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30th of October, 2009
04:07 am - The history of Chap-hop
Brilliant!
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/pengies/amused.gif) amused
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9th of September, 2009
31st of July, 2009
11:19 am - Energy drinks now directly marketed to Gamers
For years Gamers and nerdery type people have been high consumers of caffeinated beverages and in more recent years energy drinks like Red Bull, V, etc. Marketing of late with names like "Bad Boy", "Rock Star", and "Mother" (done in a heavy metal band style label) seemed to be aimed more towards the party crowd.
A US company has now decided that the market is big enough that they can market directly to gamers. So what did they call their drink?
Mana Potions
For Warcrack players the world over.
Current Mood: amused
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11th of July, 2009
01:31 am - Happy birthday Nikola Tesla
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/pengies/happy.gif) impressed
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10th of January, 2009
01:04 pm - Windows 7
I read in the paper (yes actual dead tree edition) last night that Windows 7 was due to be released. Though it seems Microsoft has underestimated the interest in ripping to shreds reviewing the newest operating system for Windoze.
[Disclaimer. I use a PC. I've never been much of a one for religious cults so I haven't joined the born-again Mac users]
The thing I'm trying to puzzle out is the name.
I remember 3.1
After that came Windows 95. Then 98, 2000, ME (the bastard child no-one talks about), XP and now Vista.
So which of these were 4,5 and 6?
Although it's probably closer to random-marketing-wank in picking the number I'm curious
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/pengies/confused.gif) curious
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30th of October, 2008
26th of October, 2008
11:59 pm - US politics D&D style
GM: OK, the bugbear attacks you. What do you do?
I did laugh!
Current Mood: amused
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18th of October, 2008
04:29 pm - HD update
Well good news and bad news on the external Hard drive. The good news is that it is now being recognised by the computer and I've been able to run chkdsk and defrag on it.
The bad news is that of the folders on it that I can now access, the "Music" one isn't among them.
I'm wondering if copying the contents of the drive may make the files readable on another device.
I think I should probably try and get a proper "internal" drive and put the music files on that rather than have them on a USB external. In theory I assume the internal would be a little more reliable.
Right back to fighting the rainforest out the front.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/pengies/annoyed.gif) annoyed
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17th of October, 2008
02:09 am - Music died
The external hard drive that I shifted all of my music files onto and have been slowly sorting decided to come back tonight as "The File Or Directory Is Corrupted And Unreadable".
Of course being connected by a USB cable rather than actually installed as a second drive means I can't run fun stuff like chkdsk on it to try and fix it. Hopefully I can recover it.
Currently in a desperate hunt to try and find the receipt to see if the warranty is still in date. Unusually for me I don't seem to have filed it in the IT receipts folder.
Arse.
Current Mood: annoyed
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17th of August, 2008
12:08 am - Remake rant continues
Continuing from the remake rant from a couple of weeks ago this little news item came out this week:
Rocky Horror to be Remade.
Yes boys and girls, the only movie to still be showing in cinemas some 30 years after it was made is getting the remake treatment. No, Richard O'Brien is not involved in it.
"Our hope has always been that each new endeavour and rebirth will expose the Rocky Horror experience to new audiences and expand the fan base."
Yeah right.
Current Mood: annoyed
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16th of August, 2008
4th of August, 2008
10:40 pm - Remake au go go
While checking for some stuff for a "Clanks and Constructs" themed music broadcast I'll be doing later this month I discovered the rather disturbing news of yet another remake in the works.
Michael Crichton's seminal movie Westworld, that turned Yul Brinner into the icon of relentless destruction, may be filled with flares and big facial hair but it still stands as a great movie in its own right.
Why the hell did this need remaking?
Slated for release next year.
At least Tarantino has had the good sense to decline directing.
Current Mood: annoyed
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27th of July, 2008
01:04 am - New footage of Metropolis
While browsing the net this evening I stumbled across an interesting little tid-bit of news.
It seems that a 16mm reduction negative of the original cut of Metropolis has been rediscovered in Argentina. This is not just a couple of extra scenes. The existing cut of Metropolis runs at 90 minutes. The 1990s restored version runs at 80.
This version runs at 210 minutes. That's 2 hours more footage than has previously been thought to exist.
It's apparently badly scratched and will take a huge amount of time and effort to restore it but I think it will be worth the effort. Even today Metropolis is visually stunning and voices a social commentary we still haven't resolved.
More information here
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/pengies/blank.gif) blah
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5th of July, 2008
08:53 pm - The trivia KING!
I got lured to MSFC last night with the promise of some interesting archaeology text books and that it was their monthly trivia night. Having not been along to nerd-trivia for a while I thought it would be good to go along. My team consisted of myself ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mortonhall and occasional assistance from dcrisp on the Tripods books. Most other teams had four people and one had six. And still we won :-) *does victory dance*
Yes I am a font of useless knowledge.
And in other unrelated news Pringles are officially not a "potato snack"
Current Mood: blah
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19th of June, 2008
17th of June, 2008
10:03 pm - Valé Stan Winston
Stan Winston, the man who brought us the fantastic designs of the Alien Queen, Predators, Terminator, Jurassic Park and more recently Iron Man, has died in his home, aged 62.
Special effects have always been one of my first loves in movies: the ability to make pieces of plastic and wood come across as animate objects. While much of recent FX work is digital, Winston was always one for promoting using the right tool for the right job. Digital when it would work, prosthetic when it was needed.
The movie industry has lost a visionary and a brilliant talent.
He'll be sorely missed.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/pengies/sad.gif) sad
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12th of June, 2008
3rd of June, 2008
05:01 pm - Chinese futurism (or steampunk)
While hunting for things on the web, today I stumbled across a reference to an post on Jess Nevin's blog about some turn of the century Chinese SF that included Airships and flying cars.
From the post:
"In this tale, Europe is a Chinese colony and it describes the Chinese government’s suppression of an uprising planned by European "restoration" rebels. The Chinese Emperor orders the generalissimo in charge of Europe, Wen Suchen, to suppress the rebellion with flying warships. Generalissimo Wen not only conquers all seventy-two European nations but continues on to the moon and Jupiter as well. The most marvellous part of this tale is that Jupiter is described as being covered completely with gold and abounding with flora and fauna–the perfect destination for migration. Wen is then appointed Governor of Jupiter. From then on, the means of communication and transportation between Earth and Jupiter is, naturally, by flying ship."
The story? Lu Shi'e's Xin Ye Sou Pu Yan (1909). A shame it will never be translated--I think it'd make for fascinating reading, if only as a counterpoint to the Victorian colonialist sf.
Now to try and find a copy of this and convince some of the Asian Studies students to translate it.
Current Mood: curious
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01:12 am - Internet Trolls are at it again.
Most people will agree that the US Patent office is a pile of steaming excrement run by incompetents with less IQ than your average squirrel. Or at least that's the impression their Intellectual Property people give when they approve things like this. It seems they've been training the Patent Office people in Australia as well.
Vuestar technologies, a Singapore company, managed to get a lovely little piece of Patenting approved entitled "Method of locating web-pages by utilising visual images". Their website lists both US and Australian patent information.
So what is it? Glad you asked. This little bit of bull says that Vuestar owns the patent on you linking to another website using an image. So if you blog, or have a website, or maybe even a flickr page, then you're infringing on their intellectual property rights. They would be happy to sell you a licence to allow you to continue, however.
The best bit is from the website FAQ:
Is there any Prior Art?
RN Technologies, Ron Langford the inventor filed the Original Patent in 2000 not in any way relying on or offending any third parties’ prior art. All Patent examiners investigations cleared, R Langford and the VUESTAR Technologies for clean patent registration.
Yeah, because no-one before 2000 ever thought of linking to another webpage by putting a logo up as a focus for the link.
More info here and here.
I can't wait to see this one come crashing down with a legal challenge.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/pengies/sick.gif) nauseated
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15th of May, 2008
25th of April, 2008
03:37 pm - Fan Wikis
Wikipedia has been around for many years and the software it used has spawned many and varied encyclopaedic database offspring.
Just an example of some of the stuff out there:
Girl Genius Wiki - for all things relating to the Girl Genius webcomic.
Memory Alpha - for all cannon Star Trek material
Memory Beta - for Star Trek licenced spin off stuff like comics and novels.
Star Trek: Expanded - Star Trek fan projects
Futurepedia - The Back to the Future Wiki - Back to the Future Wiki
Wookieepedia - Possibly the best known Star Wars wiki
Star Wars Merchandise Wiki - A wiki for all the toys you used to have.
One Wiki to Rule Them All - Yep, a Lord of the Rings wiki.
Firefly and Serenity database - Joss Whedon's SF foray.
Buffyverse Wiki - Joss Whedon's more famous effort.
The Bionic Wiki - Watch as your wiki runs in slow motion (unless it's the movie with Sandra Bullock).
The Lyorn Records - Wiki for Steven Brust's Dragaera novels.
The Jaunting Pad - The Tomorrow People TV series.
Chronicles of Astinus - Dragonlance wiki (still small).
Uncyclopedia - Parody site ofr Wikipedia.
Indiana Jones wiki - All about Dr. Jones.
Muppet Wiki - Every Muppet you've ever heard of and then some.
Doctor Who Wiki - Who?.
Little House on the Prairie Wiki - I kid you not.
And this is not including things like Astronomy wikis, History wikis and all the stuff about factual information.
Boy there's some stuff out there.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/pengies/geeky.gif) geeky
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12th of April, 2008
11:41 pm - T-shirt supplies
I've noticed that my t-shirt collection has been steady depleting over the years. Some of it the inevitable wear of t-shirts that end up looking like a pale grey rather than black, or the holes that appear in them, or the logo, slowly pealing away, or even worse, slowly shrinking in the wardrobe.
Recently I've seen a few places that move beyond the usual "funny" t-shirt site to actually have some cool or witty t-shirts.
Print Perfection's Retro Future Collection. I'm very much liking the Certifiable Mad Genius ("Better Living Through Merciless Extermination")
Noisebot have some very nerdily funny t-shirts. Some of them are of the type that you might need to be in the know to get the joke, but that makes them funnier I think.
Last Exit to Nowhere has a collection based on fictional places from the movies. Winchester Tavern t-shirt anyone? Though the Amity Island one would have been funnier if it was for the surf lifesaving club or something.
Additional suggestions are most welcome.
Current Mood: amused
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1st of April, 2008
10:32 pm - Lost Boys 2
How did I manage to miss this?
Lost Boys: The Tribe
For years there's been discussion about a sequel to The Lost Boys but it looks like they finally made it.
View the trailer here.
It could be up there with Terminator 2 as a sequel, or it could soon be sharing a shelf with Police Academy 7.
Only time will tell.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/pengies/sweat.gif) busy
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20th of March, 2008
12:43 am - It went for how much!!!!
Holy crap!
Just reading a report from The Register where a first edition copy of The Hobbit has sold at auction for £60,000. Yes kiddies, POUNDS!
I remember MANY years ago in the late 80s when my girlfriend at the time had wanted to buy me a very special present I had jokingly said that a copy of the first edition of The Hobbit would be nice.
I didn't get it but at that stage one could be had for $8,000 Aussie dollars.
If only my own income kept up with that sort of inflation.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/pengies/wideeyed.gif) shocked
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12:09 am - Wikihistory
"...everybody kills Hitler on their first trip."
Found this story via the Girl Genius group, who found it via Boing Boing.
http://www.abyssandapex.com/200710-wikihistory.html
Very funny :-)
Current Mood: amused
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19th of March, 2008
01:24 pm - Valé Arthur C. Clarke
Another SF legend goes into history.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jfE8qUikNEG6MVWqYku2k8BD_RcgD8VG4VI00
I think my first encounter with Clarke's work was the TV series Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World. It only added to my fascination with the odd, the strange and the "Fortean" (though I didn't know the word existed at the time).
I've always felt that his SF was the sort that tried to keep within the possible. Sure he had weird technobabble in things but he never seemed to delve into the Space Opera style, or at least from what I read of his.
He'll be sadly missed. He was a futurist who still seemed to be an optimist, and someone who understood technology, rather than just "making shit up".
Current Mood: sad
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5th of March, 2008
03:09 pm - Valé Gary Gygax
The man who not only invented Dungeons & Dragons, but by extrapolation the whole roleplaying hobby, passed away today a few months short of his 70th birthday.
I got into roleplaying via my best friend in Highschool. We'd both been avid fantasy and SF readers and after a trip into the city he bough a copy of D&D. This would have been 1981 I think. From there we started a school group, which included getting permission from the Physics teacher to skip the school sports carnival and stay in the physics lab playing D&D for the day. The Phys Ed teacher was not impressed :-)
The following year I attended my first roleplaying convention where I met some amazing people from a club called The Wizards' Council. This club formed the central part of my socialising for the next 15 or so years. While most of the people involved I've lost track of (though some have found me via Facebook) there are a few people who were really influential on me and that I still keep in contact. One of whom is the mother of one of my classmates at Uni. :-)
And while Gygax was unashamed in being "influenced" by various fantasy elements to create his worlds, but also came up with some unique and lasting variants, such as Drow elves.
I'm still peripherally interested in roleplaying, though I haven't done anything actively for many years.
I doff my hat to a man who had an idea and virtually created an industry.
Valé
Current Mood: busy
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22nd of January, 2008
01:45 am - Movies for 2008
I've been pondering the upcoming cinematic offerings for this year. Some have me very interested, some I couldn't give a rats about and others just scare me.
( The Good, the Bad and the Remakes )
Current Mood: discontent
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13th of November, 2007
16th of October, 2007
03:06 pm - Doctor Who recommendations
I have a friend who has been hearing more and more comments about Doctor Who. I've tried explaining a few things but I think I really need to point her at some episodes and say "Here, watch these."
I'd like comments and suggestions about what episodes would be good to give a person unfamiliar with Doctor Who a better idea of what it's all about. I know there's 40 years worth of stuff to choose from but I don't want a week's worth of DVDs either.
Ta
Current Mood: geeky
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24th of February, 2007
04:37 am - The third item in the hunt for a steampunk computer
Someone had taken a lot of time and care to put this together. But coupled with the modded tower, and the flatbed scanner from other people is close to completing the whole package.
One day!
Full details at Vonslatt.
A real update real-soon-now.
Current Mood: chipper
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31st of January, 2007
09:51 am - The Opti-Transcripticon
Brass Goggles posted a link to Datamancer's Opti-Transcripticon
What the hell is that you ask?
No it's not a book, it's actually a flatbed scanner! More details and additional photos can be found here.
Now if that was combined with the Telecalculograph I think we'd be on to a serious steampunk desktop.
Just need a monitor mod now.
Current Mood: impressed
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09:24 am - l33t eyechart
Someone's got a cool sense of humour
Current Mood: amused
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25th of January, 2007
05:20 pm - A new film to watch out for
A Gentleman's Duel hold the presence of excellent looking annimation but it's the annimation of giant steam powered robots!
(Oh and a cause worth fighting for. Watch the trailer you'll see what I mean).
Looks fanstatic.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/pengies/bouncy.gif) excited
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23rd of January, 2007
11:48 pm - And speaking of Steampunk...
Of late there's been some discussion going round the boards over steampunk as a "lifestyle" rather than just a literary genre. Some say it is, some say it isn't, some say it's a variant of goth others are not so sure.
Anyhoo, the upshot of all of this was I found a new band. Abney Park have been around for a while but have recently taken the direct approach to incorporate steampunk imagery into their act and are now referring to themselves as a steampunk band.
The sound is still very goth as far as I'm concerned but they're got the visuals down pat!
Mmmmm.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/pengies/cool.gif) flirty
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09:06 pm - Educational day
Today I headed into the city to take some architectural photos. Well more reference photos. I'm hoping to use this building on the corner of Collins and Russell Streets as a template for a building in Secondlife.
Me? Nerd? And your point?
In an attempt to try and find out a little about the history of the building itself I headed into the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. Unfortunately the image archivist was busy trying to put together the newsletter and was flat out but suggested I email in my request and he'll see what contemporary photos they may have. While I was there I thoughts I'd have a little hunt through the reference material myself and see what I could find.
Things wot I learnded:
The building used to be addressed as 116 Collins Street East but is now 139 Collins St.
The CBD street numbering was revised in 1888.
Melbourne's postcode system prior to World War II was similar to the UK one with things like S.12 or E.16 as postcodes.
Exhibition Street used to be called Stephen Street prior to the opening of the Exhibition Buildings in 1880. Not a real surprise but I didn't know what it was called beforehand.
The owner of the building, Dr. James G. Beaney MLC. FRCS, was known to advocate cod-liver oil for pulmonary tuberculosis and alcohol, especially champagne, for most disorders, both of which were then conventional therapeutic agents. This, coupled with his penchant for wearing diamond studs, ruby rings and a gold watch earned him the nickname "Champagne Jimmy". He was also tried for the murder of Mary Lewis in 1866 after he performed an "illegal operation". He was acquitted of the murder but subsequently retried and again acquitted.
Current Mood: accomplished
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5th of January, 2007
02:30 pm - Why MySpace should be avoided No. 365789
Jason Scott over at textfiles.com has discovered that one of his images is being hotlinked by MySpace users. Worse, that the hotlink itself is part of a layout template provided by HotFreeLayouts.com and is now garnering some 400,000 hits a MONTH!
What's a man to do?
Goatse'd the image.
To top it off the hotlinkers then start threatening him because he's putting naughty images on their page!
Bwahahahahahahaha!
Hat tip hasimir
Current Mood: amused
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5th of December, 2006
3rd of December, 2006
03:12 pm - Design for my next computer?
I want one of these for my very own.
The Telecalculograph.
Mmmmmm.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/pengies/idea.gif) creative
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