Redirection: I have a brief piece on Greece's European Championship victory over France over at ubersportingpundit.

Update: I also have a piece on the schedule for next year's Australia v England cricket series, also at ubersportingpundit.

Overreach

As happens these days, my laptop computer has been getting steadily clogged up with programs generating popup ads, spyware, and all kinds of other crap over the six months that I have had it. (I have been fortunate enough or well enough defended that I have avoided getting any worms and viruses). I have largely just put up with this. However, a week or two ago, one of the programs that has been showing me popup ads decided to start showing occasional pictures that were essentially hard core pornography, in the hope that I would click on the link and buy more hard core pornography.

This was enough for me, and I have gone through a thorough spyware and irritate-ware removal process, something I should have done a while back. Spybot Search and Destroy informed me that there were over 120 separate pieces of anti-social software of one kind or another installed on my system. Ugh.

Well, they are now gone.

Although I have not myself had a worm or virus infection, several people I know have, and I have been helping out in cleaning these up. One friend of mine received an infection from a variant of the Gabot worm, and this managed to mess things up pretty thoroughly before we managed to kill it.

Update: That wretched porn came back. Either the both Spybot S&D and Ad-aware both missed it, or I visited the site that was responsible for installing it in the first place again and it got reinstalled. (And no, I didn't attempt to rip the new Beastie Boys CD). Now running the software again, but I am very pissed off. I might be about to abandon Internet Explorer and start using Firefox exclusively, too.

Doing a little hacking

Okay, I am in the process of installing Wine on my Linux box. This is a reverse engineered implementation of the Windows APIs that runs under Linux and other Unix like systems that run on x386 processors, and theoretically allows them to run Windows applications. Ideally I would like to use it to run iTunes under Linux. There isn't really anything else in terms of Windows applications that I feel I have to have. Firefox is a substantially better browser than is Internet Explorer, and while I haven't used it in a big way, OpenOffice seems adequate for most of my purposes. And while there is an open source jukebox program that was part of the SuSE Linux distribution, I really do want iTunes.

Redirection

I have a quote of the day over at Samizdata.

Non updated websites

A reader has gently chided me and asked whether I am a "slow reader", due to the fact that (he claims) I have had the same three books listed in the "What I'm reading" section in the sidebar on the left for the entire time he has been reading the blog.

That is not entirely true. Over the 18 months or so the list has been there, quite a lot of books have appeared and then vanished. These are some of the books that I have actually read in that time. (I do read a substantial number of books). However, there is something of a problem. When I started the list I had eight to ten books sitting on a table next to my bed, and these were the ones I put on the initial list. I had at least started all of them - in some cases just having read a page or two. Since then, most of the books on the original list have vanished as I have read them, but the remaining three have stubbornly refused to be read. Mostly this is just that I haven't got round to reading them, but they haven't really grabbed me either. "Gangs of New York" seems quite good, and I will no doubt get to it at some point. "Tea From an Empty Cup" is by Pat Cadigan, and Cadigan writes intense and dense books that require a lot of concentration. To be properly appreciated her books need to be read within one sitting or within a couple of days at the most, and I haven't really managed to sit down for such a sitting. "The Seduction of Place" is the one really problematical one. It's a book about architecture containing lots of interesting information about how certain cities got the way they are, but it is rather tiresomely ideological, and ideology in urban development and urban design usually leads to bad places. (It is also a rather rare thing - a book I read because it had a really good title - summarising the buzz I get out of seeing and visiting new places - something I practically find necessary for survival).

Some would suggest that I should remove the books from the list if I have gone so long without finishing them, but that would be an admission of defeat somehow: an acknowledgement that I never will read them. And I think somehow that I should read them. The longer they stay up the more I feel so.

The trouble with this though is that the list then doesn't summarise my taste in books very well. Stuff I find hard going stays up, and stuff that I enjoy and read in one sitting stays up for a much shorter time, if it even gets up at all. (Also, there is a feeling that if I put a book on the list I have an obligation to then read it quickly, and that is perhaps not fun). In recent months I have been reading books, but I have not updated the list.

So the overall rule is the more I enjoy a book the shorter the time it spends on the list. Oops.

Perhaps it is the way the list is structured: I update the blogger template. This takes longer than just making a blog post, and doesn't keep a proper historical record.
Or perhaps I have just grown lazy.

But I am not going to delete the feature for now. I think I will try to update the list properly, and I may make a rule that all books stay up for at least a week, even if I have already finished reading them by the time I put them up. In fact I think I shall put up some more books that I am either reading or I have just read right now.

Or I could switch to actually writing reviews of the books I read. But that sounds like work.

But the three books are staying up until I have actually read them.

Redirection

I have a 6000 word essay that is basically a history of the Australian airline industry for the last 50 years over at Transport Blog.

Gmail

Google are now giving me another set of invites within a few hours every time I use up the previous set. Presumably the exchange tradeable value of a gmail account is now crashing.

Developments in the English language

I am working on my laptop computer. It is sitting on my desk. When I use it, it usually is sitting on a desk somewhere. Laps are only used very occasionally. Sometimes when I am using it in bed I sit it on my chest, but I don't think anyone has ever invented the word "chesttop". "Notebook" computer is a reasonably okay word, denoting the shape but not how it is used, but laptop is still dominant.

On the other hand, the ATX midi-tower seems to have won the war to become the standard form factor for desktop PCs. However, this normally sits on the floor beside the desk, so it is more a floortop computer than a desktop computer. Of course, the "entertainment" PC: something connected to a flat screen and sound system, used to watch television and DVDs and to listen to music and based on a small form facter flex-ATX or mini-ITX motherboard, and which possibly fits in an entertainment cabinet - is clearly on the rise. Whether this is a new type of "desktop" computer that also doesn't sit on a desk, or whether this will be considered to be a third common class of PC, after desktops and laptops remains to be seen. (In fact, if I were to get into the PC making business full time, I think it would be wise to concentrate on this type of machine. The big consumer electronics manufacturers and retailers don't seem to have figured this all out yet, and only a portion of the home brew PC makers have figured it out either. There is I think quite a bit of demand in this market, and there is much less competition than there is for building midi-ATX towers).

So there we have it. Laptops sit on desks. Desktops sit on floors.

An ambition

Someday, I too want to be inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame.

(And of course the lack of R. Daneel Olivaw amongst the inductees is a scandal. But I digress).

The modern world, and bad things about Dell

Yesterday evening, I was lying in bed. My laptop was plugged into a power outlet, but there were no other wires connecting it to the outside world. (I could have course have been running it off batteries). I had a hands free headset plugged into the laptop, and I was having a conversation with somebody in Adelaide. I was simultaneously operating my brother's computer (in Cessnock north of Sydney) remotely, to remove some of the foibles of Outlook Express Service pack 1 which were annoying him. At the same time the person in Adelaide who I was having the voice conversation was having an instant messaging session with somebody in South Carolina (or was it North Carolina?) who was giving him some cooking instructions for the dinner he was simultaneously making.

As a down point for Dell, their present model desktops have front headphone sockets and front USB ports, but no front microphone sockets. Given that more and more people are using things like Skype for over the internet audio communications, this is becoming more of a design issue. It's not so bad if you connect a microphone permanently to your computer, but if you use a wired hands free headset then you have to reach around the back to plug it in. This is a nuisance. (Of course the other option is to install Bluetooth and to get a wireless hands free headset).

Good things about Dell

When I purchased my laptop computer about six months ago, I ordered it from Dell's UK website. I decided that I wanted a good sized hard drive (by laptop standards anyway) and I therefore clicked on the "60GB" option. There was also an 80GB option, but the standard option was less than that - I think there were 30GB and 40GB options as well. (80GB is still the maximum for my model, although there are hard to find 100GB drives on some other models). I do not recall if the speed of the drive was specified on the online order form, but if it was I did not pay attemtion. Most laptop drives are 5400rpm (or sometimes 4500rpm) and I guess I just assumed that it would be one of these (and to be truthful I didn't think of the issue at all).

In any event, when I recently took the drive out of the computer so that I could put the drive from my old laptop in to test if it still worked, I noticed that the drive was a Hitachi 7K60. This runs at 7200rpm and is generally considered to be the best laptop drive available in terms of performance. Dell supplied me with a really top notch component there, for which I thank them.

They didn't draw my attention to this in any way though. Perhaps they have a mixture of suppliers and not everybody got a drive this good. Or perhaps they wanted people to pay extra for an 80GB drive, and didn't want to draw attention to the fact that the 80GB drives they were offering were actually lower performance than the 60GB drives. (There are no 2.5" 80GV drives that I know of that run faster than 5400rpm).

And why do hard drive speeds always seem to come in multiples of 900rpm. (This is the same as saying multiples of 15Hz, which is perhaps a slightly rounder number).

Update: Of course, many of them actually come at 4200rpm, which is not a multiple of 900. Me stupid.

Technological advance:

When you go into a middle of the road consumer electronics store (like Harvey Norman in Australia or Dixons in England) it is striking how much of the television section is now devoted to plasma screens, and LCD displays. These have the advantages of being flat panel displays. We have been promised for decades that televisions that you can hang on a wall like a picture are just around the corner, and they are indeed finally here. A low end 42 inch plasma screen costs a little more than a 40 inch CRT set (be it rear projecton or with a conventional screen) but the difference is sufficiently small that people are buying them in droves. (A high end plasma costs substantially more, and if you are after a 60 inch screen, then plasma is really your only option). People are also now buying smaller plasma screens: 32 inch for instance (although there are technical reasons why you cannot make plasma screens much smaller than this). I think the driving factor might be that plasma screens are cool when you see them in public places: in pubs, in airports and railway stations, and in an assortment of other places.

You also see lots of plasma screens in the electrical section of pretentious but actually slightly declasse places like Harvey Nichols where the staff wear black, look cool, and are totally unable to answer a remotely technical question, and where the customers wouldn't be deal buying an "old fashionded" television darling.

And in these places, you will seldom see the plasma screens showing anything other than the five Pixar animated movies (the two Toy Story movies, A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc, and Finding Nemo) Dreamworks' Shrek or Fox's Ice Age, all computer animated.

However, if you go into a high end home cinema store you will see some but not many plasma screens, a few front and rear projectors, and lots of conventional CRT televisions, mostly from Sony, Phillips, and Panasonic. In such shops the demonstrations are typically live action: showing such things as watersports and beautiful women walking with spectacular scenery in the background.

The reason for this is of course simple: plasma screens deliver really crap pictures. They are very bright, so they are good in locations where people are viewing from lots of angles, where there is lots of ambient light and people are being constanty distracted, but from the point of view of sitting and watching a movie they are not great at all. Their colours are a bit dubious when it comes to showing subtle variations, and their contrast ratios and response times are nowhere near as good as can be achieved with CRTs. Old fashioned CRT televisions provide pictures that at their best are stunningly beautiful, and serious home cinema buffs know this and buy them. Plasmas are simply left in the dust by something like this. The reason that the demonstrations you see in shops are almost always computer animated movies is that these do not show up the weaknesses of plasma displays in the way live action with lots of subtle contrasts and people faces might. (CRTs are much better at showing beautiful women walking past spectacular scenery for instance).

LCD displays are getting better. At their best they certainly provide stunning pictures. (This is nice for instance). They don't score as well as plasmas in terms of viewing angles and brightness, and they traditionally have slow response times (although things are improving), but in terms of finesse they are clearly better. (Big ones are expensive for now though). Fairly soon they will be better than plasma for all but applications that require a really bright display. (For one thing they are a lot lighter and less fragile) Plasma will disappear after a short period of being a key technology, I suspect).

However, many of us are waiting for newer technologies that have none of the weaknesses of either plasma or LCD. This is quite promising, but for now I will be sticking with CRTs. That Panasonic I linked to earlier is quite an impressive object of technolust, actually.

Update: This post contained a broken link to the Apple 23" cinema display. It is now fixed.

Anyone else want a gmail account?

I have another six to give away.

Update: (17/6/04) Subsequent to this, Google have given me another five, of which I still have three remaining. This is an interesting way of handling a rollout on Google's part.

Redirection

I have a piece on a sign pointing in the wrong direction over at City Comforts.

Redirection

I have a piece on watching the England football team lose to France in a pub in Dorking over at ubersportingpundit.

Ooh

Alice is in Texas. Seems a good place from which to defend humankind to me. Hi Alice.

One thing leads to another.

Okay, so you agree to build a custom made computer for someone else. You do actually order good quality equipment and components, but you want the resulting computer to look like a quality effort too, so you order a nice case rather than a cheap plastic one. As it happens, the online store from where you are buying most of the components has one for sale with a clear side, so that you can see the innards of the computer. Upon ordering this, you find that you are at a "suggested accessories" page at the online shop. The accessories are not expensive, so you order a couple. And when the parts all come, you put them together.

And that is how I managed to build a computer with one clear side, two glowing case fans, and an internal multicoloured fluorescent light.

Actually it's kind of cool. And it's a nice computer. I rather wish I had built it for me.

Wednesday Evening Song Lyrics. (Yes, I know it is Thursday).

I step off the train
I'm walking down your street again and past your door
But you don't live there any more
It's years since you've been there
But now you've disappeard somewhere like outer space
You've found some better place
And I miss you - like the deserts miss the rain
And I miss you - like the deserts miss the rain
Could you be dead?
You always were two steps ahead of everyone
We'd walk behind while you would run
I look up at your house
And I can almost hear you shout down to me
Where I always used to be
And I miss you - like the deserts miss the rain
And I miss you - like the deserts miss the rain
Back on the train
I ask why did I come again?
Can I confess I've been haning around your old address?
The years have proved to offer nothing since you moved
You're long gone
But I can't move on
And I miss you - like the deserts miss the rain
And I miss you - like the deserts miss the rain
And I miss you
I step off the train
I'm walking down your street again and past your door
But you don't live there any more
It's years since you've been there
But now you've disappeard somewhere like outer space
You've found some better place
And I miss you - like the deserts miss the rain
And I miss you - like the deserts miss the rain
And I miss you
And I miss you - like the deserts miss the rain
And I miss you - like the deserts miss the rain
The deserts miss the rain - like the deserts miss the rain
The deserts miss the rain
like the deserts miss the rain

-- Everything But the Girl, from their 1994 Album Amplified Heart, although it was actually a later remix of the song by Todd Terry that turned it into a hit.

More computers

Well, I am now blogging from the new PC I am building for my landlady. As this one has been built from new parts rather than recycled ones, it is rather more up to date than the PC I recently built for myself. This one has an Athlon XP 3000+, 160GB hard drive, 512 MB of RAM, DVD+/-RW, ATI Radeon 9200 128MB graphics, on board sound (but 5.1 sound with digital outs if needed), a nice set of 2.1 speakers, 802.11b wireless (for freeloading off my internet connection), a much cooler case than mine, and a few other things that I am not remembering right now. Unlike the computer I recently built for myself, this one has more legacy stuff like a floppy and a modem. This makes sense. If I need things like this, I can rush out and install them myself, but less technical people can't always do so. (Actually if I ever need a floppy, I have a USB floppy in the bottom of a box somewhere).

The computer is more or less assembled, although it is still sitting on top of my bed with its case open. Various things like case fans and internal lights need to be installed, but the hard work is done.

Redirection

I have a piece on the mystery of Selhurst railway station over at Transport Blog.