Changes

I'm changing web hosts, so this site likely won't be available for a couple of days as the DNS records update. Though I thought I remembered something about Verisign making the changeover much faster now? Anyway, see you on the other side...

Rubbish

I don't know much about art, but I know what I like!

It’s Friday!

I have one more question to do on my astrobiology paper and then I'm free! I'm getting up early tomorrow to get it out of the way, then I've got to really start thinking about America. There are a very large number of things yet to organise, and it's 7hrs 13mins until I leave. Blimey.

Btw, from all the evidence I've seen to date, Tiscali suck. If you know anyone thinking of signing up with Tiscali (who took over Lineone), don't. Wanadoo (Freeserve) is the way to go. Tiscali, amongst other things, appear to have broken their email forwarding system to the extent that the very small percentage of emails that make it to their destination arrive at least two days late. The rest simply vanish. They also appear not to be able to deal with the infamous blank email spam, which (admittedly in combination with some other unknown factor, as it doesn't happen on all computers) breaks the connection and never lets you download any email via POP3 until you go in via some web-based method and delete it. Wanadoo, on the other hand, have never once caused me any problems at all. They use standard Windows methods of dialling up, too, unlike Tiscali who insist on installing proprietary kak.

Wow. Where did that come from? I spent three hours working on nutso email problems earlier today, but thought I was over it. Apparenty I was wrong. Had to happen one day.

I'm just getting into the Olympics. Shame it finishes on Sunday...Other than the boxing, which I completely and totally despise, I've enjoyed watching most of the events. Admittedly dressage is a major contender for most-ridiculous-idea-in-history, but each to their own. I like the fencing, archery, badminton, table tennis, long jump, running...pretty much everything, really. The sailing's not the most exciting sport to watch, but Suzi Perry does the interviews, which makes up for it It's nice having the tv on and being able to wander in and see what's happening.

Oh I nearly forgot. Dad was on Midlands Today...er...today, being interviewed about the Inland Waterways Festival, of which he's chairman. He only had a quick soundbite, but it was quite cool.

In hindsight the snippet of conversation I posted yesterday could be misinterpreted. I'd like to point out that I was the perfect gentlemen throughout, and my question was as a result of the picture next to the chatbox - I was wondering how intelligent she was. So there. It would seem I can't even flirt with computer-generated women. Hmm, that didn't quite go the way I intended.

Right, I'm off to watch a West Wing then it's bedtime. Night!

Double-Take

This confused me for a second!

Pixel Flirting

You know you don't have a girlfriend any more when you realise you've spent the last half hour chatting to ALICE.

Human: what colour are your eyes?
ALICE: Blue when my lens is attached.
Human: what colour are they when your lens isn't attached?
ALICE: Red
Human: right.
ALICE: I am glad we agree.
Human: Scary.
ALICE: Don't be afraid, unknown person.

In other news, I've finishd one of my exam papers! Woohoo!

What Else What Else

I saw Waking the Dead last night...I think I must have missed something. I'm not sure it made much sense. Still, Trevor Eve's cool.

If anyone can tell me how to calculate the density parameter for matter and the density parameter for dark energy without any knowledge of the current density of matter / dark energy, do let me know. I thought my first exam paper would be easy...and I've been stuck on this question for two days now Hopefully my tutor will give me a helping hand.

I read How The Mind Works recently, and would thoroughly recommend it to anybody with an interest in human behaviour / the brain generally. It was absoloutely fascinating, second only to The Blind Watchmaker in terms of exclaim-out-loud cool knowledge, and written in a very accessible way for cognitive science newbies like me. It allowed me to get much more of a grip on why people behave as they do. That's not to say that just because behaviour is 'natural' that it is in some way excusable, in fact there's a whole section devoted to the link, or lack of, between science and morality, but it at least helps to give an understanding, which is never a bad thing. As with any popular science book that mentions evolution (an idea that anyone with any sense and lack of religious convictions knows is 100% true while the opposite know is 100% false) the Amazon customer reviewers have some bizarre views, which, meiner unmassgeblichen Meinung nach, you should ignore.

Blog Software Upgrade

I upgraded the software that runs this blog last weekend. It fixed a couple of problems, but I'm still having trouble with 'rebuilding' pages with my custom template. I asked my hosts about this and they said the script is exceeding its memory limit and is being shut down. I don't know if there's a way round that atm. If you see any older pages looking strange then that's probably the cause. The other major change I've made is to the commenting system. As it stands at the moment you need a typekey account to have your comment appear straight away. All other comments will be held until I approve them. I'm sorry to have to do it that way, it's just that the insane amount of comment spam was driving me nuts. Trouble is, it all still arrives, but now I have to check it all for proper posts! I've definitely got things wrong somewhere Getting a typekey account will enable you to post on any website with a typekey commenting system (which, given movable type's popularity, will be a fair few), so in my opinion it's worth doing.

Festival This Weekend

I sent out a group email to ask if anyone's interested in going to the National Waterways Festival with me next weekend...do let me know if you are.

Snap Happy

My new camera arrived today. I wanted to get it as soon as possible so that I'll have time to get used to it before I leave for the US. It's a Canon EOS 300D, and it rocks I can use all the lenses from my old Canon EOS 300, as well as all commercial flashes, filters, lenses etc. Because of the 1.6x focal 'multiplier' inherent to the smaller CMOS sensor it means that my 300mm lens is now effectively 480mm! I don't think I'll be taking that lens to the US, though, it's just too cumbersome. The camera comes with an 18-55mm lens specially designed for the 300D with an effective focal length, compared to a 35mm camera, of 29mm - 88mm, which should cover pretty much everything. I've been playing with it since 4 this afternoon, and am very impressed so far. It has all the features I could possibly want, and the picture quality is excellent, even at an ISO of 1600. I'll refrain from posting any sample shots until I take something worth posting My only quibble is that it's heavier than I was expecting, but that's no big deal. Now I just have to hope that the insurance money comes through ok, or my bank balance isn't going to be terribly impressed.

From Outer Space!

I'm back! Sorry for the long delay between posts; I'm still trying to keep busy and that means that some things get missed...I may split all this into separate posts.