flog

I always this web log was going to contain more of me just nattering on about random stuff, so ....
So UF have IP blocked me, I knew the terms and cond. of the web site prohibiting scripted downloads of the cartoon so I got what I deserved, right ?
Well were do I go next ? I will not be visiting the UF site daily, I do not work like that, hence the script.
How did they catch me, well first off the user agent recorded in the logs will be "wget", second I always retrieved the page at exactly the same time everyday and lastly the wget command did not download the adverts and other screen bumbf that a real web browser would have.
I can fix all of those and it appears the ban only last three days, to allow for someone else being allocate my IP dynamically.
1: Wget has a -U switch which allows you set the user agent string sent to the web server to anything you like.
2: I can set the cron script to use the random delay used in my Talking Clock script.
3: I can set Wget to download everything it sees every time.

http://www.userfriendly.org/ has black holed my IP address because of setdesktop, which is pity bechase I could have easily obscured my usage to look like a web browser.

http://www.unix-tutorials.com/ is currently linking to my Talking Clock on its home page !

the wii videos here are nothing short of amazing. I knew the WII was going to be something else but this is nothing short or revolutionary !
Even if you forget the innovative new games/game play the wii channels look really accessible, from news to mii, to video editing to custom daily news and weather forecasts !
I will say it again "I WANT A WII !!"

Story time ...
Once upon a time I had my zaurus working fine then I moved rooms and the wireless AP broke and I could not reconnect.
After buying a shiny 802.11G card from ebay and finding it is not Linux compatible I went after another 802.11B card. Surprisingly this suffered the same fate, what ever settings I used and how ever the wifi AP was setup would not associate.
I was convinced that it was my wifi card that was the problem but it appears it might have been the chip set (not checked yet).
After much searching I found an upgrade for the WRT54G v5 at http://www.linksys.com , but there was a warning at the top of the screen that the downloads were for US hardware only, please follow links to your own territory.
So I went to the UK part of the site and ... no upgrade, hmmmm, maybe its not compatible with the EU hardware.
Well, there in the support pages (I was looking for a link to complain) was a an URGENT you MUST upgrade to new firmware now message that (unsurprisingly) linked back the US only download.
Soooo, download upgrade, downloaded instructions but put off the upgrade.
It just so happens that while playing with the AP to get the new wifi (B) card to work with the zaurus we got new neighbors and the next day no wifi was working on any devices.
I dug around a little and found a new AP I had not seen before had been setup on channel 6 which was the channel I had been running my AP on since I got it, everyone else around here has channel 11 (and that is the default when I reset my setup).
So I figured the problem was with the new AP knocking my system off the air... good excuse to run the upgrade.
Before running the upgrade I took screen shots (thanks to kscreenshot) of each of the web based configuration screens as one of the steps for an upgrade is to lose all your settings.
Run upgrade an followed instructions to reboot via the REBOOT option in the administration page, system came up and showed the new version v10.10 and I set it to use channel 1.
None of the windows based wifi systems would connect, setup Linux and the wifi seemed to work but no internet after associating with AP, then I noticed the windows clients would connect but only for a few seconds and on closer investigation this was the same case with the Linux setup.
I quick google and lots of people were have a similar issue, suggestion to reboot the AP via the hardware button on the back.
After rebooting via the hardware button and setting yet another channel (just in case) and switching the default IP address, adding all the MAC addresses etc everything works, yes, even the zaurus.

Burnout 3 Takedown - 163/173 gold medals and the last 10 are damn near impossible, what with F1 cars in busy streets and 40 takedowns in one road rage event required !
Not to mention the 55 hours I have racked up playing so far, not sure how much longer I will be trying to get those last few, but I did get my moneys worth !
Speaking of which I tried out the Burnout4 on the Xbox 360 and although the graphics took my breath away the game play was NASTY! almost unplayable, just the demo ??

Chapter two will be continued elsewhere on the web, link coming soon.
I have just built espeak text to speak application and I am very impressed, the source files are tiny as is the executable.
It runs very quickly and is much more friendly then flite/festival although the results sound a bit more mechanical. this is made up with the inclusion of many language and dialects, loads of fun check it out.
It has been sitting on my desk since before Alex was born and this is the first time I have really had to write my mini review: "American Dad!" season on boxed set.
I really love futurama, I love simpsons, I enjoy South park and enjoy Family Guy so I thought this would hit all the buttons ...
But no, it falls short on comedy, although there are some laugh-out-loud moments, these are far and few. The main positive point I can give it was, it was very easy to watch, no brain cells required. Good thing I got it half price from HMV !

I have so much respect for anyone who is a parent. The last seven days have blurred and I constantly have trouble knowing what day it is or even what hour it is (AM or PM).
The process went something like this;
Sunday early afternoon Sarah got contractions but they were nothing serious and we were not interested in making a mountain out of a mole hill after many false starts.
Early that evening the contractions were making themselves felt and were nice an regular. The midwife was called at about 22:00 but as nothing was actually happening everything was done to calm them down to allow us to get some sleep.
We got little sleep and were forced out of bed at 07:00, this was the beginning of a very long day.
Sarah had painful contractions throughout the day and needed as many different pain relief methods as she could get her hands on, from odd positions over the back of the sofa to the heated birthing pool to nitrous oxide gas.
This was all very tiring for Sarah, me and Fiona the doula. After going through a couple of gas canisters and the lack of the baby's progress not to mention the now exhausted and distraught Sarah, it was decided to abandon the home birth and transfer to hospital.
We got to the hospital at about 18:00 and Sarah demanded an epidural spinal injection, this took a surprising time to administer/take effect.
Fiona, Sarah and I tried to snooze as much as possible but constant interruptions from semi faulty medical equipment made this nearly impossible.
I was awakened very early in the morning from the huge birthing bean bag I had collapsed in and the final stage of the play began.
Sarah was now beyond exhaustion but was not about to let this turn into a C-section and at 05:28 Alex was born.
We finally got to bring him home on Wednesday afternoon and this began chapter two ...

f-log

just another web log