You know, sometimes you try to be polite and it just gets thrown back at you. How nice.

I wasn’t feeling too chirpy late this evening and spent a fair time lying in the lounge feeling sorry for myself. After a while I decided to watch an episode of 24, and it really cheered me up. It’s just so damned exciting! The way it manages to build tension is quite remarkable. I’m watching the third season on DVD and am enjoying it muchly.

Shouldn’t really still be up, but sleep is still passing me by. So I’m playing around with Opera, listening to Keane and contemplating making some toast.

Hello hello hello. It’s me again. I spent today avoiding tax returns and calculus. My tax return didn’t require calculus, you understand (hmmm, at what point in the year did my profits start heading down?), that’s just some A-Level work I’m behind on. That’s all for tomorrow. Instead I transferred my goldfish to the Biggest Tank Ever, which took all afternoon. I have learnt today that water is heaving per kilo than…er…smarties, and thinking you can carry a small tank full from one room to another is a very bad thought. I now have two goldfish in a tank large enough for thirty slightly smaller fish, so they should get plenty of exercise.

The other thing I have done today is returned to my favourite web browser, Opera. I do this every six months or so, as Opera is so very smooth and pleasant. It’s an addiction, really. Normally, after a month or two I move onto something else; there’s always something that starts to annoy me. This time around I was inspired by the release of the Opera 8 beta. Its major new feature is voice support, which isn’t of much use to me, but they also say rendering has been improved and that’s always been my main issue with Opera. It just had trouble with some websites, and that got on my nerves.

I’ve been using Firefox for a few months now, and it’s certainly very good. I’m not vehemently anti-IE like some people, but MS do seem to have dropped the ball in terms of features. Once you’ve used tabbed browsing, you don’t want to give it up. So here’re my likes and dislikes about Firefox.

Likes:

• Plugins - these can be written by anybody, and can add all sorts of useful features. For example, I’ve got plugins that:
  •    automatically check my gmail and let me know when something new arrives
  •    put winamp (and other player) control buttons on the status bar
  •    add a googlebar
  •    add a ‘view this page in IE’ link to the right-mouse menu, for those pages that won’t render properly
• Optimized builds - Moox has specially compiled versions for your specific processor, which really did result in a significant speed increase, for me
• Tabbed browsing - goes without saying
• RSS Feeds - Firefox will automatically check RSS feeds for you.
• Mouse Gestures - being able to close a tab without moving the mouse to the top of the screen is very cool, if lazy

Dislikes:

• Clunky - creating a new tab is slower than it should be, and makes the browser flicker. Firefox also uses vast amounts of RAM, although plugins could be contributing to this
• Toolbars - they can’t be moved around, and aren’t very customisable. In fact clicking ‘customize’ on my computer results in a blank box appearing that won’t go away until I restart the browser
• Options - I can’t configure it as much as I’d like
• Inline find keeps popping up when I try to type in forms. This gets old real quick, as it steals the focus. This is likely a bug that’ll get fixed soon.

So, how does Opera compare? Well, let’s get the bad parts out of the way first:

• Opera doesn’t really support plugins. Well, it does, but there’s a full API and it’s not terribly easy to write one. The kind of useful quick-weekend-project plugins that Firefox has just don’t exist. So I won’t be able to add functionality without waiting for new releases. Now that the rendering seems vastly improved, this is the major drawback in comparison to Firefox, in my opinion.
• Opera doesn’t have the support or fame of Firefox / IE. Any web developer worth their salt will ensure that their site works fine in IE and Firefox, but may not bother with Opera. This is fair enough, but there’ll be the odd site which won’t work properly, I guess.
• Gmail doesn’t work right. This is due to some javascript issue that Opera are trying to work out with Google. With version 8 (beta) you can get into gmail and see your emails, but they’re squashed into a small width so end up tall and thin. No big deal, but it’s a shame given gmail’s popularity.
• Opera isn’t free. The free version places a small ad at the top of the screen that’s about 25 pixels high. To be honest I don’t even notice it any more, and may well buy Opera at some point in the future (I already have the mobile phone version, so adding a PC license is very cheap).
• There’s no googlebar. Pretty much every part of the googlebar is emulated, including the very useful inline find option, but they’re all in separate places and it’s arguably not quite as convenient.

So, that said, here’s what I really like:

• Opera is smooth, clean and professional. Creating a new tab is instantaneous. It opens quickly. The user interface is clear and easy to use. It’s just a nice browsing environment.
• Everything, like everything, is customisable. If I want to have a toolbar on the right-hand side of the screen, no problem. If I want this toolbar to have a google search box in there, that’s easy. If I want to add a special box that searches myobscuresearchengine.com then all I have to do is edit an .ini file. I can put bookmarks anywhere I like. I can also customise the right-click menu; for example, I find it handy to have my bookmarks available from the right-click, and that’s easy to add. Every colour and icon in the program is customisable, too. Plenty of skins are available, if you’re into that.
• Opera’s built-in mail client. Because I access all my email via IMAP now, it’s easy to change email program. This way I get a message pop up whenever a new message arrives. It also uses a gmail-like filtering system (the source of many which-came-first forum posts) which lets you create folders that show you only a certain type of email. For example, the ‘Unread’ folder shows you all unread emails, no matter what email account they’re in. Or a folder which shows only emails from my family, without actually moving any emails around in the system. When you view an email a ‘quick reply’ form appears underneath it, too.
• The email system also supports RSS feeds, and an ‘RSS’ logo appears on the address bar if the browser finds an RSS file on the website. Clicking this automatically adds it to your monitoring list.
• It’s also a newsreader, if you’re into browsing newsgroups. I gave that up a couple of years back when I realised I was starting to slip into the criticism mentality.
• It’s fast. Faster than default firefox, I think, but slower than the optimized builds.
• Notes - these are basically post-it notes that you can add text to by highlighting it on the site and right-clicking ‘add to note’. This comes in handy way more often than you’d think.
• “User mode” - this is great for debugging when website building. It can show you all the structural elements of a website, emulate a text browser, make the page high-contrast for partially sighted people, and a few other options.
• There are buttons available for a huge number of options. Hide/show images is very handy, as it’s been known for me to find a website with some obscure driver, but that contains porn banners.
• The new version improves the interface substantially, from what I’ve seen. Everything you need is available at the click of a button, but not at the expense of screen space.
• You can set many commonly-used form entries, which are then available from a right-click menu. Also the ‘magic wand’ feature will fill in username/password fields automatically.
• Mouse-gestures work in exactly the same way as in Firefox, except there’s no visual indication.

I’m really hoping that the rendering improvements will stop me getting annoyed, now. With a bit of luck I won’t ditch it after a month or two, this time! If you decide to try it out, a good tip is that if you export Firefox bookmarks they can be imported into Opera as Netscape bookmarks, which retains their folder structure. There’s also a way around the google preferences bug, if you come across that.

I’d recommend you give Opera a try if Firefox/IE is annoying you in any way. I certainly like it.

You’ll like this. A study of 123,479 volunteers over seven years, all of whom were exposed to second-hand smoke in their childhood, has shown a statistically significant rise in cancer cases, compared with those who were not exposed as children. The British Medical Association has said that “the results show clearly that second-hand smoke causes cancer of the lung, mouth and throat.” Here, however, is the response from pro-smoking group ‘Forest’:

The effects of passive smoking are notoriously difficult to measure.

Well, ok. This is true. That’s why the study takes into account so many people, to average out any other factors as much as possible.

Most studies are based on imprecise recall and anecdotal evidence concerning the exact amount of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke

Whatever. Did your parents smoke in the house? Yes. Asks parents. Did you smoke in the house around the kids? Yes. Anecdotal, yes. But there are 123,479 people, here. Wait for it, though.

Yet this report, like so many, adopts a preposterous pretence of precise measurement which immediately arouses suspicion.

This is called science, my friend. You’re here implying that all anecdotal evidence is bad, and that any attempts to get around its flaws are useless. Precise measurement can be achieved with the right kind of experiment, and using buzzwords isn’t going to stop this being true. The last statement could really be re-written as:

I think this scientific report is wrong, therefore it is.

And then:

To isolate the effect of environmental tobacco smoke on lung cancer cases would require an examination of all possible alternative causes.

All possible alternative causes? Get a grip. How would one go about such an investigation, anyway? Ask them if they’ve ever been exposed to cancer-causing levels of radiation? No! That’s anecdotal! The only way to convince this man would be to conduct a study in which 100,000 people are followed around by a researcher for 70 years. And then the presence of the researcher would affect the experiment, so it’s all void! And finally:

Unfortunately it is just another example of anti-smoking hysteria, a further attempt to demonise smokers for their habit.

How can a report be ‘hysteria’? Why would anybody just decide to arbitrarily attack smoking? Because the evidence shows that it kills people! We’re just trying to stop people dying. Imagine a boxing pundit saying the above words, but change smoking to ‘getting hit in the head’ and ‘lung cancer’ to ‘brain damage’. All number of other things could be causing the brain damage! Strange that you don’t find people complaining of anti-boxing hysteria…

500th Post!

Something I’m proud of, then onto a sad item. Firstly, the front page now validates as XHTML. There’s little point to this other than my own personal satisfaction, but in theory it should render in all browsers now. The archives aren’t all validating yet, but I’ll try to get that sorted soon.

Also, I’m happy that I’ve managed to get to 500 posts. You never know when you start a blog / any kind of website whether it’ll die a death after a few months, but I’ve managed to keep mine alive and I’m very happy with how it’s turned out. I’m not bothered about whether it gets widely read (although I do like it when people mention things I’ve written), it’s just cathartic for me. I can, and do, pretty much say what I like, and that gives me confidence. Sometimes I’ll say things I regret, or are factually wrong, and sometimes I’ll write something I’m proud of, but I don’t postedit. It is what it is and I am what I am; it’d be silly to pretend otherwise. So thanks to my regular, and not so regular, readers for all the comments and tips. A fair bit has happened in the 16 months since my first entry, and it’ll be interesting to look back in another 500 posts and see what’s going on. I was going to look over the logs / comments and see what the most popular posts have been, but I’ll leave that for now because…

I’ve been following the diary of Ivan Noble for probably two years now. He’s a BBC News science and technology writer who in August 2002 was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour. He’s been writing a regular diary on the BBC website since that time, chronicling his experiences. After various major operations he went into remission in late 2003, only for the cancer to return shortly afterwards. This time last year he wasn’t sure he’d be around to witness the birth of his child in the summer, but he was. A few months ago he again went into remission, but six weeks later the tumour had come back with a vengeance. Today he posted his final diary entry, as he feels that he will not be well enough to continue writing after this point. Reading between the lines it seems that he’s extremely ill, and somebody on the Joinee Forum says that he’s going into a hospice to be looked after.

I don’t know Ivan personally, but reading his diaries has been almost like sharing in his experiences. When his child was born I was very happy. When he went into remission last year I couldn’t stop smiling. So this makes me very sad. He’s used his last entry to thank everybody who has helped him, and as his last request he asks people to stop smoking. The page is quickly filling up with comments from readers all over the world. The internet is a funny land, and people’s memories are short, but I don’t think he’ll fade away any time soon. By sharing, Ivan helped himself and others, and he’ll be remembered for that. I’ve posted a message on the site, but I’ll say it here too. Thanks for being so brave, Ivan. It really is an inspiration that you’ve had the courage to talk about what you’re going through, and as the comments show, you’ve helped far more people than you know.

It’s corny to say that this ‘puts things into perspective’, as I know terrible things happen every day. But I didn’t want to pride myself on 500 posts without mentioning the end of Ivan’s diary. I’ll be donating money to the Macmillan Nurses tomorrow, as I can now appreciate the job and the good that they do. The next 500 posts are dedicated to you, Ivan, for the courage you showed in not being bowed by this terrible disease. May I be that strong, one day.

I’m down to 27 XHTML errors, but as anyone who’s ever done any programming knows, the last few are always the worst.

Saw Confidence last night round at Nod’s. As you know I don’t review films, but I’ll make an observation. It was a decent script about a con-job*, with some good actors and was nicely filmed. However, it was absolutely full of bad language. Like, every other word. I don’t object to swearing, but this, coupled with a bit of gratuitous nudity at the beginning, must have bumped the rating up by at least two levels - and there was no reason for it. It wasn’t necessary for the plot and it wasn’t a ‘realistic’ film; it seemed to be in there just to appeal to “adults”, but seemed a little crass. I liked a lot about the film, but that kind of thing irks me.

Wow, coming up on the 500th wongaBlog post…

*one that runs at a specific time**
** that was a little joke for you perl junkies

I’ve just found out the dates for my various exams this summer. Here’s the rundown in date order:

16th or 18th May (not clear on this yet)
Physics 3 Practical - AM

23rd May
Pure 1 - AM
Pure 2 - AM

24th or 25th May
Physics 5 Practical - AM

7th June
Pure 3 - AM

10th June
Physics 1 - AM
Physics 2 - AM
Physics 3 - AM

16th June
Physics 4 - AM
Physics 5 - AM
Mechanics 1 - PM
Mechanics 3 - PM

22nd June
Mechanics 2 - PM

27th June
Physics 6 - PM

The 16th of June is going to be a fun one!

I’ve done a fair bit of work on simplifying the html in preparation for my assault on the XHTML standards. I have a feeling that I’m not displaying properly in IE at resolutions below mine, though. Could you let me know how it looks to you please?

Right, off to bed now. Night!

I’m on a mission. For some reason I’ve decided that it’s terribly important for my website to validate as proper XHTML. Beware, things may break this evening…

The Oscar nominations were announced about half an hour ago. Quick rundown (in alphabetical category order):

Best Film
THE AVIATOR
FINDING NEVERLAND
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
RAY
SIDEWAYS

Best Actor
Don Cheadle - HOTEL RWANDA
Johnny Depp - FINDING NEVERLAND
Leonardo DiCaprio - THE AVIATOR
Clint Eastwood - MILLION DOLLAR BABY
Jamie Foxx - RAY

Best Actress
Annette Bening - BEING JULIA
Catalina Sandino Moreno - MARIA FULL OF GRACE
Imelda Staunton - VERA DRAKE
Hilary Swank - MILLION DOLLAR BABY
Kate Winslet - ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Alda - THE AVIATOR
Thomas Haden Church - SIDEWAYS
Jamie Foxx - COLLATERAL
Morgan Freeman - MILLION DOLLAR BABY
Clive Owen - CLOSER

Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett - THE AVIATOR
Laura Linney - KINSEY
Virginia Madsen - SIDEWAYS
Sophie Okonedo - HOTEL RWANDA
Natalie Portman - CLOSER

I’m happy to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in there, if only for best screenplay and actress - I thought Kate Winslet was almost unrecognisable. You’ve got to feel sorry for Jim Carrey though; he’s won best actor awards in various ceremonies for The Truman Show, Man on the Moon and Eternal Sunshine, and every time he misses out on an oscar nomination. Despite not enjoying Closer very much, I thought that Natalie Portman and Clive Owen were very good, and they’ve both got nomination in the best supporting categories. I’ve seen a whole one of the Best Film nominees, so I’ll have to get round to watching at least two of the others!

Woof woof woof WOOFWOOF woof.

Oooh, a lull. Hey, waddayaknow, I’m thinking things. And there’s news.

Excellent spot of casting…Dead squid invade beaches…Cool pub chain bans smoking entirely…

WOOFWOOFHoowwwwll.

Own up then, who’s broken MSN? Hmmm? Hmm? I may have to find ICQ, if it’s installed…

Lynsey and Ben have added stonking amounts to the wiki this weekend, and I’m told it’s now turning up in Google, which is entertaining I’m sure that if we club together we can add vast amounts to the Freaky Frazes page…

Off to see Elektra shortly. Hopefully t’will be entertaining.

I spent hours and hours this weekend getting MTAmazon and BookQueueToo working on my blog. The amount of time I spent on it was completely ridiculous, as there was no real need. I can now add books I’ve recently read to a list in the admin menu, and they’ll automatically appear on the blogroll. It links straight into Amazon and grabs the images and other product details automatically. That’s it. Worth the amount of effort I put in? Probably not.

However, once they approve my associate ID request I’ll be able to earn money off any click-thrus. Wooohoo. All this great functionality comes from the Amazon web services, which basically consists of sending a specially formulated command to get an XML page back with oodles of data regarding the product(s) in question. The problem was that both MTAmazon and BookQueueToo were written for Amazon Web Services 3, which has recently been overhauled to version 4, and isn’t backwards compatible. Version 4 is a lot better structured and makes more sense from a design point of view, however they’ve kept version 3 running because of all the existing applications that use it. Despite this, and despite my complete lack of any experience at all with Perl, I decided that a good thing to do would be to modify them for version 4. So I did. It took forever. And I swore a lot. It’s what you would charitably call a hack job, but it works. What happens when new versions of MTAmazon/BookQueueToo come out I don’t know.

Why’s nobody on ICQ? Have you all got better things to do or something? Wait. Silly question.

I don’t like other people’s puppies. Because they’re not mine.

This is my sister’s new puppy, Megan, the most gorgeous chocolate labrador you’ve ever seen. She’s going to be *massive* - look at the size of those paws! My sister moved in with her boyfriend last year, so it’s their house she’s going to wreck Their furniture won’t last the week!

Well, I just started watching ‘29 Minutes of Fame’ - a panel show on BBC1. It was fronted by Bob Mortimer, and the theme was celebrities. It’s rather a shame, because I could have spent those 21 minutes attempting to remove my scrotum with the end of a biro. When I eventually hit the off button the panellists were in the middle of the ‘impersonate a celebrity having sex’ game. I’m now going in search of something to convince my brain not to shut down in despair.

Yes and [Yes]. Thanks for asking. That’s cheered me right up.

I’ve finally finished the Pure 2 trigonometry chapter! It took two days longer than I’d hoped, which means I’ll be working on exponentials and logarithms this weekend. I remember them being fairly easy, so with a bit of luck it’ll get done quickly.

Well, now I can’t think of anything else to type. You know what may help? Bullet points!

• I’m hungry.
• My sister’s getting a puppy tomorrow. She’s very brave, as her house has, you know, furniture.
• Earlier I was flicking through ‘Dorridge Life’ - a free magazine containing adverts for local firms - and saw a full page spread advertising [a certain web design company]. Their advert says they can help with:
  • from new websites to revitalising old ones
  • from information control to document management
  • from communications strategies to electronic business
• Wow, those last two sentences are pretty much perfect examples of BusinessWank!
• I’m currently listening to an Oasis song. Is that wrong?
• It may snow tonight. Woohoo! Snowman snowman snowman. If I’m not able to build a snowman tomorrow I will be found sobbing in a cupboard.