Category: Internet

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I have been known by the chosen pseudonym “Sci Starborne” on the internet for over a decade. I am known by this name to far more people than by my birth name, and especially by people I actually care about. I enjoy living under this name and having all the associated back-history that goes along with it, so heavily resent being forced into having to use only my birth name which tends only to attract nightmarish ghouls from school-days.

In addition to this, the naming option is illegal under EU law, and perhaps more importantly seeks to squash the original levels of anonymity that motivated much of the original blogging revolution.

I cannot use Google+ in good faith without feeling I am assisting in a march toward a future where all internet usage is licensed and traceable, with the associated further hindrance of anonymous freedom of speech.

If you had left the option to choose a *display name* separate from my real name, I might not be leaving but would still not be inclined to post any original content on your service.

You’ve come up with a nice framework, an improved layout for social networking formats, but the first one that mimics it and allows you to make a page for your pet cat is going to win out. You’ve put too much framework in place with too little sympathy for those who dislike it.

I find this all another reminder that a company motto is in no way legally binding.

FYI: Go to “Account Settings“, click “Account overview” tab, and select your choice “Delete Google+ content or your entire Google profile”

Flashing Lights and Balls

Browsing wikipedia can give you some terrible mind-viruses.

For instance, did you know the Scarborough Fair Collection has two Wurlitzer Theatre Organs in it? Okay they’re in two different locations, but can you imagine “Dueling Banjos” being performed on them?

Of course YouTube’s not much better, and seeing Jerri Ellisworth’s enthusiasm for pinball machines makes your brain crank up. One quick sound-bite of “I am.. Sinistar” and I’m not thinking of the original arcade game but the remix by NSReynard, and by extension how amazing a pinball machine based around his music and Squeedge’s artwork would look.

But then I start thinking of what a Wurlitzer pinball machine would look like too.

Digest on, few lil things..

Blogging about today. Woo.

The digest plugin has now been turned back on.

When I had to shut it off, I emailed the author to let them know of the problem. I thought this might help in the future whenever they got around to it.
What I didn’t expect was a series of instant email replies. the first within a few hours, the next couple rapid-fire as he found his own versions were displaying the same bug.
A day later and an updated version of Twitter Digest is available! And so far it seems to be working.

Very unexpected, and very welcome!

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This morning my sister noticed a package for me stuffed behind the bins. Something to call the Royal Mail’s customer service line about, especially as there are 4 of us in the house at all times this week, and no one rang the bell.
The package turned out to be the “6 day delivery” cheapo ATX power supply I bought on ebay on sunday night for £20 including postage. It’s 650Watt and arrived in an unmarked box, with the supplies warrently label pre-voided, which is a concern. But since the old PSU was again unable to start this morning (it has had a problem with the 5v standby voltage), I swapped it in and it works. Phew!
The main PC is now somewhat more reliable.

The GU10 50Watt Dichoric halogens have also arrived, which will replace the blown ones in the portable lightbox and let me take product shots again.
As well, the Morse #2 Taper finishing reamer arrived, which will hopefully get the mill spindle back in shape. If not I’ll have to find a roughing reamer or taper-drill to give it an even more severe reaming. I should note though that finding a supplier online of those items is difficult, particularly the drill. What are you supposed to search for? “Morse taper drill” will give you thousands of drill bits with more taper shanks, but not intended to drill a morse-tapered hole. As best I can tell there’s no unique name for them.

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Made myself a very nice dinner tonight; seafood in cream and white wine, served on a bed of rice.

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I’m trying to relax after RBW so I can start doing things over from scratch the right way. Today felt all right. There was a peculiar predatory intensity in me. Oddly this may have simply have been down to clearing through my wardrobe and removing all the over-sized and poorly fitting items.
Result? Knowledge that whatever I pick, I’m going to look better in it that I would with the other items.

Have I really been that careless in my wardrobe choices? The collar was the only thing close to fitting me on some of these shirts. Jeez.

Eye-Fi and mobile phones – instant remote backup of photos?

Curious about the use of the Eye-Fi to instantly back-up your photographs, using your mobile phone as an access-point.

When I first heard about the Eye-Fi SDHC a couple of years ago, I was very intrigued, but saddened that it seemed so locked in to one service. But time’s gone by now, and it looks like they’ve opened their doors a lot wider.
The Eye-Fi is an up to 8Gb SD card with a built-in 802.11n wifi functionality. The idea is that when a photo is taken, it’s stored and also uploaded by any open wifi point to the web service. And now there’s a number of services including YouTube, but more importantly I feel, the open-source Gallery 2. The Gallery 2 option means it can now upload to your own personal webspace, located in the country and legal protections of your choice.

However it still requires you to get within 27meters (max) of an open wifi point. And with the spectre of an un-redacted Digital Economy Act looming, open wifi points may soon become rather thin on the ground.

However, one of the things that came up in the original discussion of the Eye-Fi was the idea of using a data-enabled SmartPhone with wifi as a bridge. Eye-Fi talks to your phone via 802.11n, phone talks to the internet via 3G or other mobile broadband. It’s a delightfully simple and compelling concept, but one that has apparently seen little development. Perhaps I’ve simply not found it yet, but it’s hard to find discussion of the subject past 2007.
Certainly you could use a laptop for the same purpose, but that shouldn’t be necessary, particularly as open-source phones such as the Android now exist, where the necessary programming should be relatively simple. And in any case, the uptime comparisons are unlikely to favour it.

In a world where police can illegally demand or force you to delete the video and images from your camera, I for one would treasure the warm inner glow from knowing that while the originals are gone, identical copies have already transferred to my phone and on to a secure server on the other side of the planet.

So if anyone knows of a bit of software to turn your SmartPhone into a passive wifi access-point/bridge, I’d love to hear about it, as I’m sure others would.

And we’re back

Where’d the internet go??

I do hate it when we randomly loose internet connectivity. If I’m trying to do something like ordering new stock, or checking my banking records, it throws the whole evening off. Even the casual option of listening to some streaming audio goes out the window.
I think it may be time to think of a better backup than using my mobile phone as a USB modem. That really is an emergencies-only measure.