackson may have taken a turn for the worse by 6pm if this keeps up.You do feel my

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-22607481746105774182009-06-16T19:41:00.032+02:002009-06-26T20:59:23.788+02:00

Well, that was quite a weekend! Dean arrived Friday (12th June - need to put that it now it's been so long) and we did the usual - a few beers at Godor and then... not quite sure now - but eventually we ended up a restaurant nearby that - purely on the name, to whit The Marquis de Salade - Noémi and I had been meaning to visit for ages. It's not a glorified salad bar it is in fact an Azerbaijan

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-46307663434753147592009-06-10T17:48:00.005+02:002010-02-21T15:49:27.187+01:00

Science Daily reports a potential Type Ia explosion remnant in the Small Magellanic Cloud (see here for the original Chandra report) with unusual characteristics: this remnant is lobed rather than circular. Now, it's probably a naive thought but a simple axplanation occurs to me: since Type Ia supernovae are the result of accumulated hydrogen from a companion star detonating, the variation in

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-63293476665182962762009-05-25T15:00:00.005+02:002009-05-25T15:10:42.748+02:00

'Er indoors is trying to get a new passport... I am annoyed as only an Englishman can be that they want my life history before she can get a passport. However, more to the point, the consular staff concerned specifically required my identity document - that piece of paper that says where I live - and no, my passport would not suffice.I said the British have no such paper; when that was passed on

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-16303434825694243642009-05-24T21:52:00.004+02:002009-05-24T22:01:05.899+02:00

By implicit request ("popular" would be an overstatement)Questo porcellino andata al mercatoQuesto porcellino restata sui casaQuesto porcellino mangiata rosbifQuesto porcellino non e mangiata nienteQuesto porcellino urlato... ui ui ui ui (ad libitum...) tutte le strada di casaCorrections welcome...And as a bonus..."Si six scies scient six saucisses, six cent six scies scient six cent six

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-32632987781047812622009-05-23T09:21:00.004+02:002009-05-23T11:18:19.897+02:00

So, what did happen just as I was about to complete "IT".Well, there I was, approaching the dénouement at last - I had perhaps an hour's more work to do - when it suddenly occurred to me that the screen on my laptop seemed a bit dim... this usually happens when it has switched to battery power and I thought that the power lead must have become unplugged.But it hadn't! (can you feel the tension

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-64304943891615767712009-05-23T09:13:00.004+02:002009-05-23T09:21:43.053+02:00

Thanks (tak?) to anonymous for posing the perfectly cromulent question (in a comment to "IT'S DONE") "Can you recite Jabberwocky in German whilst standing on those stilts?" (what stilts? Perhaps these?)The answer is, no. Because I don't recall Jabberwocky in German. (or French...)MY question is: who is anonymous? There are very few people with whom I have discussed translations of Jabberwocky...

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-42123160322863827722009-05-12T14:29:00.004+02:002009-05-12T14:48:58.155+02:00

Castro Bisztro and the author are pleased to announce the completion of IT - the book - the book you never thought would be finished. Yes I still have to correct and proof it but the story is complete. All 306,000 words of it.I am now going to enjoy several very large cognacs.And then a few more.And later I'll tell you what happened just as I was about to finish (we call that a cliffhanger in the

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-39683322090758622622009-05-11T10:17:00.004+02:002009-05-11T12:28:06.456+02:00

Yes, "IT" is nearly done (watch this space, seriously) - but I mean the story, not the whole project (still have corrections and proofreading to do but it will be the first time there has been an end-end story). However this post is not so much about literary achievement as nerdulent smugness...As part of the aforementioned forthcoming proofing process the book will be checked for various,

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-2852635087403081422009-05-05T19:12:00.004+02:002009-05-05T19:25:30.800+02:00

Yes! You (will have) read it here first! (If you keep on reading)During an interview with the BBC broadcast today on BBC World Service "radio" (re Seal culling), Stockwell Day, Canadian Minister of International Trade, accidentally revealed the TRUTH about sheep farming (at least in Canada)."Sheep are killed for their wool."(Honestly, that's what he said. I don't know whether the broadcast "The

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-72648136261077500762009-04-06T17:16:00.002+02:002009-04-06T17:26:38.815+02:00

Well, when even the BBC gets round to ridiculing "Web 2.0" it's time to make a comment...Yes, maybe it did achieve what Tim O'Reilly wanted but... ugh... and everybody wants to now what's next because, y'know, "Web 2.0" is like, so, legacy.Unfortunately the answer is that you are already using Web 2.700.1.237 (alpha) Build 591 LITE.Please try to keep up.Personally I think the way forward is to

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-71273516097043970432009-04-03T11:28:00.004+02:002009-04-07T19:38:20.202+02:00

Exciting news - a large population (6000+) of Irrawadday dolphins has just been discovered.This is particularly noteworthy because:"Each discovery of Irrawaddy dolphins is important because scientists do not know how many remain on the planet"Eeek! When, where, and how did they leave? Maybe Douglas Adams was right.Squeaky Stuff.

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-31724639295830543602009-03-21T10:05:00.018+01:002009-04-06T22:07:50.302+02:00

I'm not quite sure what A. C. Grayling was seeking to achieve in his latest piece for New Scientist Brain science and the search for the self because after a beautiful build-up he suddenly stopped and enjoined his readers to head off to the review of The Ego Tunnel on page 44, which lack of a proper conclusion to his own piece was a bit of a let down: I want to hear what Grayling has to say in

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-62827998396539834092009-03-10T13:43:00.003+01:002009-03-10T14:06:01.842+01:00

Not even close! But no surprise there.The results of the FQXi Time Essay competition are now in and as expected the luminaries shone bright. Julian Barbour's essay won the (well deserved) first prize; Ellis and Rovelli and other recognisable names also scooped prizes but there was also recognition etc. for many other interesting submissions from researchers I was previously unfamiliar with (I

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-91001591982456408982009-03-06T12:27:00.001+01:002009-12-18T16:38:10.181+01:00

Oh dear! - and yet, Oh my! How wonderful!Once upon a time there was a great little company called Walton Radar Systems, a.k.a WRS. I joined Walton straight from university (having, I thought, learned some electronics and programming in the course of my 3rd year cosmic ray counting project - how wrong I was!) and stayed for just over twelve years, progressing slowly from "Test Engineer" to the

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-1535735950201820062009-03-06T11:56:00.001+01:002009-03-06T11:58:44.239+01:00

From the OEDCare (noun 2)... 15th Century... obsolete... "a kind of stuff"Nuff said!

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-4456003923400538182009-03-04T17:34:00.004+01:002009-03-04T17:46:21.438+01:00

Yes, I am nearly at the end of the 2nd draft (which will be the first time the story has been complete, end-to-end) and we've just reached 280,510 words... only a few pages of the marked up 1st draft left to process but they are being pushed backwards by new narrative.It's going quite nicely at the moment - thought I might have finished Draft #2 last week but the Q was "... and what sing will the

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-53219362521207902092009-01-30T20:32:00.012+01:002010-02-21T16:06:15.694+01:00

Very recently, New Scientist (one of my daily science reads) headlined "Darwin Was Wrong"" on the cover. Inside, the article "Why Darwin was wrong about the Tree of Life" explained, quite reasonably that the simple evolutionary relationships between organisms implied by the tree structure that Darwin envisaged was rather more complicated. Now that DNA sequencing is a standard tool of molecular

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-85427275198210193132009-01-12T11:36:00.010+01:002009-01-12T12:41:21.183+01:00

I finally got fed up with Vista's built in indexing and thought who better to index my files than the Masters of the Search Universe, i.e. Google.So I installed Google Desktop (5.8.0809.23506) and what an eye opening experience it has been.I was aware of potential security/privacy issues and so made very sure not to enable the "Search Across Computers" option that transfers my data to Google so

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-37324005894140369372008-12-31T12:57:00.004+01:002008-12-31T13:11:53.940+01:00

You may be paranoid, but are you paranoid enough?A tough question, but in the context if IT (that's Information Technology for a change) the answer is usually Probably Not.Today, because I was let in early and the Netgear router that provides wifi here at Castro Bisztro has been flaky for several days I decided to restore the settings - call it a public service with a hint of self-interest.I

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-40707648038654956472008-12-29T20:20:00.004+01:002010-02-21T15:50:36.407+01:00

I was won over watching Crout's KazooKeylele - Ukulele - The final countdown (hmmm... there's creativity for you) on YouTube, so I followed up... and watched Dorkbot Alba's Waldflöte vs Kazookeylele - dueling banjo's only to spot that Roundest Objects in the World Created was a "related" video. The latter is about incredibly precise spheres of silicon intended as possible replacements for the

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-86401001167305481972008-12-05T14:11:00.003+01:002008-12-05T14:38:32.176+01:00

is (14:11 local time) being enjoyed in celebration of another milestone... I have now written just over a quarter of a million words (250,025 to be precise). Working on the penultimate chapter, 40 pages from the end of the 423 page draft I printed out so long ago I can't remember when exactly, which printout was then marked up over the course of quite a long time and, at the beginning of

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-70053581463911937832008-12-01T17:28:00.003+01:002008-12-01T17:49:08.473+01:00

Having heard that FQXi (The Foundational Questions Institute) was running a prize essay competition on the subject of "Time", and having previously mused on the issues I perceived with wormhole time machines (see here) I thought the competition would provide an opportunity to think the problem through properly...So I did, and late yesterday submitted "Time. On. Essay. An."And then I felt a bloody

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-64191981756228755242008-11-29T19:25:00.005+01:002008-11-29T19:31:56.505+01:00

Just stumbled across this, which I thought I would share.It was apparently written circa 1997 "to purge the irritation" arising from wholly unjustified criticism of my (probably extended use) of metaphor and analogy in describing certain computer algorithms for optimisation. [If I recall correctly, I probably described a piece-wise linear optimisation as a Darwinian Ecosystem... at length, with

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-67524839088342836022008-11-12T17:08:00.001+01:002008-11-12T17:09:44.634+01:00

Discuss

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-26648699608711940312008-11-05T11:07:00.004+01:002010-02-21T15:52:30.434+01:00

I stayed up till about 04:10 last night watching the BBC's Presidential Election results broadcast, just long enough to hear Ohio called for Obama, at which time I think he he had 207 electoral college votes to McCain's 95 and the outcome seemed clear. This morning it is all over - perhaps not technically a psephological landslide but a dramatic result nonetheless. And the speeches... how

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-76591129384440053472008-11-02T22:28:00.002+01:002008-11-02T22:34:17.991+01:00

Breaking news...22:22 Nov 1, heading East-West a brilliant fireball (well, brilliant compared to most meteors)... duration 1-2s. It started as a bright point of light - which I thought was an aircraft light at first - but then immediately developed a sparkling orange trail... and then went out. (from Central Budapest looking North East, elevation about 45 degrees, trail length 10-15 degrees).

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-21979865591170537312008-10-22T15:03:00.004+02:002008-10-22T15:19:50.014+02:00

BBC news...On Tuesday, the second day of a swing through Florida, Mr Obama accused Mr McCain of making "stuff" up in the last weeks of the campaign.My preferences in the US Presidential Election are irrelevant, but I have to say to Senator Obama that Stuff really does exist... unless of course he was implying that McCain had a bag of ready-mix Stuff and was merely adding the other ingredients (

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-58781589573502522262008-10-17T15:16:00.008+02:002008-10-17T15:57:34.801+02:00

17th October, 230,000 words (admittedly we've slowed down... only 555 words per day since the last announcement).Yesterday was a bit of a wipeout on account of Patch Tuesday's various Windows (in my case Vista HP) and other updates (Office etc.) being applied Wednesday night - leading to catastrophic failure of special goodies I've written to add functionality to Word to help me with navigating

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-65064036751662792682008-09-24T15:08:00.003+02:002008-09-24T15:41:09.889+02:00

14th August 2008 - 200,000 words24th September 2008 - 220,000 (the 220,000th was, by the way, "pleas")33 writing days, 20,000 words = ~606 a day. Not bad.Still haven't budged from the 86% of the way through the marked up copy - this is all new, extra, but important stuff... the current chapter (Arcturus) is already ~41,000 words (that's almost half an average paperback) on its own, so I suppose I

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-6068408835484375212008-09-22T13:36:00.007+02:002008-09-22T14:18:34.487+02:00

6th August 2008. For some reason I was thinking about trying another online trial of Microsoft Office 2007 and found myself here at a site apparently belonging to "Runaware" - except that it looks like Microsoft. It looks good... maybe I should trust it. Ha! I wasn't born yesterday. We shall check the site identity...Except that "This website does not provide any identity information" according

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-26014535279266500372008-08-28T09:33:00.014+02:002008-08-28T10:06:44.836+02:00

Friday the 22nd August. We notice that the street parking on Revay utca has been taped off - but the tapes don't look terribly official... nonetheless, something is clearly afoot. We wonder what it will be.Saturday morning it's a bit noisy a bit too early. Music and a strange tinnily nasal Hungarian voice fill the street. Roused unnecessarily early from slumber I take a peek outside and discover

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-15488932928800588092008-08-27T14:42:00.002+02:002008-08-27T14:49:33.986+02:00

If you are having trouble finding the images (and the animations that belong with them) that many sites have reproduced they are here.If there are links buried at the NASA GLAST portal or at Stanford I couldn't find them...Gamma Rays - Cool Hot (Obscure) Stuff

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-26958553398001701122008-08-18T10:57:00.039+02:002010-02-21T14:33:53.824+01:00

Yes, it's time for an update on that serious event on the Budapest calendar... Sziget! This year I shall be mostly not going to Sziget (if it's not already over it will be shortly) - at least compared to other years when Sziget was a week-long festival: this year it is only 5 days and we only went for two... but it was 14 hours the first day and ~11 hours the second. We get our money's worth!

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-18122566096048273372008-08-14T16:57:00.002+02:002008-08-14T17:02:43.695+02:00

Sometime in the last five, ten, fifteen minutes I guess, "IT" passed the 200,000 word mark.That's two hundred thousand words.Two hundred thousand.Two Hundred Thousand!OMG!!(don't worry, I'll get over it shortly - and no, the 200,000 isn't made up of 66,666 repetitions of "Oh My God!")The Book - Big, Beautiful, Wordy Stuff!

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-8627498556218461692008-08-10T18:33:00.000+02:002008-08-10T18:36:06.053+02:00

[You have read the Disclaimer, haven't you?]The assiduous reader (that's you, O Sister Mine) who has been following the theme of Wormholes, Warp Drives and Time Machines has of course read Parts I and II - everyone else may wish to catch up...So, dear Sister, take nieces Scarlet & Em on your knee and read on... I'm sure they'll enjoy this!The story so far: many who probably know better than I am

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-60585823372812516332008-08-07T14:04:00.004+02:002008-08-07T14:15:03.707+02:00

I said I would try to work out why privacy is important, so here's a brief answer. It's overly simplistically expressed but this is a blog, not "An Essay Concerning..."The distinctive quality of sentience is the capacity for choice; to interfere with another's choice, where that choice affects none but the individual concerned is, in general, wrong. "Privacy", being shorthand for the freedom of

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-56449650926743551012008-08-06T11:19:00.005+02:002008-08-06T11:43:51.259+02:00

Some time back BT ran what some consider an illegal trial of Phorm, a system that carries out "deep packet inspection" of internet traffic, i.e. it looks at what you are sending or receiving, not merely who you are sending to or receiving from, as a way of "targeting" advertising - i.e. telling you about things you are more likely to be interested in.Now, although the European Commission has told

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-87254026727794225692008-07-28T12:30:00.002+02:002008-07-28T12:48:28.167+02:00

The New Scientist Space Blog pondered here the possibility that the International Astronomical Union might change the definition of planet yet again - promoting Pluto back from "Dwarf Planet" to full planet again. (I confess I'm one of those who don't like the current definition of planet, in particular the criterion of "neighbourhood clearing")The side effect of one proposed redefinition would

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-34494267747188886892008-07-25T15:46:00.007+02:002008-12-01T17:49:40.429+01:00

In anticipation of the dénouement (what a lovely word!) of the Wormhole-Time Travel thread (see Part I here), I have to describe how one is supposed to construct a time-machine using a wormhole. You may wish to follow the instructions at home...You will need:One Traversable Wormhole (preferably macroscopic) about 1m in length (distance between the wormhole mouths)One Human-rated rocket ship

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-71670951987582524752008-07-23T18:02:00.004+02:002008-07-23T18:08:53.981+02:00

Some time back, while extolling the virtues of an old Black Sabbath CD I said "This is a great CD - each track is even better than the last." To which my witty other half replied "Yes, and when it's finished it will be perfect!"In light of which, when she said, "You know, when you're not around I think how lucky I am to have you," I couldn't help expecting "- but when you come home...""I wish I'd

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-18337655696389639892008-07-22T15:31:00.009+02:002008-08-06T11:55:47.245+02:00

Just a quickie, just putting a marker down, a public reminder to do this all better another time.Don't get me wrong: I would love it if there were such things as traversable wormholes, faster-than-light travel and any way of getting the better of currency fluctuations (such as by going back 12 months and transferring all the money I didn't think I'd need then) but...It's a big but, and unusually

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-82329290493739511672008-07-22T14:53:00.004+02:002008-07-22T15:13:43.293+02:00

Ha!Recently, whenever I double-clicked a Microsoft Word (Word 2002/Word XP) document, Word would start but I would also get an error message from Windows that ""Windows cannot find..." and then the full path to the file I just double-clicked . Naturally I was able to open the file perfectly well once Word was running.I don't think the general cause or symptoms are application or Windows version

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-33708530255832171342008-07-11T10:10:00.007+02:002008-07-22T15:15:39.231+02:00

I may need to restart my machine after this - they are clearly tinkering with deep OS code in the update KB955020... it is marked as "Important" - which usually means it fixes something that causes crashes or let's some teen bit-racer leave his hack-tracks all over your disk drive.What is it about, I hear you ask?"The words "Friendster," "Klum," "Nazr," "Obama," and "Racicot" are not recognized

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-5837653587179089462008-07-09T17:37:00.006+02:002008-07-09T17:54:57.456+02:00

Thanks to Runar Larsen, the Norwegian with the Macunian accent from Oslo (or at least one of his mates) en route from Denmark to some Serbian music festival the list is as follows:Blygen = Shy One = BashfulBrille = Glasses = DocMinsten = Smallest One = ...must be Dopey by eliminationSinnatabben = Angry Bloke = GrumpyLystig = Happy = HappySovnig = Sleepy = Sleepy (should be the o/ thing...)Prosit

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-88652360980457818212008-07-01T13:50:00.004+02:002008-12-01T17:50:06.154+01:00

Are you worried about the Large Hadron Collider? Are you worried that you aren't worried about it? Should you be worried?Think about it. If The Large Hadron Collider Produced A Microscopic Black Hole, It Probably Wouldn't Matter at least so says UC Santa Barbara Physics Professor Steve Giddings and his co-author Michelangelo Mangano of... wait for it... the European Centre for Nuclear Research (

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-2738139544629923902008-06-25T15:35:00.003+02:002008-06-25T15:41:02.531+02:00

Not the first, but I'm dealing with them one at a time - hence the absence of the word "conundra" in the title.So..."they would then have kept with you until such time as there were cause for you to be confined or, for want of proper cause, an escort were unwarranted""they would have" - past, conditional... "until" and then, er, the past subjunctive of "be" to convey the (unreal past) but future

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-66353370322831868722008-06-09T10:07:00.002+02:002008-06-09T10:14:33.285+02:00

Long Live the Computer!By the way - much to my surprise [the story thus far: dodgy Hungarian electrics, tripped circuit breakers, blown desktop PC power supply, internal fuse replaced, reconnected - 5th Nov 5th/4th July/20th Aug fireworks inside, ergo dead computer] I replaced the power supply in the old desktop and it still works.Of course the disk drives were both warning of imminent failure so

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-56117758851182988882008-06-09T09:37:00.003+02:002008-06-09T10:06:46.380+02:00

Because if it were any shorter it wouldn't reach the end!The Book has moved another step forwards: on Friday I finished the complete rip-it-up-and-start-again re-write of Chapter 10, which meant throwing away the 9,155 words already written. The ideas were OK but the prose/poetry was just a little bit purple (think: that horrible magenta highlight colour that makes your eyes water just by looking

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-9368465667064586352008-05-22T16:17:00.002+02:002008-05-22T16:26:29.655+02:00

English - weird, wonderful and almost omnipotently expressive.Almost.If the verb "to pass" has as future perfect "will have passed", what is the future perfect of "to come to pass"? Not "will have come passed", not "will have came to pass", not "will come to have passed", not "will came to pass"... it seems as though it can only be "will have come to pass", which - dang it! - I find more than

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-22584258492368049352008-04-23T17:58:00.005+02:002008-04-23T18:43:57.026+02:00

I know it's putting one's head in the lion's mouth to adopt a new operating system as soon as it's released, but my old previous machine - a pathetic HP Pavilion [ab initio defective DVD, crashy, screen died at 1 year warranty + 1 day, etc. etc. etc.] - just had to be replaced and I hung on as long as I could...In the end I was actually very pleased with Vista (Home Premium) - the Rock Xtreme CTX

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-37793525920608426112008-04-02T23:20:00.004+02:002010-02-21T16:02:07.494+01:00

I just wanted to point out that after approximately two hours of concentrated effort and much contorted thinking this morning (in an endeavour to re-examine the underlying concept from a more illuminating angle) I have come to the conclusion that there is no single word in English for a "Long thing that is now much shorter than it was... but still quite long." Nor could I think of any short and

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-88003130607645528812008-04-02T11:27:00.005+02:002008-04-02T11:54:34.340+02:00

Does your system seem sluggish? Do you have one of those dashboard gadgets that says how much memory you are using and its seems to be saying "A Lot!"?Or more specifically, have you checked the Processes tab of the Task Manager and seen row after row of taskeng.exe processes... tens? Hundreds? Thousands?It pays to check occasionally. I only had a few hundred taskeng.exe processes, but that's more

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-53447615999680648202008-04-01T14:32:00.009+02:002008-04-01T15:04:43.370+02:00

I'm fed up with this particularly useless piece of "assistance" from Microsoft. Nice idea the "Problem and Solution Centre", especially since this Vista HP laptop is BSOD'ing every day now, so I thought I'd check to see what it had to say about the current state of my somewhat poorly system...Aha! Let's follow that link and follow those obviously helpful steps...What driver? Which device? How

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-59897768664906371942008-03-27T11:34:00.007+01:002008-03-27T12:14:08.592+01:00

It's an interesting piece of work. Apparently "scientists" (quotes allude to my irritation with the increasingly vapid use of the word scientist) - including at least one proper biogeochemist, Prof Timothy Lyons) - have reconstructed some aspects of Earth's ocean chemistry between 2GY and 0.5GY BP (see Science Daily) and infer that a lack of oxygen and molybdenum during this time was responsible

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-81001120490627362532008-02-29T21:14:00.006+01:002008-02-29T21:50:10.446+01:00

The Scene: a variety of rooms around the globe. People are gathered at the PC's reading "The Lotus Position".The Story So Far: Vista Home Premium is throwing away restore points; this led to a messed up PC becoming unrecoverable except by the good fortune of an external Acronis backup. It seems that Vista's Shadow Storage system is taking copies of everything not just System Restore points; as a

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-53087207658006949982008-02-29T11:37:00.009+01:002008-02-29T13:11:01.128+01:00

I should be writing but this could be of use...Since at least Windows XP, many (esp XP and now Vista) Microsoft OS's have had a rather useful feature called System Restore that allows the user to restore their system to a previous point in time, thereby undoing the accidental removal of good software or the deliberate installation of something less helpful. System Restore doesn't touch data files

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-20164743447653559002008-02-26T11:26:00.007+01:002010-02-21T14:39:49.324+01:00

I'm rationing myself so this is going to be quick... Just thought it worth recording a delightful example of why the French are so... well, French... At Le Louvre you can take photographs of everything - including the Mona Lisa/La Joconde (which has always surprised me, but then I suppose the special glass absorbs all the harmful flash - at least I hope so) - but elsewhere the situation is more

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-48555317151494279532008-02-20T11:54:00.005+01:002008-02-20T12:03:14.365+01:00

Perhaps more on the recent St Valentine's, anniversary, birthday trip to Paris and Amsterdam another time[Summary: Paris - whirlwind tour of les musees Picasso & Rodin, the Louvre, Le Jeu de Paume, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, Ile St Louis, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, Place de la Concorde, le Jardin des Tuileries, Place Vendome, les Invalides, etc. etc. so rather a lot to catch up on]Until then

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-30773718390032656182007-12-04T14:56:00.000+01:002007-12-04T15:34:05.390+01:00

True, False, Neither and Both...If I knew then what I know now, I've been wasting my time.It seems incomprehensible to me that the universe should be incomprehensible; we only understand the universe because it is understandable.[The most incomprehensible fact about the universe is that it is comprehensible. - Albert Einstein, quoted in Des MacHale, Wisdom London, 2002]There is only one universal

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-24099411218413706932007-11-29T13:41:00.000+01:002007-11-29T13:53:53.243+01:00

IT - the book.What's it like to write IT?It's like trying to write 4 or more sonnets a day - day in, day out, week in, week out, etcetera etcetera etcetera. [the additional complications of inter and intra-sonnet connectivity - I wonder whether anyone else has ever spoken of "intra-sonnet connectivity"? - wholistic integrity, etc. etc. etc. we shall temporarily ignore...]Compared to which,

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-49254120557939948232007-11-29T11:59:00.000+01:002007-11-29T12:31:42.499+01:00

Just so you know, when I looked at the temperature gadget this morning (at what was not by any means an ungodly hour - 8:30 ish I suppose) it was -6C here in Budapest. That's quite cold - though possibly not quite as cold as the bus stop at Luton Airport in November.Now it's only -1C, but though I may not be huddled over a candle in a creaky attic, struggling to hold the quill in my benumbed

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-89891118069079733412007-11-27T14:11:00.000+01:002007-11-29T14:04:37.789+01:00

Just how long is a piece of string?a) Twice as long as a piece of string half its length?b) Just long enough to join its ends?c) 10e-35 metresd) As long as my current Mathematica calculation?e) Shorter than when you last measured itIn the case of d), this calculation has now been running for 17h15m (that's 62,100 seconds), consuming on average about 50% of the power of my Core Duo T7200 processor

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-25251559149796522082007-11-23T11:59:00.000+01:002007-11-23T12:16:07.813+01:00

  ...Poof! My word it's dark!Not a lot of stuff round here.     I wonder why? Foop!...

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-70552178813771421552007-11-23T11:58:00.000+01:002007-11-23T12:04:45.825+01:00

Two well known philosophical limericksA toper, who spies in the distanceStriped tigers, will get some assistanceFrom reading Descartes,Who holds that it's partOf his duty to doubt their existence.But if he's a student of Berkeley,One thing will emerge rather starkly:That he ought to believe,What his senses perceive,No matter how dimly or darkly.Some additions to complete the course courtesy of

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-52284634396807135962007-11-22T13:50:00.000+01:002007-11-29T12:29:09.774+01:00

[Metaphor Warning: this posting exists in a superposition of metaphorically analogous similes, or analogous metaphorical similes, or... and?]So - Zeno's Petard? Well, he could have described a shock wave instead of an arrow... if he'd known about explosives... allow me to allow myself a little creative licence.Anyway, a new problem has arisen, and the problem is that instead of preventing you

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-81172629236974548782007-11-13T14:47:00.001+01:002007-11-13T17:17:31.994+01:00

It's all coming together now.Remember the sage advice (if no else is going to blow my trumpet, I'll do it myself) on how to ensure that things are not in the last place you look?Good. Now, have you read about the Quantum Zeno Effect? No? Consider it part of the required reading list.What about the Stuff on Boltzmann Brains (I and II)? Really! Do you think I am doing all this for my benefit? Come

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-72839470853765733172007-11-13T13:50:00.001+01:002007-11-13T14:40:43.468+01:00

Not exactly a useful or interesting phrase, but why?Algernon has thrust his head far out between the rungs of his chair-back (1873 R. Broughton Nancy I. 20)Nope. No Idea.

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-61073549132163052182007-11-13T13:09:00.000+01:002007-11-13T20:28:32.236+01:00

Georgina Mitcham's "Microsoft Technet Newsletter" of 7 Nov begins with the words:I hope you are adjusting to the early dark evenings now.Unfortuntately, those weren't the first words I read: thanks to the artful use of language and the formatting of a hyperlink, what I saw and read first - in complete isolation - was:carve my spooky pumpkinswhich, suffering as I do from a slightly dislocated

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-6712543484655973232007-11-12T14:37:00.000+01:002007-11-12T14:56:22.793+01:00

"Doh!" as in, beaten to it again!A long time ago (though I doubt as far back as 1977) I humorously proposed what is apparently called the Quantum Zeno Effect - a way of inhibiting state changes by obsessive observation.I say humorously because I was proposing it as a way of handling nuclear waste - and one that is not as far as I can see at all practical (Worried about radioactive decay? Just

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-23354138954748194772007-11-10T16:57:00.001+01:002007-11-10T17:01:33.341+01:00

Edible Stuff! Excellent.Go here and as it says, advertising generates 10 grains of rice for each correct answer you give.It does get tougher around level 46+, and just so you know "lakvar" is used in Hungarian - so I got that one for free from Noemi.

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-22271542598794469972007-11-09T14:08:00.001+01:002008-08-06T11:57:28.143+02:00

In my recent remarks on Mornington Crescent, I referred in the posting to "Hackney Central".That should of course have been Hackney Centraal - a little known stop on the Amsterdam metro system - and an entirely legitimate move if van Hoegstraat's Deviation is in effect, which in hindsight it must have been.Apologies for the confusion

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-91243186504070595712007-11-09T13:11:00.000+01:002007-11-09T14:05:14.433+01:00

[Irony On] Another triumph of experimental science: living things respond to stimuli.This is the truly staggering insight I glean from this report in New Scientist. The fact that living things respond to stimuli I find to be a substantial development on the basic ideas of cause and effect. [Irony Off](Just to be fair, the original paper - enticingly entitled "Nociception or pain in a decapod

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-63547485298350311342007-11-07T16:35:00.001+01:002007-11-09T14:18:17.060+01:00

Some years ago (back in 1999 apparently - whatever happened to Moonbase Alpha?) I sent an email to Xircom's technical support service and received the surprising response that my message was received "tomorrow" (I sent it to New Scientist's Feedback column- the original item is here)Eight years on and I am (partially) delighted to announce that whatever the underlying technology was/is/will be it

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-86950743019019048222007-11-06T14:22:00.000+01:002007-11-06T14:59:27.226+01:00

Ah, yes - we've all had trouble with our Hyperdimensional Resonators at some time, haven't we?But now our collective worries are over (or will be, or were, or shwas - my knowledge of time travel grammar is a bit hazy... yet another educational gap to be filled...) thanks to this site which"Shows you how to construct a Cosmic Diode for use with the Hyperdimensional Resonator."But if you are lazy,

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-39713543030558255682007-11-06T13:55:00.000+01:002007-11-06T14:01:26.819+01:00

Yes he does! Just wandering the web for weirdness I thought I'd go to the horse's mouth, where I find to my horror...UPDATED MAY 2007 CLICK HERE This is real serious and David's work is in imminent danger of ceasing without your help. Donate system now working.What next? Is he in danger of going the same was as wossisname - Mr Veritarse? Oh deary me.By the way... that link should work,

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-70849741639138482692007-11-04T21:37:00.001+01:002007-11-04T21:48:54.383+01:00

I was trying to explain Mornington Crescent to Noemi this evening, and not having a copy of N. F. Stovold’s "Mornington Crescent: Rules and Origins" to hand it's proven rather tricky.I thought that a simple example "Baker St - Oxford Circus - Grange Hill (I didn't want to get into Central line quartering too soon, so I thought that G.H would be the least confusing stop there) - Hackney Central -

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-31243957729709360892007-11-01T15:38:00.001+01:002007-11-01T15:49:08.732+01:00

Ouch...1st November 2007... no recent updatesWifi connection disappeared, and for some reason I couldn't re-enable it (the lights are on, but no one's home, i.e. the Rock laptop's indicator lights said the devices were on but Vista wasn't buying it), so reluctantly I rebooted and...Certain important icons in the Notification Area (the area previously known as the "systray") gone... to whit,

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-78412733603884946192007-10-26T11:21:00.000+02:002007-10-26T11:35:22.644+02:00

Now that much of the inferred population of the universe's black holes has been found the overall picture seems to be like this.In their youth, galaxies form stars and black holes together as the primordial gas and subsequently added dust (you don't get dust until the first generation of supernovae have gone pop and spilled their heavier elements - "metals" in astronomical terminology). The

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-2955912550598891022007-10-25T14:26:00.000+02:002007-10-25T14:36:48.263+02:00

About 1/3rd of the way through the mark-up, and out of idle curiosity decided to to a word-count: 150,082 words.I started making the corrections etc around 4th September (about 7 weeks ago, but ~2 weeks lost to travel, dentistry, visits from friends etc., so let's say 5 weeks work) when the word count must have been around 146,000...Whoa! That means by the time I've finished the mark-up it will

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-9038145339562161042007-10-12T13:49:00.000+02:002007-10-12T14:11:25.847+02:00

Marshall McLuhan is, as far as I am concerned, famous for two things:Occurring in a Genesis song called Broadway Melody (on The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway), andCoining the phrase "the medium is the message"However, I think the message needs updating. It was one of those nice-bar (Szimpla probably), nice-conversation questions: has modern technology (mobile phones, the internet) destroyed

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-10684777740728475932007-10-12T13:37:00.000+02:002007-10-12T13:49:25.266+02:00

If a picture paints a thousand words... then why can't I paint you? No, that's not right at all - this is not a Telly Savalas shrine! What I meant to say was, whilst images may be incredibly powerful - conveying as they do messages in content, style, form and medium - a word, like scents, may be a key to unlock a treasury of memories.For reasons which, though recent, I have already forgotten, I

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-22457776021785261802007-10-02T16:03:00.000+02:002007-10-02T16:15:04.118+02:00

Today I be mostly wasting time - hence "On Salamanders". Having marked up the printout of the book ("IT") - all 400+ pages with copious amounts of purple ink (couldn't find a red pen) I am now ploughing through the mark-up and correcting things.Unfortunately, a single wrong word can completely bugger a metaphor or, worse, series of linked metaphors; and the rhythm and the flow and... and it can

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-79053254436660448252007-10-02T13:29:00.004+02:002010-02-21T14:28:51.575+01:00

What is natural? Where should we looked for the telos of a thing - and how should we value it? Why should we care? Why do I care? Because I've just I've just been gobsmacked by a preposterous assertion about "genetic purity". Are you sitting comfortably? Yes? Then I'll begin. According to this story, it seems that the native California tiger salamander (an endangered and protected species in

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-68288652414664670572007-09-25T23:04:00.000+02:002007-09-25T23:21:05.010+02:00

No, not the horrendously stupid 70s TV game once so bizarrely popular in Britain (or the Peter Gabriel single, come to that) just a nifty headline to introduce the wonders of ShoutCast TV.I use VideoLan as a media view sometimes, and idly looked to see this evening what was on on the big bad internet and found this stream which is of course DPRK Television (North Korea Central Television) where

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-25477503554370715092007-09-24T19:34:00.000+02:002007-09-24T20:09:18.570+02:00

How many people read software licenses any more? Well, that's why there are geeks - to read them for you and to draw your attention to the little things that really important - such as the need to believe in Santa Claus - when legally obliged to do so.So here's a little nugget courtesy of DivX, legalists after my own heart - you did read the Disclaimer at the bottom of the page, didn't you?Of

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-70492380572249632352007-09-12T13:51:00.001+02:002007-09-12T14:23:40.552+02:00

I'm only doing this because Microsoft are limiting me to 650 characters on the Office.com suggestions page - and I bet it can't count accurately anyway (web pages never seem to count characters properly, never allow enough space so you can see what you've written - Office.com has a miserly 3 line display and seem generally set up to discourage detailed and specific suggestions; I wonder if that's

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-25781044197612554642007-09-02T16:41:00.000+02:002007-09-13T22:00:34.249+02:00

New Scientist is running some ads on for Channel 4 in the UK - specifically for a programme called "Dumped".Now, I don't mind advertising as long as the advert is designed to catch my eye rather than to reach out and grab me by the gonads.This particular ad is unfortunately of the latter kind. It's not just a static ad it animates on "roll-over", i.e. when the cursor passes over the ad rectangle,

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597915791128580091.post-18144016892289514632007-08-31T15:33:00.001+02:002008-04-16T17:52:37.700+02:00

Never mind "What's Stuff?", what's a knife?Easy peasy. A knife is... er... a sharp edged, hand-held tool for cutting.Or, to quote the OED (hope this counts as Fair Use) "A cutting instrument, consisting of a blade with a sharpened longitudinal edge fixed in a handle, either rigidly as in a table-, carving, or sheath-knife, or with a joint as in a pocket- or clasp-knife..."Do you see it? The wood

Mr Stuffnoreply@blogger.com0