A Life Less Interesting

BookMooch Enhancer V1.1

I've just released version 1.1 of the BookMooch enhancer.

This version will automatically redirect you from http://bookmooch.om to http://www.bookmooch.com . That should prevent you from having to login again on a wishlist hit!

Let me know how you get on.

See the instruction on this page for how to install.

If you are upgrading from a previous version you need only click this link to download the newly updated file

BookMooch Enhancer

I've started work on a small Greasemonkey script to add a few features to the Bookmooch website.

First thing to add is a direct Charity link on a users Bio page to give that user points.

Movable Type 4.0 Goes Open Source, Adds 50 New Features

I'm pretty excited about this... Sixapart has announced a beta version of it's Movabletype blogging platform (the same platform that runs this site) . I'm currently sorting out a test environment to see what has changed and get a look at the new interface. It promises to provide community based features and a streamlined interface.

I doubt my infrequently posted blog is the target audience for this new release, but it's still interesting to see whats around the corner.

The list of known issues is rather long at present, but hopefully that will be pared down with future Betas.

read more | digg story

CatCam!

It's been a while since I've posted here, but one thing brought me back..

Cat Cam!!

Someone has strapped a camera to their cat and recorded its various jaunts during the day.

Take a look at this felines furtive forays here:-

CatCam

Sketchy Royal Mail delivery

Edit Whoops, I appear to have lost the image.... Time for you to use your imagination!

This is why Royal Mail postage is getting more and more expensive...

Armed with only the recipients name, and a sketch showing the rough location of his home address Royal Mail managed to deliver the letter in 9 days.

LSN Web Interface Fixer 1.4

I've made a slight update to the Web Interface Fixer to include the new maps released over Christmas. You'll just need to redownload the newer version. It should install straight over the old version without any problems.

New Indiana Jones film!

CNN reports that the script for the new Indiana Jones file has been finished, and filming is due to start in 2007. Harrison Ford will be reprising his role as the whip wielding archeologist.

Its been over 20 years since Indy first hit our screens, and I wouldn't be any more excited at the prospect of a new film.

There is alkso a new Indiana Jones PC game in the works which I'm also looking forward to. I loved The Infernal Machine but wasnt so keen on The Emperors Tomb.

Lucas: 4th 'Indiana Jones' to shoot in 2007 - CNN.com

LSN Web Interface Fixer 1.3

The Map Name now links through to CountZeros marvellous Map HQ, giving you an instant reminder of the map layout and deployment zones.

Enjoy!

Grab it from here as usual

LSN Web Interface Fixer 1.2

I've just released a new version of my Web Interface Fixer. You can now add your own Tournament descriptions to games on the main page, allowing you to keep track of which games are Alliance Matches, World League or any Belt games.

Once installed you click on the relevant Tournament line and you should get a pop-up asking you for a description of that game. You can rename as many times as you like, so you could use it to keep whatever notes you'd like.

You'll need to refresh the page for and new changes to be displayed.

You cannot rename any of the 'official' tourneys.

The only drawbacks is that this is on a browser by browser basis, so if you access the web interface from a different PC then your descriptions will not be viewable. I also have no idea if they persist across Firefox upgrades, although it looks like they should.

You can install the new version here and you can get the Greasemonkey extension for Firefox here

The future of Dating

glumbert.com | Sexual Consent

(Can't wait to see what Adsense content this post pulls in... )

Useful Amazon gadget

Do you ever find yourself just shy of the £15 Free Delivery limit when ordering from Amazon? Well, here is a website that will certainly help you out.

just key in the amount short you are and it will scour Amazon for the cheapest item you can add to your order to take it to the £15 level. Hurrah!

Amazon.co.uk Filler Item Finder

Get your own back on telemarketers

How to prank a Telemarketer

This is VERY funny! I might have to start doing this.

Find It

Is this the worlds hardest game...? I cannot get past the second picture!

findit

The Coin Master

How many takes, I wonder...?

The Coin Master Video

Yodeleh-hee-hoo-hee!

Incredible 11-Year-Old Yodeller Video

56k Modem Emulator

This is for those of you who miss the 'Good-Ole-Days'

56K Modem Emulator

Baby Toupe

Link

One of those sites that makes me go "Er... what...?"

Free Money!

Its not often us Brits get something for nothing, but this looks like it;ll work out just fine.

Sign up for the ScreenSelect free trial by the end of the month and they'll give you a free tenner

Just remember to cancel that trial after getting your first DVD sent to you...

The power of The Hoff!

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | The celebrity power of the Hoff

The BBC has a good story on the Hoff today. The section I found most intriguing is this:-

"His is due to appear in a musical about his life called David Hasselhoff: The Musical, which he has described as "totally campy"."

A Hoff Musicial? (Hoffical?) That sounds fab! I bet I couldn't persuade the misses to go with me though...

Cosmotions

I've just discovered this interesting website.

Its called Cosmotions, and it contains some fab time lapse pictures of the heavens like the sample on the left. The fullsize pictures are rather large, so this isn't for you 56k-ers out there (if indeed you still exist)

How to make an electric motor

Step 1 - Find a battery, a scren, a small magnet and a short piece of wire.
Step 2 - Assemble them as described on this page
Step 3 - Enjoy!

Thames Water insanity

Despite haemorrhaging 890 million litres of water a day Thames Water have avoided having to pay a fine to the industry watchdog. Its worth noting that Thames Water posted a pre-tax profit of over £300 million . Its about time they spent some of that on fixing their infrastructure instead of applying for a drought order to cause further hardship for their customers

BBC NEWS | Business | Thames Water escapes leakage fine

The Incredible Shrinking Artwork

If you've spent any time on the internet you have undoubtedly received spam mails from people professing to have huge sums of money they are willing to share with you if only you can help them get it out of their country. Perhaps a long lost relative of your has died, or perhaps an unscrupulous lawyer is trying to sneak the contents of a large unclaimed bank account out of the country.

These are all scams of course, and they have earned themselves the nickname of '419' after the section of the Nigerian penal code which addresses fraud schemes. They basically try to butter you up into giving out your personal details, bank account numbers or even sending them some form of processing fee to free up this huge amount of cash. Its a big business and thousands of such messages get sent out every day. Sadly, some people are taken in by them and end up losing a great deal of money. There have even been reports of people flying out to Nigeria (where most of these scams seem to originate from) and never being seen again....

There has sprung up a counter-movement to these scammers who respond to their mails in an attempt to waste as much of the scammers time as possible. There are a number of sites dedicated to this practice but the most popular is 419 Eater . They often post up the results of their email exchanges, revealing the lengths that scammers will go to if they think they're about to get sent some money.

One of the best examples of this Scam Baiting has been posted to the site. Ever thought you could get a scammer to carve a wooden Commodore 64 keyboard and post it to the UK...? Neither did I, but click below for details on how it was done.

The Incredible Shrinking Artwork

My fear of mustard and pickles is ruining my life

Possibly the most bizarrely titled Chat Show ever...?

YouTube - Maury Show - Phobias - Pickles

Carboot Bargain

I did a trawl of a local carboot sale Sunday morning and found a fantastic item.

It was a compilation of cult kids TV shows, featuring Danger Mouse, Count Duckula (which is rubbish), Jamie and the Magic Torch and the main reason for buying it... Chorlton And the Wheelies , Complete first series!

All this for a mere 200 pence!

Ghosts Of Mars

Well, thats two hours of my life I'll never get back.

Why did no-one warn me it was so very rubbish...?

Magic update

For those amoung you who were wondering how my journey into the world of Magic has been going, here is an update.

I'm practising a few sleights of hand at the moment, without knowing any real 'tricks' to go along with them. I'm trying to get the basics learnt properly so I can concentrate on remembering the stories and procedures for the trick, instead of fumbling at the super-secret-snazzy moves at the same time.

I've alos been putting a lot of study into the Mallusionist site as they details the workings of lots of tricks.

Project Paradroid

Remember Paradroid? A classic Commodore 64 game whereby you had to destroy a shipful of robots by either zapping them or taking them over and controlling them directly. I used to love it!

Now, some clever fellows have remade it to run natively on modern PC's. It uses authentic sound effects from the original and plays pretty well. Thre were a few control niggles when I tried it (delayed keypresses mainly) but it certainly brought back the memories. Better than Paradroid 90 on the Amiga

Click here to take a look for yourself.

Also, if you are interested in the original Paradroid then take a look at this page detailing the process behind the making of the game.

My last season

I think Season 4 is going to have to be my last in the Specialist League. I am finding it harder and harder to keep up with all my games, which you can probably tell by the complete lack of any recent game write-ups. DibbleNGrub still seems to be going strong though.

So, I'm going to take a break com competitions for a while. Maybe I'll pick it back up in a while, but I think I need to find the fun of LSN again rather than be forced to play games I dont really fancy...

BookCrossing

Its been a while since I've posted here, and I'm determined not to let this stagnate. Sure, I'm not exactly into a six figure readership here but I should male the effort on my part if I expect anyone to make the effort to read...

With that in mind I thought I'd post about my most recent Web discovery, BookCrossing.com

The premise of the site is the sharing of books. If you're anything like me you have a huge pile of books waiting to be read, another huge pile that you're partway through and a third pile, the top of which has long since disappeared into the clouds, full of books you're finished with. Now, there is not enough shelving in Ikea for me to keep all of these books, so I either have to sell them on Ebay, palm them off onto semi-interested friends and family, or just donate them to charity.

The Ebay sales are generally more hassle then they are worth and it wont be long before all my family members have teetering piles of books of their own so mostly these books end up in a local charity shop.

BookCrossing.com presents an alternative. You register a book with them which gives it a unique BookCrossing number and then set it free somewhere. Leave it on the bus on your way to work, on a park bench, in your local coffee shop or post them through random peoples letter boxes.

You either write a manual note inside the cover, or use one of BookCrossing.com's preprinted Release stickers which point people towards the website and lists the BookCrossing number for the book. Hopefully they'll follow the link, make a quick note to say your free-flying book has been caged once more and then pass it on again once they are done with it.

As the site says It's also a fascinating exercise in fate, karma, or whatever you want to call the chain of events that can occur between two or more lives and one piece of literature. Oh, and we should mention, it's absolutely free and absolutely private, too.

Do your straining floorboards a favour and set some books free today. Let me know how you get on.

Pop-ups?

Is anyone else seeing pop-ups, or attempted pop-ups when viewing my site?

I've not intentionally added anything to pop-up windows (I hate them myself!) but I seem to occasionally get one when checking my posts have gone live correctly.

Anyone know how I can track down the cause? I thought it was one of the stat-tracking applets I loaded on, but I took them out again but still seems to get the odd pop-up every so often.

Any ideas?

Do NOT press the button

Do not click here

Father gets life for baby murder

This man should never be released.

BBC NEWS | England | Tyne | Father gets life for baby murder

Mobile Cooking

Is it really possible to cook an egg using Mobile Phones...?

Click here to find out.

3d Rooms

3D Painted Rooms

I think these would give me a serious headache....

Transformers - The Reality

Remeber the cartoon series Transformers? Optimus Prime and ..... the other ones.

Well, now they are a reality. Check out the video below of a buggy that can transform into a walking robot.

Clicky Clicky

Move Complete!

If you are seeing this then the server move is complete.

I need to do a bit of tidying up, then all is done!

Server Move

This site might be off-line for a few days while I shift hosting companies. It should be painless, but please let me know if things do not work afterwards....

Time Warner to release films on P2P

While I think that digital distribution is soemthing that the big film studios need to think about, I believe that Time Warner have the wrong idea here.

Time Warner embraces P2P | The Register

The article says:- The subsidiary will be called In2Movies and will offer films for about the same price as a DVD ... The film files will go online the same day DVDs are released.

So, you still pay pretty much the same as for a boxed DVD, complete with artwork and inlay, but you also have to use one of your own blank DVD's to burn it to. This is assuming they make the full DVD .iso available, with Menus and special features rather than just the bare-bones film.

I think they'll need to make the downloadable version MUCH cheaper than the full, boxed DVD for this to be an attractive proposition.

Specialist League Season 4

The Specialist League season 4 has kicked off, with me taking Mechs for The Unprofessionals. Our name is particularly apt, since I'm already late in deploying in my initial games....

Will I have time to write up any matches? We'll have to see about that... Keep 'em peeled!

Best Blonde Joke Ever!

This has got to be the funniest Blonde joke I've ever seen!

Glow-in-the-dark Pigs...?

Taiwan breeds green-glowing pigs

All I can say is why? So we can eat bacon sarnies at night?

Alakazam!

I've always had an interest in Magic, from some basic magic sets through to a very complicated card trick book¹ I owned when I was young. Last year I tried to relearn some of the old tricks I used to be able to do as a kid but never got anywhere.

However, I like the idea of being able to baffle my daughter with a few tricks when she gets older so I've decided to pick it up again. I also like the idea of knowing secrets that other people do not!

Personally I like the kind of tricks you can do without having to use any specially designed cards or props, the kind of thing you can do anywhere at any time. So, last night I learnt my first new magic trick!

Its a trick whereby I'm seen to pull a coin through the centre of a handkerchief . It can be done with any handkerchief and any coin which is rather handy. (However, I don't know if people even use handkerchiefs these days...). I know hoiw sits done, but I think a bit of work is needed on the presentation.

Even still, the description in the book wasnt particularly easy to understand. Does anyone know of any good books with easy-to-follow instructions, or is it the case that part of the puzzle is to work out how to perform the trick yourself?

¹ So complicated in fact that I couldn't even understand how the trick was done, let alone attempt it.

Daisy

I thought it was about time I posted up a pic of my daughter on this page.

I just couldnt resist these two!

LSN Web Interface Fixer V 1.0

Ok, we are ready to go with the LSN Web Interface Fixer.

I'm pretty sure I've hidden all details that might give away the result of a finished game, and there are a few other niceties, as shown in the previous post.

To use this script you must be running a Greasemonkey compatible Web Browser, like Firefox. You must also have installed the Greasemonkey extension¹, available from here . Make sure you have uninstalled any older versions you might have installed or else they may well conflict with each other.

Once done, you can open the Web Interface Fixer script here

When you have that open in your web browser, go to the Tools menu, then Install This User Script.

That's it, job done!

If anyone finds any problems with it then please let me know and I'll try to sort them out.

¹ Eventually I hope this to be a FireFox extention in its own right, which eliminates the need to have Greasemonkey installed. Indeed, I do have a standalone extention already, but for some reason it is inserting my identity lines twice and I can't figure out why..... If anyone wants to try it out its available here

New version soon!

I'm just putting the finishing touches to a new version of the LSN Web Interface Fixer.

It's a total rewrite, and so now works under the latest Greasemonkey version. (0.5.3 at time of writing)

Here are the features:-

// Features
// --------
//
// Hides the Win/Lose/Draw status of finished games to prevent spoiling
// a close final turn.
//
// Hides League Point changes of finished games on main screen
//
// Hides the sections of the game detail page that tell you the
// game result, final score and League Point changes.
//
// Allows you to view the last turn/wholegame for games in Waiting status.
//
// When issuing a direct Player Challenge, if you specify a map it will
// automatically select the radio button to play that map. Eliminates all
// those "I'm sure I picked a different map" moments.
//
// Allows you to deploy early on games while waiting for your opponent
// to deploy. Not tested fully

Welcome to DibbleNGrub

A big hello to DibbleNGrub, another LSNer who is using this site to post some game writeups. You'll find his entries (once ready for public consumption) over on the right.

If you fancy getting your game written up, then why not send him a challenge! You may just get lucky.....

The Email Time Capsule

Did you ever want to set up a time capsule, but could never be bothered mucking about in the dirt, digging holes and making maps?

Well, this is the Digital Age, so why not send yourself a digital time capsule? You can choose periods of 1, 3, 5, 10 and 20 years for your capsule.

What do you want to say to your future self?

The E-Mail Time Capsule - Forbes.com

Sony DRM gone too far

This is a very interesting read from those brainy chaps at SysInternals

One of their clever chaps discovered that a Sony CD put hidden, uninstallable software onto his PC just by playing the disc.

Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far

Mad For Mad

Remember Mad Magazine (back when it was still funny...?) While away a few hours on the following site:-

MAD Magazine Explorer

Heres comes Gwyneths head in a jar

How to make your own Head in a Jar

Creepy.....

What did you just call me....?

UtterlyBoring.com pointed me towards the Profaniwki .

Have you ever heard someone use a previously unheard phrase and wondered "Did they just insult me...?" Now you can look it up and find out exactly what they thought of you. Of course, you might be better off not knowing....

A SMS controlled kettle

Too lazy to walk to the kitchen?

Your prayers are answered....

Welcome On Board!

A big Hello goes out to Colmans Pig, who has jumped on board to write up some more LSN games.

He has his own little area under our Hosted section. At the moment it needs tarting up a bit (by me) but eventually it'll be its own little SubSite.

If anyone else wants a section here for LSN game writeups then let me know

Random Flickr Goodness

Got a few minutes to kill, and appreciate a good photo? You could do much worse than visit the Random Photo Browser

It finds a random Flickr user and then shows you a selection of pictures that person has marked as a favourite. I dare say that a lot of the pics I post to the Flickr Category will be found this way. People mark pictures as favourites for lots of different reasons, but the vast majority I've seen there so far are good pics.

If you find a good picture this way, leave me a comment about it!

• Update * - While browsing around I found FlickrRandom . This does the same thing, except the picture doesnt have to be marked as a favourite. you get the good with the bad, but you can find some previously unseen pics.

A new game on the go!

Ok, its time to play my Month 3 game against Calvin523 . It's a Specialist LEague game, with my Mechs against Calvins Greys. Keep an eye on this category to see the final game write-up!

An interesting game

I saw this game crop up on the open challenge list. It's not often I take up 15 force point League Games. Its also not often that a 15 point game will throw up Scrum as the random map.....

Worthy of a write up I thought.

Now, I historically lose any games of significance that I decide to write about, so stay tuned to this category to see if that holds true this time!

Reflection

Reflection
Originally uploaded by fujiyama17.

Hammered with Trackback spam

Wow, there has been a huge surge in Trackback spam today, with someone trying to publicise their disgusting porn sites by spamming my blog (and billions of others) with fake trackbacks.

Their hope is that they will get published on all these blogs and so increase their search engine rank since they have lots of people linking to them (That's one of the factors Google uses in its black-magic ranking algorithm)

Well, thanks to Movable Type 3.2's inbuilt spam fighting feature none of their attempts have succeeded. They have either been junked immediately, or held in limbo until I manually approve or reject them.

Following this onslaught I've tweaked the blogs settings so that more of them get junked in the first place. Still, deleting them manually takes about 3 clicks in total.

Trackbacks in general are a pretty good idea, as they allow fellow bloggers who comment on other peoples entries to let those people know they are being talked about. It increases exposure in general and gives a warm-fuzzy feeling. It used to be that trackbacks were accepted by default, immediately getting listed alongside your websites content which is why they made such a juicy target for spammers. The age old arms race then began between spammers and spam blockers. I think the current implementation in MT 3.2 is very good. It pulled in a third-party anti-spam plugin and embraced it, tying it in to the main body of the code enabling it to do much more in the fight against spam.

Good job so far I say!

WeBoggle

Now, this is a great timewaster!

Ever play the game Boggle? Its a word game whereby you have to make words out of a grid of letters. All the letters have to connect and you cannot use the same one twice. The longer the word the more points you get.

Someone has written a version of this that runs directly in your browser. No plugins or technical jiggerypokery required. Give it a click and you can be playing against others within minutes.

WEBoggle

A deep deep hole......

Ever wondered where you would come out if you started digging a very deep hole in your back garden..?

Well, now you can find out"

Legal flamewar over a Ham Sandwich

Two legal secretaries have been fired in Australia after an email exchange about a missing ham sandwich was forwarded around the world.

You can read the full email exchange here . Read from the bottom of the page upwards.

Hello LangaListers!

A big Hello to everyone clicking on through from The Langalist . It seems that I've been listed in the Loaded The Code section, (although Fred did get the name of the website wrong). Its nice to know that an IT Pro like Fred Langa is not infallible. Makes me feel better about the billions of mistakes I make every day.

For those first time visitors I'd like to say that most of the entries on this site are following the game Laser Squad Nemesis. The categories over on the right contain game write ups and commentary. It's a Play By Email tactical squad game. It looks pretty dated I'll grant you, but it plays like a dream! Plus, you don't need a cutting edge PC to play it, and you don't need to dedicate much time. Since I'm expecting my first child in a couple of months , time is something I wont have much of!

If anyone is interested in giving me a game then let me know . There is a free trial that's more than enough to get you hooked.

The entries that get listed on this front page tend to be stuff that catches my eye and things I find noteworthy.

Pop back and visit me every so often!

Finally, I run a Cartoon list on Yahoogroups. I dont often link it from these pages, but if you feel like checking it out then send a mail to Toontastic-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com

The lonely guy (over the umbrella)

The lonely guy (over the umbrella)
Originally uploaded by Simon Pais.

I've just discovered this chap on Flickr. He has done some remarkable pictures...

I'm sure they have had more than a little Photoshop editing, but I'm not bothered by that at all (it would appear that a lot of Flickrites are....)

I'm back!

I got back from my hols on Saturday. We spent a week down in St Ives, Cornwall on a well earned holiday. We were only there for a week but mananged to get loads done including a couple of beach days, viewing the Tate Modern, and trips to Lands End, Penvance and St Michaels Mount. I did my usual trick ofgetting burnt in amusing patterns which is my own fault as I didnt put the suntan lotion on properly. (Yuck.. i HATE that stuff!)

It sure is nice to be home though.

I have lots of games to write up (expect a few to be revealed shortly) and lots of emails to get through. My ISP had written to me complaining that one of my accounts had 340Mb of email waiting in it, and my quota is 20Mb. Whoops...

Anyway, there are some pictures of my hols online if you want a look. I had to upload them in a smaller size than I would have liked as I do not have a Pro Flickr account and so my uploads are limited. Anyway, have a flick though then. I think this one is my favourite.