Making CVS work

I finaly got CVS to work enabling me to checkout all the source code from WorldForge. once I admitted defeat and checked it out to my desktop and then moved it to the folder I wanted it in it worked perfectly and page on CVS by worldforge was very useful and worked perfectly - when I did the checkout form the desktop.
22,811 files and 147mb of source code. I am impressed.

Firefox 2.0

Recently I upgraded to Firefox 2.0. which is even better than Firefox 1.5 - which after Firefox 2.0 is the best browser. Firefox is the best browser available - and I have looked at IE7 - it just is not good enough in conparison with FF 2.0.
Note that the screenshot I have posted has been fiddled using both config tweaks and customistation so that i only have 2 rows despite having the google toolbar - and I get to use that really annoying big empty space between Help and the connection thing - something I would like to be able to do in word etc.
Firefox Is cool!

64 Windows Updates

When I got round to updating my windows using windows update I needed 64 updates it took ages to download - and even longer to instal. I was quite surprised.
Windows has way too many holes that need - and needed filling.
one of the reasons why I tried to make a liveboot of Linux

Scottish English Independance

Apparently many Scottish people want independance from England. What they don't know is that it should be the other way round. Scotland won it is a Scottish(or prehaps German but definetly not English) Queen who sits on our throne. It is England that pays tribute to Scotland not the other way round - it has more money to spend than it collects in taxes.
Somewhere along the way they forgot they won and were persuaded that they should fight for their independance. Fools, there are more scottish MPs (Scottish people are MPs in English constitunancies but not the other way round - and note that Blair is a scottish name and Gordon Brown is definetly Scottish). If you get your independance your economy wil collapse. silly silly people be quiet before someone notices and hope everyone forgets or you will get something you certainly don't need and definelty won't want.

Train Again

"This Train has been fitteld with improved air conditioning for your comfort"
The loud whirring noise will send you to sleep. :P
First Scot Rail
Power sockets and free wifi should come as standard on all trains traveling more than 50 miles. rather than neither legaly. (some trains have a few plugs you are not allowed to use)

This train has been delayed due to a trampoline on the line.
Its been very wind up here. honest its true!.

Most ridiculus things blocked

• Negative numbers
• Resources for explaining the complexety of helicopters not crashing (e.g. helicopters crashing) www.boreme.com
• Chatzilla instalation link - firefox extension
• Foxyproxy instalation link - firefox extension
• Switchproxy instalation link - firefox extension
• Downloading realplayer by normal methods - e.g. following links on main site.
• A picture of an undead squirrel - and all other pictures on the svn worldforge media depositary. (includes pictures of acorns)
  
• Uranus
• Science quiz questions - physics class was doing an online quiz on the interactive white board - one of the questions was blocked. learning is dangerous :)
  

Scottish weather

We have been having some pretty bad weather in Scotland today (26th Oct) flooding in Dingwall (pictured - bbc) cut of the A9 and the railway which cut off much of the far north of Scotland. The worst flooding since 1954 which was worse because the tides we had - highest since then were combinded with a worse storm than we had. no one died this time - many did last time. congratulations to the emergancy services.
We had 3 short power cuts (less than 1 min) power cuts are a definet incentive to put wind turbines up - it was very windy:) the only problem being that since the power available increases to the cube of the windspeed we might make more than we could deal with - but I think they have dealt with that.

What shall I write about

Sorry for the long delay before this sudden burst of bloggin - no excuse.
I have a lot of stuff to write about so I will tell you what I will write about - and in the process work out what I am going to write

• 64 windows updates.
  
• Firefox 2.0
• making CVS work
• making an Umbuntu live boot disk
• initial impressions of Umbuntu
• Guess my DofE Hobby.
• Got sear to work
• Got ember to work
  

Australian Asylum seeking policy

This from an Australian

"We have pleanty of space for asylum seekers - we just don't like foreigners - especialy if they are illegal and cannot do anything for our country. like asylum seekers."(note quoted from memory)
leaning slightly to the right?
comes of being decended from a bunch of convicts :-)
Australias policy on asylum seekers and illegal immigrants is not particulary nice.
Oh well.
at least they don't go round hunting tribes into extinction any more.

Friday 13th Lucky for some

Today Friday 13th which is supposed to be unlucky - because thirteen dined together and the next day (friday) Jesus died on the cross is supposed to be unlucky. However by dying Jesus saved us. I count that lucky.
Today was A very very good day for me. The best day I have had at this school.
I GOT MY LAPTOP BACK TODAY. YEY!!!!!!!!!
And lots of other cool stuff happened quite a bit of which I can't post here because privacy.
And the sky was abseloutely amazingly beautiful. I like it here.
Soon I will have better internet - e.g. on my laptop. then we talk.

The laptop will return! YEY!

after an intense email dialouge that lost me another day of having my proper laptop back and iansyst saying they would not give me mine back unless I swaped it for the loan one. I finaly convinced them that since they had said last time that I could have both at the same time in order to transfer the data that they would let me have both at the same time.
*sigh of relief*
I am now very happy.
Very very happy.
I just can't wait to get cogs turning agian.
to regain direct internet acces to my laptop.
to poke the schools filitering with installed programs - with the aim of breaking it (for me at least).
:-)


Sorry for not posting recently intense email discussions take time and I don't have much internet time.

given up on spam

I have given up on deleting the contents of my spam folder - or even looking at it - google carefully puts all the spam their and no real mail has ever landed there - 46 items there now and google can delete them for me at the end of the month.

my hotmail one has never received any - but my hotmail one is attached to the real me and consequently has few outings into the world wide web.

Google has only ever let two spam messages through to the inbox - the rest - and there have been lots have been successfully fielded.

Comment moderation

Comment moderation has been disabled to enable freer debate. The people who caused chaos when this blog first started are probably no longer watching - and if they are I hope they have grown up. I did not like having the moderation on but it was forced on me.
I am still being notified of comments so if rude and offensive ones do appear they will be removed hopefully within a couple of days.
Thank you

Teaching teachers Ipods are evil

UPDATED:

Recently I helped (or rather explained that DRM, Ipods, Itunes and Apple were evil while someone else who knew what they were doing helped) a physics teacher get music from one computer onto her laptop without deleting all the music she already had on it. This was done by plugging the ipod in, choosing not to let itunes synchronise it (and delete everything that the computer did not have) and then going onto options and secleting manage things manualy. This means that all the music you want to transfer accross has to be dragged and dropped (in the larger selections the better) rather than happening automaticaly. but it does beat the DRM.
In a recent survey reported by the BBC (cannot be bothered to find the link) it showed that people who use the internet lots were significantly less likely to have an ipod than the rest of the population - the reason given was that there is a limited choice of stores for online music for ipods. No the real reason is that people on the internet are more likely to know that ipods (and DRM) are evil.

There is a whole campaign - called Defective by design (ipods are defective by design) (ooky picture.

Glossary

DRM means DynamicDigital Rights Management and is where evil companies prevent you from being able to copy music onto devices etc and impose limitations on it through their evil software.(thank you Zzorn for the correction - others see comment)

Iridum makes rubbish laptops

I have extracted the name of the manufaturers from iansyst. Iridium make really rubbish laptops do not buy Iridium laptops they break!
Iridium laptops do not have the screws stuck in properly so they fall out, the CD/DVD drives fall out and they generaly break.
Iridium take ages to fix laptops because they run out of parts due to so many laptops being broken
Don't buy laptops from Iridium!
even if they look cool.

annoying IT

he he :-) I enjoy annoying IT by asking them why stuff keeps on being blocked or not working (such as Nasa image of day and mp3 files and BBC radio player) not that they have responded...
They like feeling loved. They just keep blocking stuff until people notice (wry smile)
(smiles sadly)

(from the worldforge IRC channel)


On the plus side iansyst say they have my laptop back and want a couple of days to 'thoroughly test it' I hope for the best

The chapel stirs

The chapel stirs
As trickling through the door
The rising murmur
As the people
Arrive
The church waits
For the word
Waiting expectantly
For the joyful rejoicing
For the heart felt praise
Of so many hearts
To the one who makes
Them rejoice
The one who made them.

‘The most important issue we face’

‘The issue is urgent. If there is one message I would leave with you ..... it is one of urgency.’ PM Tony Blair.*

A while ago I did work experience at BP(Alternative Energy)
I was asked what could stop Global Warming. I went through the list: solar, wind, wave, tidal, geothermal, heat pump, random kinetic, biomass, hydrogen, carbon sequestration, ENERGY EFFICIENCY.
I ran out, many of these technologies are in early stages and cannot be used on large enough scales quickly enough. 300km2 of today’s solar panels could power the world if they were in the Sahara desert – but we don’t need power in the Sahara desert and who would foot the huge bill? It would not be enough anyway of the resistance in wires.
If we really tried, an Apollo program sized push, war production levels, we could do much, enough? No.
That is my conclusion – we cannot save the whole world. Hundreds, perhaps hundreds of thousands of species will be wiped out.
We will get 3 degrees more – even if we stopped now – and we can’t. 1degree is too much for the permafrost, bye bye permafrost. Catastrophic comes to mind, Positive Feedback Loops!
Millions of people will die, for all the efforts of humanity. The whole world will suffer for our folly. All we have left to decide is whether millions die or hundreds of millions. The difference between a major catastrophe and an absolutely massive humongous catastrophe. It will be bad. Do you want your World horribly over cooked or burnt? That is the decision You must make.

*I do not often preface my work with a quote from a fool but here at least he is saying the right thing – even if he does not act upon it.

Thrice stupid but not forever dumb

Today I felt very stupid on 3 occasions.
This morning I found that after lending my laptop to someone the night before they had watched a DVD on it - I thought the sound was broken and that after exaustive checking for software volume things that the problem was with a slider thing on the side and that the person who I had lent it to had found this straight away. I had come to the conclusion that the sound driver was broken because it was coming out realy realy quiet and had to be boosted on headphones to be heard at all.
In core maths I got my indicies muddled up and ended up with 6^-3/2 - 6^3/2 = k rather than 6^3/2 - 6^3/2 = k = 0 and the problem was not managing to do 2 - 1/2 which is pretty stupid.

After deciding that my bedroom floor was much to dirty and I would have to hoover it, going and finding a hoover in a cupboard and carefuly hoovering the floor (and the desk because it was getting dusty in places) and taking the hoover back to the cupboard where I found the cleaner who said that she was going to clean my room tomorow this made me feel very stupid.

But I got 23/24 in my chemistry test and got my little fighters AI in my computer game to make it so that they only shoot if they are pointing near the enemy (to within 40 degrees each way) the only bug with that is that it does not shoot if it is pointing at the second nearest one but not the nearest 1 ( but when it is attacking it is pointing at the nearest one so this won't matter unless the fighter is being attacked from multiple directions anyway - and with object avoidance and being shot at from each side it is probably dead anyway) Not dumb just sometimes stupid.