Passing comments

Passing comments

from the beat-the-bots dept.

I've upgraded the blog comments script in an attempt to prevent the spam bots that have started creeping into my blog with their adverts for various drugs. If you want to post a comment now, you'll need to enter a captcha code too. Many thanks to Holger of BlogKomm.com for his continuing support and speedy replies to my annoying questions :-)

New open source handheld (cheap too!)

New open source handheld (cheap too!)

from the i-want-one-of-those dept.

There's a new Linux-based handheld on the block - its a PDA, movie playing, MP3 playing, game playing dream. Lots of connectivity and expandability, runs on just 2 normal AA batteries for 6-8 hours, can connect to your PC and output to show on your TV screen. Oh, and its only £124.99 Get the low-down here

[Courtesy of BoingBoing]

Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

from the Don't-Panic dept.

My DVD of the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy turned up today (at last!). A sneak look at it at lunchtime revealed a few annoying changes to the original, but not enough that it detracts from the story overall, although admittedly, I've only seen about 30 mins so far.

What annoyed me most, however, is the amount of bloody trailers for other films that I had to skip through before getting even as far as the DVD menu. At least I can skip through them on this one - I've encountered other DVDs with not just trailers, but product advertisements, neither of which you can forward through.

Further rant

Further rant

from the spleen-venting dept.

And another thing - if the open-top bus from yesterday caused 4 times as much traffic in Central London as is normal, shouldn't it be liable for 4 times the amount of Congestion Charge?

[Listening to: Moby - Move (You Make Me Feel So Good)]

I don't like Cricket...

I don't like Cricket...

from the ...no-really-I-don't dept.

Came out of office to go to Post Office, just as an open top bus full of cricketers went past. Couldn't get out bloody building for huge throngs of flag wavers. Dunno what the fuss is about - they only did what they're paid to do. If the same rules applied to me, I'd be on a bus every time I closed a support call

Script wizardry

Script wizardry

from the GNU-Gandalf dept.

I have a Linux machine behind a firewall/router that I need to access externally, but the router has a dynamic IP. So I've signed up with a free dynamic DNS provider. The router, however, has no support for updating it if it gets a new IP. The updater client for Linux doesn't realise its behind a NAT router, so keeps sending the internal LAN IP to the DNS. Not useful. So after lots of RTFM and a bit of thinking, I came up with this script

Items in red changed for security reasons and the first curl line shouldn't have a linefeed until before the egrep command, its just my template wrapping it!

ipupdate.sh

#!/bin/bash
clear
curl -s --use-ascii -o ip.txt -u admin:ROUTERPASSWORD http://192.168.0.1/cgi-bin/webcm?nextpage=../html/s_status.htm
egrep -a -m1 -o -e '81\.157\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}' ip.txt > newip.txt
echo `cat dyns.txt newip.txt | tr -d '\012'` > curlinput.txt
curl --url `cat curlinput.txt`
echo

dyns.txt

http://www.dyns.net/postscript011.php?username=USERNAME&password=PASSWORD&host=HOSTNAME&devel=1&ip=

If any bash scripting experts can suggest improvements on that, I'd appreciate it.

[Listening to: Haoma - mixed by Dj Shoom ]

Super Mario in Javascript

Super Mario in Javascript

from the web-enabled-plumbers dept.

Some bright spark has implemented Super Mario in Javascript

[Link via Boing Boing]

Keyboard, reloaded

Keyboard, reloaded

from the typing-suddenly-just-cooler dept.

From the Russian design geniuses at Art Lebedev Studios comes the Optimus Keyboard. Each key is a programmable OLED display, which means the key icon can change depending on what application you are using. Amazing stuff, and definitely this week's geek object of desire.

[Listening to: Underfoot - Everlasting Impact]

Way of the Exploding CD

Way of the Exploding CD

from the shattering-news dept.

Darkcyde reports in with a nasty experience with a new machine installed in his offie. The service engineer left the Server software install CD in the drive, to detrimental effect :-

"You won't believe this - just had a new PC installed in our area, the Engineer left the Windows Server install CD in the drive, we just logged onto the machine, it made noises like it was gonna take off the the cd SHATTERED in the drive and shards came flying out!! Never seen that before!!!"

More details on this somewhat disturbing phenomenon here

[UPDATE] Aftermath photo from the incident. Oh, and a big hi! to everyone at the office involved that is now reading this :-)