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Showing posts from June, 2005

Talk about weird

Click link. Very weird. Women bouncing on cats!

Hair Off!

Well thats it! My hair has been shawn off. My experiment in hair growing is over after about 6 months and now it has gone to another extreme ... grade two all over. After last weeks hot spell I just couldn't stand it, it probably will be in a decent state for Nic and Jill's wedding too. All I can say is that my head feels a lot smaller and lighter and when I see myself in the mirror I have to look twice before I recognise myself!


DSCF2301

SSH to create a SOCKS proxy

Recently I have found this great way to use SSH to set up a SOCKS proxy. This is useful because it allows me to create an encrypted tunnel from my laptop at home to my computer at college, and so any external service thinks I am sitting at my desk at college. This is very useful as it allows me to access electronic journals at home (they are normally restricted to computers on the Uni network).

So how do you do it? Really simply, just SSH to a machine as normal but add -D and a non-prioveledge port. For example,

ssh -D 10022 www.example.com

After that you simply set the proxy settings of your browser to SOCKS with the port you defined above.

Very handy

No dole for Alice

Alice does not have a job at the moment and so she tried to sign on for the dole today. Unfortunately, because she is married it has to be a joint claim and I earn too much to get any benefits. How a PhD grant can be considered too high I really do not know. So much for being at an advantage with the government from being married. Ah well.

icalsync not working

Just found out that my script to sync ical files between computers is not working with Tiger. Boo hiss. It is because Apple in there wisdom have decided to confuse things by 1) moving the files and 2) putting each calendar in a folder with a cryptic hash. Oh well, no time to fix it now.

Mac on Intel

Just been reading the live feed of the keynote at WWDC and it is true, Apple is moving over to Intel! I think that is a mistake, but I suspect that IBM managed to annoy Apple just a bit too much with their slowness. I would have like Apple to go on to use the CELL processor, but never mind. Will this be the end of Apple?

I wonder if some clever hacker will make it easier to run OS X on a beige box, and what about AMD, I would say their 64-bit processors are a lot more tempting. Hmmmmm.

Harry Potter and the missing gun

Saturday June 4, 2005
The Guardian

The curious case of Harry Potter, the tabloid newspaper and the disappearing gun. Another dramatic chapter in the life of the world's most famous boy wizard unfolded yesterday when armed police were called to a reported shootout over an attempt to sell a stolen copy of the new JK Rowling novel.


This is Harry Potter madness gone insane.

Dr. Alice and exhausting weekend

So after 2 hours and 45 minutes she came out and she has passed with corrections. It sounds like they were pretty mean to her but she doesn't have to have another viva or anything like that, so thats great.

This has been the first time I have had a break since she passed. Celebrating all Friday, then on Saturday straight to Kew to spend time with both our families, then back to Christain's birthday party. Then on Sunday we had lots of people round for Sunday lunch. Phew, I am so tired, not sure how work will go tomorrow. That is the most hectic weekend I have had in eons, but it was good fun all the same. Strangely I saw Dave for four days in a row and ate nachos four days in a row ... is Dave the nacho king?

Holiday starts on Friday whoop, so only until then to survive.

Anyway, off to have a bath and relax.

Waiting waiting waiting

Alice has got her PhD viva at this very second. It staeted at 10:30, really hope it goes ok. I am feeling really nervous and a bit sick about it all. I am at work but not getting anything done because I am so distracted. Heading off to Imperial at 12 to wait around until she come out. Arrrrrrrggggghhhhhh ... what a horrible feeling and it isn't even my viva.

Test

Test email post from mobile

Audioscrobbler

I have been looking around for a way to get a list of recent tunes that I have been playing up on a website. There are a few on OS X, but nothing really satsfactory. I few days ago I came across audioscrobbler. This is an external site that stores the information about what you are playing, and gives you weekly and all time charts of who you have been playing most. All you have to do is sign up, which is pretty anonymous not requiring an email address or anything, download a plugin for your media player and off you go. I have had much success with it. Here is my page.

What I particularly like about it is that after it has stored over 100 tracks, it matches you with people that have similiar tastes and then recommends new bands you should listen to - nice! It actually works reasonably well.

On the output side, it has quite a few options, but I haven't worked out how to get it on my blog yet which doesn't have php or anything. Also got to work out how to get it on my webpage with album art!