Fri, 29 Dec 2006

The Zen of Pinball

Today, without so much as looking at a pinball table, I learned that the Zen of pinball is "all about the threes."
Thanks to Kevin '13 billion' Lyda for the insight ;-)
posted at: 16:43 | path: /observations | permanent link to this entry

Tue, 26 Dec 2006

Guitar Hero II...

...rocks!
posted at: 16:25 | path: /observations | permanent link to this entry

Sat, 23 Dec 2006

Pyrokenisis alive and well in Ireland

"To light, read base." -- as seen on a Bord na Mona firelog

Despite Maeve's best efforts at reading the base quite intently, the firelog refused to light. Perhaps following the instructions on the base, rather than merely reading them as indicated, would result in a more satisfactory fire.
posted at: 01:00 | path: /observations | permanent link to this entry

Fri, 22 Dec 2006

Dublin to Limerick

In an effort to get from Dublin to Limerick with some degree of comfort and reliability, I booked a 1st class ticket for the 17:05 train from Heuston to Dublin, scheduled to arrive at 19:15. How misguided and futile my attempts were to prove on both scores.
So far, there has been a fault with the doors, resulting in us stopping for 20 minutes to check the doors. This was followed shortly with a signalling fault, resulting in a further stoppage. I was told by a nice gentleman in the restaurant car that the driver was dealing with a fault with the engine shortly after that - so I got myself a nice cup of tea for the further wait. From speaking with the staff it would appear that some part of the engine may hvae gone on fire. Never mind... the driver put it out with water from the restaurant.
After finally getting the train moving once more, we got almost as far as Templemore. upon which we stopped again because something has happened to a bridge in Thurles and only one line is open. It was eventually announced that a truck had hit the bridge in Thurles and knocked it down on the tracks. My dad later informed me that the Cork train had subsequently crashed into some rubble on the track, further fouling things up.
I finally arrived in Limerick at 21:05, a mere 1 hour 50 minutes late. I had to laugh - just yesterday Irish Rail sent me a long letter apologising for my 98 minute delay the last time I travelled to Limerick, and apologising for taking so long to send me a letter apologising for the delay... along with half the cost of the journey refunded in Irish Rail vouchers, €13. I can't describe how pleased I am to discover that I can get a train ticket from Dublin to Limerick for €26... I'll be looking out for that particular type of ticket. When I calm down at losing yet another 2 hours of my life due to their incompetence I'll be writing a polite letter to their complaints office, CC'ing the Irish Times.
posted at: 23:58 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Mon, 11 Dec 2006

U.S. Patent Claim

9. The method of providing user interface displays in an image forming apparatus which is really a bogus claim included amongst real claims, and which should be removed before filing; wherein the claim is included to determine if the inventor actually read the claims and the inventor should instruct the attorneys to remove the claim.

as seen in a patent granted by the U.S. patent office.

With this level of due diligence in the patent system, is there anyone left who would like to stand up and suggest that patenting software is a good idea? I truly hope not.

THanks to Laura on posted at: 14:23 | path: /technical | permanent link to this entry

Fri, 08 Dec 2006

Ubuntu Mini.iso boot CD

The Ubuntu mini.iso CD images can be found here. This link pasted here because I can never find it when I need to download a copy of it. Also, because today someone on #ubuntu asked me where they could get such a download from and I had to go searching for the download location again.

6.10 Edgy Minimal CD (8.4MB)

mini.iso 8.4MB

6.06 Dapper Minimal CD (7.4MB)

mini.iso 7.4MB

posted at: 14:06 | path: /technical | permanent link to this entry

Tue, 05 Dec 2006

Blog-gone it...

Apologies for the unscheduled disappearance of my blog earlier today. A disk in one of my servers in Germany decided that it had kept my bits and bytes safe for sufficiently long. It died - and gradually took the server with it. Oh well.

The nice people at Hetzner replaced it within a couple of hours of me requesting it and my blog is now back on the net. How wonderful for you all, dear readers.;-)

Last month I had the spectacularly dying iBook, and yesterday a Toshiba laptop belonging to my employer gave up the ghost. Today a disk in a remote server. I'm steeling myself for tomorrow when no douct some technological fate worse than being slobbered on by a slightly angry St. Bernard shall be foisted upon me. Oh well...
posted at: 19:57 | path: | permanent link to this entry

Mon, 04 Dec 2006

Thank you, Yahoo!

Steve's blog details how Yahoo have allowed the Open Streetmap Project to use their aerial photgraphy. This is a huge leap forward in the quality of maps that we can provide, allowing both imagery, a-la Google maps and quicker detailing of the GPS traces.

Thanks Yahoo! :-)

If you're interested in getting involved in making an Open Source map of the world, and have a GPS unit, do please join us at www.openstreetmap.org and take part in the fun.
posted at: 10:34 | path: /technical | permanent link to this entry

Fri, 01 Dec 2006

ERROR!

<drusilla> information/knowledge can be a very dangerous thing
<ewan> drusilla: yeah, you could end up with a divide by zero
posted at: 14:38 | path: | permanent link to this entry