NiceGuyUK Blog
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Apple ][ Music Video
Apple ][ Music Video
Here's a fan-produced music video for Grandaddy's "Jed's Other Poem" -- the entire thing was produced using Applesoft II (a BASIC implementation) on a 1979 Apple ][+ with 48k of RAM
Apple ][ Music Videofrom the retro-pop-chic-tech dept.
Here's a fan-produced music video for Grandaddy's "Jed's Other Poem" -- the entire thing was produced using Applesoft II (a BASIC implementation) on a 1979 Apple ][+ with 48k of RAM
[via BoingBoing, via me!]
Screen death
Screen death
Last night, got home to find my trust CTX 19" CRT monitor had finally died. Tried resuscitating it with a different power cable, in case the fuse had gone. It gave one last dying breath with a wavy shimmering Ubuntu login screen, then expired.
Good news is that I have a spare monitor at home. Bad news is that its a little 15" LCD that can just about deliver a resolution of 1024x768. Everything seems so much more cluttered on my desktop now, and I actually have to scroll a lot more. Hating it already, but better than no screen at all I suppose.
Screen deathfrom the like-a-million-pixels-cried-out-at-once-and-were-suddenly-silent dept.
Last night, got home to find my trust CTX 19" CRT monitor had finally died. Tried resuscitating it with a different power cable, in case the fuse had gone. It gave one last dying breath with a wavy shimmering Ubuntu login screen, then expired.
Good news is that I have a spare monitor at home. Bad news is that its a little 15" LCD that can just about deliver a resolution of 1024x768. Everything seems so much more cluttered on my desktop now, and I actually have to scroll a lot more. Hating it already, but better than no screen at all I suppose.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Inkscape rocks!
Inkscape rocks!
The open source SVG vector illustration package, Inkscape, is bloody fantastic. Although I'm not using even a tenth of its capabilities, being able to load a tiny bitmapped image, trace the outlines and produce a scalable vector version is just amazing. Very recommended, and available on Linux, Mac, and Windows flavours.
Inkscape rocks!from the Vector-ZZ-9-Plural-Z-Alpha dept.
The open source SVG vector illustration package, Inkscape, is bloody fantastic. Although I'm not using even a tenth of its capabilities, being able to load a tiny bitmapped image, trace the outlines and produce a scalable vector version is just amazing. Very recommended, and available on Linux, Mac, and Windows flavours.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Their Law
Their Law
Just got the new Prodigy album, Their Law (The Singles 1990-2005). It kicks serious butt and I managed to get the Special Edition version for just £10.00
Their Lawfrom the phat-beatz dept.
Just got the new Prodigy album, Their Law (The Singles 1990-2005). It kicks serious butt and I managed to get the Special Edition version for just £10.00
[Listening to: The Prodigy - Voodoo Beats]
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Splashing out
Splashing out
If you install Ubuntu Breezy Badger as a fresh install, you get the new splash screen on boot. If you upgrade an existing Hoary Hedgehog install, you don't. I took the lazy approach to adding one (ie, couldn;t be arsed to amend my kernel!), so I was happy to discover Splashy, which solves the problem in userspace and seems far more flexible.
Splashing outfrom the more-pretty-pictures dept.
If you install Ubuntu Breezy Badger as a fresh install, you get the new splash screen on boot. If you upgrade an existing Hoary Hedgehog install, you don't. I took the lazy approach to adding one (ie, couldn;t be arsed to amend my kernel!), so I was happy to discover Splashy, which solves the problem in userspace and seems far more flexible.
Monday, October 17, 2005
Badger Badger Badger
Badger Badger Badger
With a bit of work on some config files, I've managed to get both my desktop and my laptop machines running Ubuntu Linux 5.10 (the "Breezy Badger" release). Its a shame that a distribution with the good reputation of Ubuntu still has problems which should have been noted before release. Network startup hanging being one (as per many threads I've seen online), broken GPG signatures on repostitories being another. My laptop seems ok, having done a straight upgrade by chaging repositories from one version to the other, but I'm seeing a lot higher CPU usage on my desktop box as compared to the previous version. I'll have to keep an eye on that....
Badger Badger Badgerfrom the mushroom-mushroom dept.
With a bit of work on some config files, I've managed to get both my desktop and my laptop machines running Ubuntu Linux 5.10 (the "Breezy Badger" release). Its a shame that a distribution with the good reputation of Ubuntu still has problems which should have been noted before release. Network startup hanging being one (as per many threads I've seen online), broken GPG signatures on repostitories being another. My laptop seems ok, having done a straight upgrade by chaging repositories from one version to the other, but I'm seeing a lot higher CPU usage on my desktop box as compared to the previous version. I'll have to keep an eye on that....
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Bugger!
Bugger!
Ok, so I remotely upgraded my home PC from Ubuntu 5.04 to 5.10 (via ssh). Seemed to install everything (apart from a known error with gstreamer, but thats more of a warning according to the bug report). Rebooted, machine came back up (can prove that by pinging it from the router), but annoyingly, has disabled all net services (web, ftp, and most importantly, ssh). So now I can't get back into my own box from work. I'm not back home until tomorrow late morning. As the subject for this post says - Bugger
Bugger!from the didn't-I-learn-last-time-not-to-do-this? dept.
Ok, so I remotely upgraded my home PC from Ubuntu 5.04 to 5.10 (via ssh). Seemed to install everything (apart from a known error with gstreamer, but thats more of a warning according to the bug report). Rebooted, machine came back up (can prove that by pinging it from the router), but annoyingly, has disabled all net services (web, ftp, and most importantly, ssh). So now I can't get back into my own box from work. I'm not back home until tomorrow late morning. As the subject for this post says - Bugger
Scary upgrades
Scary upgrades
Eek! Upgrades are scary.....
Scary upgradesfrom the whole-lotta-downloading dept.
Eek! Upgrades are scary.....
913 upgraded, 284 newly installed, 48 to remove and 2 not upgraded.Need to get 537MB of archives.After unpacking 108MB of additional disk space will be used.
Breezy Badger
Breezy Badger
Today marks the release of the new version of Ubuntu Linux, release name "Breezy Badger". 7½ minutes after getting to work, the install CD was sat on my machine ready to be burned to CD....
Breezy Badgerfrom the new-toys dept.
Today marks the release of the new version of Ubuntu Linux, release name "Breezy Badger". 7½ minutes after getting to work, the install CD was sat on my machine ready to be burned to CD....
Friday, October 07, 2005
Mashin' Up
Mashin' Up
I've been picking up a few MP3s of mash-up mixes (two or more songs thrown together in a clever mixz to make a whole new song). After discovering DJ Food's Raiding the 20th Century megamix, I started grabbing some of the tracks featured, as well as some others. Current favourites include :-
and many more
Mashin' Upfrom the music-for-the-masses dept.
I've been picking up a few MP3s of mash-up mixes (two or more songs thrown together in a clever mixz to make a whole new song). After discovering DJ Food's Raiding the 20th Century megamix, I started grabbing some of the tracks featured, as well as some others. Current favourites include :-
- Philip Meehan - Fire In The A-Bar (Electric Six - Gaybar, Prodigy - Firestarter, Mike Post - Theme from the A-Team)
- 2 Many DJs - Smells Like Booty (Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit, Destiny's Child - Bootylicious(
- Ben Liebrand - Unknown Title (Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up, Faithless - We Come One)
- Ben Liebrand - Unknown Title (Prodigy - Funky Shit, Faithless - Insomnia)
and many more
[Listening to: Prodigy Vs Faithless - Smack My Bitch Up Vs We Come One (Ben Liebrand Mix) ]
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
I hate web design
I hate web design
Made an annoying realisation this morning. The website I am working on doesn't scale down to lower resolutions too well, the minimum bearable resolution being 1152*864, so I'm having to spend more effort on it to make it a little more friendly for people with crap graphics cards or those too dumb to change resolutions. Grrr. All my machines run at 1600*1200, and it looked fine to me.
I hate web designfrom the grumpy-old-men dept.
Made an annoying realisation this morning. The website I am working on doesn't scale down to lower resolutions too well, the minimum bearable resolution being 1152*864, so I'm having to spend more effort on it to make it a little more friendly for people with crap graphics cards or those too dumb to change resolutions. Grrr. All my machines run at 1600*1200, and it looked fine to me.
Monday, October 03, 2005
PHP coding
PHP Coding
I've been hacking away at the PHP code for my club's website today, on the train to work, at lunchtime, and on the train home again. The more I use PHP, the more I like it. The website now has a PHP/MySQL driven calendar, a PHP/MySQL driven graph of our monies raised and a dynamically generated sidebar menu. I'm looking to do a friendly web-based admin section soon too, so that when I leave the club, others can administer the site easily.
PHP Codingfrom the web-made-groovy dept.
I've been hacking away at the PHP code for my club's website today, on the train to work, at lunchtime, and on the train home again. The more I use PHP, the more I like it. The website now has a PHP/MySQL driven calendar, a PHP/MySQL driven graph of our monies raised and a dynamically generated sidebar menu. I'm looking to do a friendly web-based admin section soon too, so that when I leave the club, others can administer the site easily.
[Listening to: Romeo Knight - Alleykat ]
Sunday, October 02, 2005
New printerfrom the put-it-in-writing dept.
Got myself one of these new all-in-one printer/scanner/copiers last week. Its an Epson Stylus Photo RX425(pretty much same as the RX420). It works great under Windows, and I'm now working on getting the same results out of Linux. Tried Gimp-Print, tried TurboPrint, but neither of which are quite there. Will try the manufacturer's drivers next.
