JediMoose

Big Brother

I confess. I watched, and enjoyed, the first 2 series' of Big Brother. However, things have got gradually worse and worse, and they have now finally scraped the bottom of the barrel. And I don't blame the 'housemates', I blame the production company. The selection of candidates this season was so blatantly designed to produce a maximum of social and sexual tension, and give them a sensationalist show. Even more so that the previous series'. I haven't watched this series, and I am happy about that. But I am surprised that Channel 4, even with its 'alternative' ideals, has dropped this low - a show like this needs to be relegated to some dodgy pay channel (Living TV?), or at the very least to late-night Channel 5 ;)

'Standards'

This morning I read an interesting article looking at the GNOME desktop environment. They made some very good points, but it highlighted to me again one of the more worrying trends within the IT world - the infiltration of proprietary file formats into what is 'standard'. What I find most concerning is that the current trend within the portion of the IT community that doesn't use MS Word's .DOC files (and .DOCs aren't the only problem, just the most common) is that the programs we use should be able to deal with these file formats with ease.
Now, I don't have a problem with this per se. What I have a problem with is the fact that if we continue to send files to each other in proprietary formats, no matter what program they were created with (ie MS Office, OpenOffice.org, Abiword, etc) then we cease to become part of the solution, and only exaserbate the problem.
So, here is the bottom line - I don't care what Office suite you happen to prefer (actually, I do, but that is another matter). If you decide to send files in a particular format to friends by prior arrangement, fine. I don't want to receive .DOC files though. Yes, I can read them. I can edit them. But that is not the point. Neither will I send you anything in .DOC format. I may occasionally use PDF files, but that is an exception, and only because Adobe have made it possible for the files to be read on any platform. If I have to send you a document, I will most likely send it as HTML, an open standard that 99% of word processors can import with minimal difficulties.

HTML Mail

I dislike HTML mail. Particularly those of you that have fancy graphics in your signature. It is a waste of space (especially at work where my mail file size is extremely limited), and means that I have to use an HTML aware email client (not always possible when I am logged into a shell on my home system - Mutt is good, but does not stoop that low). Even worse are those emails that have been sent from a certain hefty word processor that, instead of rendering them as text, or even HTML, inserts a whole load of guff into the top of the email to make it impossible to read. Here is an example from a recent email I received:


/* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 2 6 3
5 4
+5 2 3 4;} @font-face {font-family:Tahoma; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
+@font-face {font-family:"Monotype Sorts"; panose-1:5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1;}
/*
+Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:0cm;
+margin-bottom:.0001pt; punctuation-wrap:simple; text-autospace:none;
+font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} p.MsoHeader,
li.MsoHeader,
+div.MsoHeader {margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; punctuation-wrap:simple;
+text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";
+color:black;} p.MsoFooter, li.MsoFooter, div.MsoFooter {margin:0cm;
+margin-bottom:.0001pt; punctuation-wrap:simple; text-autospace:none;
+font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black;} p.MsoTitle,
+li.MsoTitle, div.MsoTitle {margin-top:7.2pt; margin-right:0cm;
+margin-bottom:3.6pt; margin-left:0cm; text-align:center;
+page-break-after:avoid; punctuation-wrap:simple; text-autospace:none;
+font-size:18.0pt; font-family:Arial; color:black; font-weight:bold;}
a:link,
+span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline;} a:visited,
+span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline;} p
+{margin-right:0cm; margin-left:0cm; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times
New
+Roman";} p.Bullet2, li.Bullet2, div.Bullet2 {margin-top:0cm;
margin-right:0cm;
+margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt; margin-bottom:.0001pt;
+text-indent:-18.0pt; text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times
+New Roman";} p.Subhead, li.Subhead, div.Subhead {margin-top:3.6pt;
+margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:3.6pt; margin-left:0cm;
+punctuation-wrap:simple; text-autospace:none; font-size:10.0pt;
+font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black;} p.NumberList, li.NumberList,
+div.NumberList {margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-indent:0cm;
+punctuation-wrap:simple; text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt;
+font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black;} p.Bullet1, li.Bullet1,
div.Bullet1
+{margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-indent:0cm;
punctuation-wrap:simple;
+text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";
+color:black;} p.Bullet, li.Bullet, div.Bullet {margin:0cm;
+margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-indent:0cm; punctuation-wrap:simple;
+text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";
+color:black;} p.BodySingle, li.BodySingle, div.BodySingle {margin:0cm;
+margin-bottom:.0001pt; punctuation-wrap:simple; text-autospace:none;
+font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black;}
p.DefaultText,
+li.DefaultText, div.DefaultText {margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt;
+punctuation-wrap:simple; text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt;
+font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black;} span.EmailStyle28
+{font-family:Arial; color:windowtext;} /* Page Definitions */ @page
Section1
+{size:595.25pt 841.9pt; margin:48.3pt 34.0pt 50.2pt 34.0pt;} div.Section1
+{page:Section1;} /* List Definitions */ ol {margin-bottom:0cm;} ul
+{margin-bottom:0cm;}

All this for an email that only contained about 8 lines of text!!
Anyway - thats probably enough for you to be going on with. L8rs

mrBen

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Tue, 20 Jul 2004

Al's Links
Thought it might be a time to share some links to sites I regularly visit. I think mrBen might do one of his own eventually.

Comics

Publishers
DC Comics

Gaming

Collectable Card Games
Call Of Cthulhu - Based on the Call of Cthulhu RPG.
Wars - An original game using the Star Wars CCG (by Decipher) game engine.
Role-Playing Games
Chaosium - Makers of the Call Of Cthulhu & Stormbringer role-playing games.

Music

Bands
Iron Maiden
Marillion
Porcupine tree
Spock's Beard
Yes - The Ultimate Progressive Rock Band?

People

Friends
Psycho Chicken

Tech

Games
nVidia - Graphics cards and such.
Hardware
Creative - Sound cards, Mp3 Players and all manner of media tech.
Nomad World - Creative's MP3 player site.
nVidia - Graphics cards and such.
News
Slashdot

This will be updated in the same manner as my reading list. Occasionally and whenever I remember.

BigAl

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Mon, 19 Jul 2004

Switch2Firefox.com
Need I say more? I think not.

mrBen

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Back from Clan
Well, it's my first day back from work after my week at Clan Gathering in St Andrews.
It was great to get away for a week with Ruth, even though we were sharing accommodation with 4 other women... :( ...but that wasn't soooo bad, although they did go on about hair and shoes a bit much. (As women have a tendency to do.)
Eventually I will put a lengthy post up about all the happenings at Clan when I have it all worked out in my head. Loads happened and it's still taking time to process it all.
Coming home proves to be quite a sharp fall back to Earth with less than 4 weeks to go before the wedding. Ruth and I will both be glad to get all this behind us, it's becoming more stressful than we'd like.
And then there's the joys of coming back to work. Luckily I have enough work to keep me going for the moment, but I can see some time-wasting on the horizon.
Lucky me...

BigAl

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Fri, 09 Jul 2004

Almost at the weekend
It's just before 3 on friday afternoon, and there's only two hours of the working week to go. I'm feeling pretty good about stuff because this week has went really well (at work anyway) and I'm off next week.
I'm more relaxed right now than I've been in weeks, which isn't always the best state to be in at work. ;) But I can't say I care right now.
Tonight I'll off to the cinema to see The Day After Tomorrow.

BigAl

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Thu, 08 Jul 2004

Tampering with THX 1138
For those of you who don't know, THX 1138 was (as far as I can remember) George Lucas' first feature film.
It's about an underground, self-contained world which exists only to perpetuate itself. Robot policemen keep the peace and the population is kept under control through a careful drug use program. There is no love, no joy, no laughter. Humanity survives, but it's in a rare old state.
I love THX 1138, much like I love most SF, but THX is one of those films that shines.
But this isn't meant to be a film review.
Rumour has it that Lucas, not content with revising Star Wars, has returned to THX 1138 with the idea of digitally remastering it. Now that's not usually a bad thing, but he's going to add new backgrounds digitally change the look and feel of it and monkey around with it FOR NO GOOD REASON.
Come on George. Just leave it alone.
Do you have to go back and tinker with everything you've ever done?
I fear that this will go the way of Star Wars Special Editions which are now the "official" versions. The original trilogy, in it's original "untampered-with" form, will no longer exist and we will never have the chance of watching them again.
Isn't this just wrong? I've no problem with enhancing a movie, digitally or otherwise, but could you at least give us the choice of which version we can watch?
Something has to be done about Lucas, because this man really has a serious problem...

BigAl

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Unresolvable Daleks
So the Daleks won't be in the new series of Dr Who. And do I care? Well, no.
It's been blamed on either the BBC, being far too controlling, or the estate of Terry Nation (the old-boy who created the Daleks), having little enough control.
And as usual, the fans get it in the neck.
I, for one, am just happy that we're getting a return of the good Doctor at all. It's been far too long since the Doc was regularly on the Beeb and I'm willing to forgive the absence of the Daleks. After all, it's not like the Dalek episodes were the best ones.
What about the Master? He was always worth watching. But then any bad-guy with ridiculous facial hair gets my vote.
Or even the Cybermen. They have SO much potential.
And the universe is a big place. And the Doctor has a time/space machine. There's no limit to what they could do with him.
So, let's not harp on and on about the loss of the Daleks. There's always the next series. ;)

BigAl

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Blah, blah, blah
Oh, when will it ever end...
I know it's getting bad when the blog becomes the perfect friend.
I can witter p1sh at the blog and it doesn't get bored.
I can ignore it and it doesn't throw a huff.
I can talk to it for hours, about any subject, and it's still there waiting for more.
Oh, blah, blah, blah, I'm bored.
You may have guessed this.
It's just before midday and all my work has finished.
All? Well, maybe not all. There are a couple of queries I could be getting on with, but I'm saving them until after lunch. With any luck the system will crash or we'll suddenly be inundated with stuff to do, but I can't see it somehow.
Just as well I'm getting paid more for this than my previous job.
;)

BigAl

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The joy of having a jukebox
I've been paying half a mind to all the rumblings coming from my friends about the Apple I-Pod. Sounds great.
But the question I have to ask myself is, do I really care? I'm sure the I-pod is just spiffing but I have a Creative D.A.P Jukebox. And that more than copes with my portable music needs.
I picked up the Jukebox a couple of years ago when the only competition was a Sony at the same price but only had 128 MB (in removable memory cards, mind) which didn't compare to the 6Gb which the Jukebox offered.
Okay, the jukebox isn't the most easily portable device I've ever seen.
And, perhaps it guzzles battery power just a little too fast for my liking.
But it is 6Gb of music capacity, which when recording MP3's at 96kbs (which is still great quality, even when compared with the "CD quality" if 128) I can get up to 150 albums on it, which accounts for a sizable chunk of my music collection.
The only one I have problems with is Dido's "Life For Rent" album, which has that pesky copy protection. I feel the record company really shot themselves in the foot with this one because, although I agree with it in principle, it means that I don't really listen to the album all that much. And when I buy an album, essentially supporting that artist and encouraging her future work, I want to be able to listen to it on my terms.
Which, in this case, is on my Jukebox.
So the next album by the fair musical pixie who is Dido will not be bought by BigAl.
Sorry, nothing personal. (Hmm, this is slowly becoming a rant against copy protection. Better leave that one 'til later...)

BigAl

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Wed, 07 Jul 2004

Concert Review - Marillion
When: Monday 6th July 2004 @1930
Where: Barrowlands, Glasgow
How Much: ?18
Support: Kid Galahad
First off, this is the first time I've been to the Barras for a gig since seeing Therapy? years ago. It hasn't changed. ;)
Kid Galahad was brilliant. A very alt-rock sound, with memorys of an almost grunge about it. Good stuff.
Marillion were... brilliant. Easily one of the best live shows I've ever witnessed. I was dragged there (well, maybe not dragged there...) by Neil having only heard the Fish/Marillion stuff and a handful of the NewGuy/Marillion. In saying that, my favourite Marillion songs are with the NewGuy (whose name I'll remember eventually) and it was great that these three songs (Uninvited Guest, Heaven, Easter) were played as an encore.
The gig was in several parts. Initially it was the new album, or most of it, that was played. They went off for a couple of mins to return for a set full of older stuff. And then it was encore time.
Marillion might not seem like the "coolest" band on the planet but if you want to see great music played by great musicians then you could do a lot worse.
Cheers Neil, I owe you one.

BigAl

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Fast food fun
Did a bad thing today. June (from work) and I nipped up to the Burger King at the Great Western Retail Park just outside Drumchapel for lunch.
Ah, the temptation that is the Double Whopper with cheese...
Anyway, I've got a few thoughts to share about the experience (and these are in no particular order of importance):
1. Ever seen the film Falling Down? Do you ever get the burger that's seen better days? You know, that one that has been used as a football and reheated several times in the last week. Well, what's wrong with getting a burger that looks like the picture in the restaurant or in the adverts? I really don't need the burger to be hanging for dear life out one side of the bun with the salad hanging out the other. These buns aren't exactly small, so there should be plenty of space for everything.
2. The staff look miserable. And wouldn't you, having to work in this kind of production line environment for a not particularly impressive wage. Tell you what, lets pay them a decent amount, show them a bit of respect (it can't be an easy job), and make them feel a bit more valued. Which leads me on to point number 3...
3. Lets have enough staff in these places so that, when it is really busy (like it was today), they don't have to rush about like headless chickens, giving themselves an ulcer at 18, when they're getting my "mystery meat in a bun" meal together.
4. I'd be interested in what kind of training they get. I really am. After all, they're going to be partially responsible for the food-poisoning-related illness I'm going to suffer later on today. So it's in my best interests that I'm assured that it's the mystery meat and not undercooking or bad hygiene that's going to make the toilet my best friend when i get home.
And a final thought...
5. Why do I bother going to these places? I would enjoy roadkill more. Just spread barbeque sauce over it and stick it in a bun.
Lovely.

BigAl

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Concert Review - Yes
When: Sunday 20th June 2004 @1930
Where: SECC, Glasgow
How Much: £35
Support: (Insert your own joke here)
Was It Any Good?: The greatest Prog band in existence? Of course it was good. ;)
Seriously though, it was another flawless performance for the boys. At the start of the night when they belted out Sweet Dreams, a song I never heard them play live, it was worth the ticket price alone.
The played the "first half" of the set, broke for ten minutes and came back on for an impromptu acoustic set. The acoustic version of Roundabout was a belter. That was only for about 30 mins when they got back into belting out the classics.
All in all, they play for around 3 hours and the hall of the SECC was packed. It was a great night, as usual and a fitting tribute for their 35th year.
Highlights: seeing Rick Wakeman on keyboards. That man's a genius.
Lowlights: Having to sit through Ritual. 20 minutes of hell...

BigAl

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Tue, 06 Jul 2004

Al's reading list
I'm currently in the process of re-reading all my books and loads more...

The Waiting List

Space, Time And Nathaniel by Brian Aldiss
The Boy Who Kicked Pigs by Tom Baker
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick
Valis by Philip K. Dick
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
The Ghost Pirates by William Hope Hodgson
The House On The Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson
The Wheel Of Time, Book One: The Eye Of The World by Robert Jordan
The Wheel Of Time, Book Two: The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan
The Wheel Of Time, Book Three: The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
The Wheel Of Time, Book Four: The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan
The Wheel Of Time, Book Five: The Fires Of Heaven by Robert Jordan
Salem's Lot by Stephen King
H.P Lovecraft Omnibus 1: At The Mountains Of Madness by H.P Lovecraft
H.P Lovecraft Omnibus 2: Dagon And Other Macabre Tales by H.P Lovecraft
H.P Lovecraft Omnibus 3: The Haunter Of The Dark by H.P Lovecraft
Mythos Omnibus by Brian Lumley
Mythos Omnibus, Vol.2 by Brian Lumley
Engines of Light, Book One: Cosmonaut Keep by Ken Macleod
Engines of Light, Book Two: Dark Light by Ken Macleod
Engines of Light, Book Three: Engine City by Ken Macleod
Sailor On The Seas Of Fate by Michael Moorcock
The Golden Barge by Michael Moorcock
A Single Tear by Wu Ningkun
Armageddon The Musical by Robert Rankin
Marrow by Robert Reed
The First Men In The Moon by H.G. Wells
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
War Of The Worlds by H.G. Wells

Currently Reading

A Graveyard For Lunatics by Ray Bradbury
A Fall Of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Queen City Jazz by Kathleen Ann Goonan
The Boats Of The Glen Carrig by William Hope Hodgson
The Conan Chronicles, Volume 1: The People of the Black Circle by Robert E. Howard
Pet Sematary by Stephen King
Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorcock
Stupid White Men by Michael Moore
Man Plus by Frederik Pohl
The Emperor Of Dreams by Clark Ashton Smith
Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson

Finished (recently)

Magician by Raymond E. Feist
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
The Star Fraction by Ken Macleod
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Behold The Man by Michael Moorcock
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
The Book Of Skulls by Robert Silverberg
The Emperor Of Dreams by Clark Ashton Smith (short story collection)
The Abominations Of Yondo, The Ninth Skeleton, The Last Incantation
Emphyrio by Jack Vance

Mechwarrior: Dark Age series (in chronological order)
Ghost War by Michael A. Stackpole
A Call To Arms by Loren L. Coleman

Star Wars: X-wing series (in chronological order)
Rogue Squadron by Michael A. Stackpole

BigAl

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Firefox better than IE?
...says Microsoft lackeys at Slate, a Microsoft online production. Surely not.
Well, that's not totally accurate. The article, found here, is hilarious and filled with all the standard MS propoganda cunningly hidden in an article which, initially, seem to be encouraging use of Firefox.
Check it out. (Don't believe their lies...)

BigAl

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Wedding stress
Or "How Ruth And I Are Going To End Up Killing Each Other".
Well, it's not really THAT bad but at the moment it's really easy to let the pressure swamp us. We found out yesterday that there was a problem with booking rooms at the hotel we're having the reception at. The problem is... there are no rooms.
As you can probably imagine, this is a problem.
But not a big one.
Even though most other hotels seem to be booked out over those days there will always be somewhere for people to stay. More important is that this small hiccup doesn't interfere with our enjoyment of the big day. Whoo, it won't come soon enough.

BigAl

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Mon, 05 Jul 2004

Back to the blog
The worst thing about changing my job here at Scottish Power is the disruption caused to my blogging... ;)
Seriously though, I can't access my e-mail (except for now, 'cos I'm being sneaky) because my user access needs to change. Hopefully this afternoon it'll be fixed, but in the meantime I'll just have to keep being sneaky.
Not having blogged for a while means I've got a power of catching up to do. Loads of books read, thoughts thought, movies watched and stuff done. So I'll need to start getting it all down (when the login get sorted of course).
The most important event in the last week is my new job, which I started last Wednesday. It's in the Data Collection team in the same department as before. The job pays more and there's considerably less stress involved, which is always good. The bulk of the work gets done early in the afternoon so there will be plenty of time for idle blogging and such. :)

BigAl

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Linux Video Editing - my experience
Well, having just come back from camp, I have a load of things that need to go up here (which will hopefully make up for a week-long dry spell) and I thought I would start with some of my video editing experiences from the week.
In advance to camp, I downloaded a load of editing software - the 2 main pieces being Cinelerra and Kino. I also got a firewire card from a friend in order to be able to import the data from the video camera, and all the relevant modules (drivers) for Linux. Plus, I was helped along by this tutorial. I was prepared......
The problems:

I couldn't ever get cinelerra working to my satisfaction. It doesn't seem to support many file systems, and doesn't do grabs directly from the camera. It looked just like a video editing suite should look (apart from the ugly default skin) and I thought I would spend most of my week using it, but it was not meant to be
My initial capture had loads of dropped frames, which was not good. When I upped the buffer, Kino started saying that it couldn't see the raw1394 (firewire) device. I eventually realised 2 helpful things:
- If you set the buffer too high, Kino complains.
- When Kino plays back, sometimes the quality is not good, but this does not necessarily reflect the quality of the grab
Kino does not have an interface of the kind I was expecting, and thus it took a bit of learning....

The successess:

It worked! Plugging the camera in, and seeing it recognised (down to the correct make and model of the camera) in Kino was extremely satisfying. Even the camera controls on the computer worked fine (play, pause, etc). My hard drives could probably do with some tweaking with hdparm to improve the grabbing capabilities
Once I got into it, Kino proved an excellent editing tool. The plugins it comes with have some really nice transitions and stuff. It could do with some better tools for splicing audio, and I somethings found the FX/Transitions could take a bit of trial and error to get it to my satisfaction. But overall it did a great job.
MPlayer worked excellently as a media player, although its fullscreen option appears to be a little flawed, although that may be partly due to the projector I was plugged into.

Overall, after the initial frustration (mainly due to not being able to get onto the net to RTFM) I was pleasantly surprised by the results I was able to get from the tools available. Its probably not ready for full television productions ;) (although I've yet to try the proprietary MainActor) but for some little home movies, Linux can do what you want.

mrBen

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Welcome to JediMoose, ;)

Thu, 22 Jul 2004

Wed, 21 Jul 2004

Big Brother

'Standards'

HTML Mail

Tue, 20 Jul 2004

Comics

Gaming

Music

People

Tech

Mon, 19 Jul 2004

Fri, 09 Jul 2004

Thu, 08 Jul 2004

Wed, 07 Jul 2004

Tue, 06 Jul 2004

The Waiting List

Currently Reading

Finished (recently)

Mon, 05 Jul 2004