rfbooth.com :: blog archives

19-08-2002 (archived)

A new (academic) year beckons, and I have a new design to welcome it in with. It's all pure CSS layout now, Netscape 4 be damned, and I have swum with the tide by stealing linkbox code for the right-hand-side navigation from the excellent waferbaby.

Also new (to me; as we all know, it's the oldest of old hats on the electric interweb) is this attempt at blogging. Who knows, perhaps I'll update more often now? Of course, there's always the Earthblog to mutter in.

Particular thanks to Adrian Clark for cross-platform testing beyond the call of duty.

20-08-2002 (archived)

I see in my logs that I've been getting a good few referrals from my good friend Paul Simpson. Imagine, then, my horror to realise that I never linked to Paul Simpson. It's not a bad site, it's got a blog and everything, how could I not have linked to it?

Bad me. Well, I've linked to it now.

In other news, I just got another paper accepted. Hurrah for me! Jelly and ice-cream! If you're into algebraic combinatorics, there's a preprint on my work site. In fact, it's there even if you aren't; but you shouldn't read it. No. Really.

22-08-2002 (archived)

Here is your reading assignment for this week: lots and lots of lovely words, so you won't have time for any work at all tomorrow. Since tomorrow is Friday, this is simply making a virtue of the inevitable.

First, and linked-to less often than you'd think: Mil Millington's Apology Homepage. Mil is probably best-known for his Guardian columns, I suspect. There's a good day's worth of entertainment there. Perhaps predictably, I found ‘toilets of the world’ especially splendid.

Next up, Ignorant White Guy Chronicles, a travelogue from Japan. Not laugh-out-loud funny, but it entertained me strangely.

Lastly, Passport to the Pub, a guide to British pub etiquette. Breathtakingly accurate and quietly funny.

Last night, I was so filled with lethargy that I sat in front of a full half hour of A Question of Sport, without even the strength to switch it off. Out-takes, in fact. This is why I should never, ever, skip my lunchtime espresso.

27-08-2002 (archived)

New tune for download on the music pages: La Disparition.

That is all. It's late, I'm going to bed.

29-08-2002 (archived)

For all the Dread Zeppelin fans, this is funnier: Whole Lotta Love, as covered by the Temple City Kazoo Orchestra. (removed, sadly.)

Do you like Harry Potter? I like the review by poola13 of the vibrating broomstick. (Link via jwz).

If you're a Red Hot Chili Peppers, or are in a band thinking of covering one of their songs, there are some great fan sites.

Eclectic enough?

30-08-2002 (archived)

Link of the day: Web Development Bookmarklets. I can't believe how useful these are.

Other link of the day: Mixerman's session diary. If you are interested in what life can be like on a pro recording session, you need to read this.

Last night I went to see Reign of Fire, or as Ashley Pomeroy has irresistably renamed it, “Tanks versus Dragons”. Here (and also on the earthblog, as you must all read my wisdom), is my review, hot from the chatroom I originally scribbled it in. It contains no spoilers.

Ignore the poster. The poster shows London burning, dragons destroying Big Ben, etc. You will be disappointed if you want this, as it is NOT IN THE FILM.

However, the film is utterly lovely. Tanks and dragons! Big men fighting! Guns! Crossbows with explosive bolts! The acting is surprisingly good, the plot and rationalisation utterly fucking ludicrous, but hey, it's an action film. The medieval vibe is happenin', it's all stirring without being cloying, and the impression you might have got from the poster of Big USAliens coming to Save the Day does not happen, thank $deity. Matt McConaugherty does a superb Apocalypse-Now-Nutter, and generally swaggers around like a man with a foot-long cock. It rocks.

Anyway, I think you can tell I liked it <grin>.

31-08-2002 (archived)

Somebody (that Simpson chap again, in fact) made a post that referred to a particular post of mine (incestuous enough for you yet? Keep up!), and I realised I could do with one of those permalink facilities. A few minutes of mp4h hacking and I have one, but this leaves me with a more difficult problem.

What's the right word to use to indicate such a link? I've gone with “archived” for the moment, but I can't help feeling there must be something better. Suggestions?

I would have liked to have linked back to the particular post of Paul's that inspired me, but his blog provider doesn't do permalinks...

2-09-2002 (archived)

I dunno, you complain mildly about a lovely comic that hasn't updated for six months and you get called a “procrastinating fuckwit” by a friend just because he made some improvements to some software you wrote and submitted them to you four and a bit months ago and you haven't merged them in and released them yet.

I told him, it's nearly a year since another friend submitted his improvements, and he doesn't call me names. Still, version two of the sigmonster is now available.

How to make people trust you:

1. Move to a new OS that is very different to your old, fanatically-loved OS (so fanatical that people say “but it's so much easier” while, say, adjusting virtual memory allocations BY HAND FOR DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS).
2. Release this OS long, long before it's finished.
3. Give stuff away for a while, then start charging for it. Particularly good with “lifetime” email addresses.
4. Buy up a well-respected company, who've just had a record period of high sales due to introducing a shiny dedicated hardware controller, then anally violate almost half the userbase by discontinuing the product on platforms you don't make.
5. tell the ones who say “couldn't you at least buy me dinner first?” that “hey, we'll give you a deal on buying some of our very expensive not-yet-working-right computers!”
6. Make sure you don't mention things like the cost of replacing all their plugins and other software.

This rant is in no way connected with either Apple or Emagic, and any resemblance is purely coincidental. And yes, I know Micros~1 are evil too. Thank you for sharing.

5-09-2002 (archived)

It turns out that if you google for Charlier Brooker fanboy, this site (and in particular, the link page) is what you get.

Now, while I am a Charlie Brooker fanboy of sorts, I can't compare to the Church of Charlie Brooker. Actually, I was claiming to be a Jamie Zawinski fanboy, and I'm not even listed first for that.

10-09-2002 (archived)

Old favourites day today. As you may know, I am deeply fanatical about the very lovely Mike Keneally; he came to my attention when he toured with the equally-fanaticism-inducing Steve Vai.

Well, on one of these tours, Mike kept diaries! They're good. Go read them.

Then read the rest of the site, and buy all his stuff, and then hopefully he'll come and tour in the UK.

Here endeth today's instructions.