Brilliant Movie transformed into a slaher film trailer.

Liz still does not understand why I like the original.

Office Space - Recut

Very cool idea.

Project Blackbox by Sun similar to what we heard Google was doing with their shipping containers. but now we get to tak ea virtual tour thorugh one.

Combine an international shipping standardised containers and a lot of racks filled with 250 Sun servers, and things get interesting.

What coders really think revealed by Google Codesearch.

What coders really think revealed by Google Codesearch.

The joy of Cover Browser.

So, I have been playing with iTunes 7 and the new Cover Browser. It has changed the way I look at my music collection.

I guess by using so many digital forms of media, that I lost some of the joy that I experienced in purchasing vinyl. The feel of picking up an album sleeve and looking at the artwork was as much a part of the experience as listening.

Suddenly, obtaining the cover art for an MP3 has become as much a part of the process of encoding a song as getting the album name and track numbers right.

A couple places I have scoured for cover art

Google Images - wide variety of images available, not always the best quality

Amazon - Good selection and fairly consistent quality

AllMusic Guide - Usually have the cover art but it is very slow to search, I usually search with Google using a site: switch

Musicbrainz - They get their art from other sources, usually amazon but, this can be convenient when you are tagging your files, to grab the cover art as well. Musicbrainz Picard occasionally adds album art as a metadata set but this can be a little flaky.

Finally iTunes Get Album Art command - I have found this to be a reasonable way of filling in the majority of album artwork, but it is very dependent on the album name and not very forgiving for slight changes in name. Often I am filling in the gaps where iTunes has found nothing to match the file.

And people say I am difficult to buy for?

How could not know what to get me when items like this exist?

Hell Trip

Well, I took on Toronto Airport and almost won.

The trip started early afternoon in Winnipeg. Earl drove me in and stuck around to ensure that there were not any problems with my luggage.

The luggage weight was not a problem and I setlled down to wait for the flight to Toronto. The timing was slightly tight, and I had about an hour and twenty five minutes to get myself between terminals and checked into Zoom.

The flight was delayed out of Winnipeg and a failed approach at Toronto added to the time. I was standing in the baggage claim at Terminal 1 and looked at my watch and thought, "wow, I still have plenty of time", until I reralised that I had lost an hour and I had less than 20 minutes to get to the Zoom Check-in desk. Halfway there the left wheel fell off my suitcase but I made it with 5 minutes to spare, they took my luggage off me and gave me my boarding pass and stuck my baggage claim ticket to it.

Then they sent me to a set of closed security gates - in fact at this time, the whole airport had closed down. I had to walk back past the gibbering idiots at the Zoom Desk and find an open set of gates to get through security. I breezed through that (after taking my belt off) and got myself to the departure gate. The plane had almost fully boarded and I got myself on and was feeling good until a large couple came along and sat in the neighbouring seats. The wife sat next to me and spilled into my seat for the entire journey, pretty well elimiating any chance of sleep. About an hour outside of Glasgow I started to talk to the husband and after finding out he was from Manitoba as well, we traded Prairie Stories.

I thought I had got through this trip relatively unscathed, until I tried to claim my baggage. Half an hour later as I (and about forty others) watched a single unclaimed suitcase wind its way around the baggage claim area, I knew that this story was not over yet. When I filled in the lost luggage form, I doscovered that the idiots at the check-in desk at Zoom had attached my baggage claim ticket to the portion of the ticket that the airport staff had retained in Toronto. Fortunately the lost wheel should be a pretty good identifier.

Liz met me at the airport and after kisses and cuddles, I got myself home to a warm bed and nice snooze, after roughly 24 hours of travelling.

Good to be home

Cycle Diary

Ride to Work - Paisley to Glasgow, 10 miles, dry roads, good weather, 18C

First ride in a long time. I finally ran out of excuses. The hot weather and the sight of several old guys pedalling towards Glasgow wiped out all weather and danger reasons for not riding into work. The pensioners pedalling was probably the worst, nothing as a cyclist makes you more ashamed than to see a old guy pedal past as you asre trying to explain the dangerous lifestyle of an urban cyclist.

The ride in was uneventful. I left early, so traffic was light. The early morning air had that heat wave crispness to it with none of the heat itself. All in all, a good ride in, too bad that my body has given up. My legs had no power, and my heart while not at its max heart rate was definitely being pushed. The worst aspect though was th feet. My plantar fascia started to scream a couple of blocks into the ride and did not stop until I hit work. I need to stretch this out and hopefully it will settle down with more riding.

What the Hell?

Is Lordi the type of music being produced out of the country that gave us nul point failures. So the finns decided to give us Orcish musicians playing Melodic Hard Rock. A eurovision Slipknot to challenge the techno status-quo at this politically driven musical contest.

Well they won. The video of their performance is here.

Kiva lets you loan as little as $25 to a qualified low income entrepreneur in the developing world.

Not sure what controls are available but it sounds like an interesting way to bring folks in the third world out of poverty.

The Paisley Beer Festival was last night and the incriminating photos are in.

You can find them here

As a guy who peeked and poked his way around a Commodore PET in the early eighties, this mod is very cool.

I still remember trying to explain reverse polish notation to my Comp Sci teacher who was a bit of a diddy.

His last words to me were "document your code more". I should have followed it.

Mark Ho's Artistic Metalwork is astounding. He learned his metalwork like I did, working around craftmen who moved and shaped metal.

His current creation looks incredible.

It is snowing in Paisley today.
















It is Sunday, so I am not sure if tomorrow will be a snow day - instead of a work day.

I have been waiting for the arrival of the Google Calendar for a very long time. These screenshots are the first ones leaked.

Today, I have a couple good Bike Make projects.

The first one is a 500 Lumen BIKE LIGHT for around 10 bucks and the second one is SpokePOV (a Persistence of Vision Mod for your Bike).

A new SNL Digital Short on YouTube.

Starring Natalie Portman, it is probably better than Lazy Sunday - Chronic,les of Narnia.

A new SNL Digital Short on YouTube.

Starring Natalie Portman, it is probably better than Lazy Sunday - Chronic,les of Narnia.

Make a Bicycle Parts Belt.

Better than huge cowboy belt buckle.

My pal MrBen is documenting his Lent this year.

I decided to do something Lent-ish this year, in the same vein of other Lent-esque things I have done in the past. It is more an attempt to remove my dependency on things in my life (ie. a watch, glasses, etc).

This time it is my iPod.

I have been using it quite intensively to listen to Techblogs and IT podcasts and it occasionally is colliding with other things I want to do.

I am hoping not having the iPod will push the studying for the certifications (one of the things that conflicted with listening to Podcasts).

I am not doing all 40 days - instead I plan on doing a Spurlock Lent period and only do the 30. So March 31st, I will get my iPod returned to me and I will have a lot of podcasts to catch up on.

This Pot growing setup is very impressive.

Who says I am difficult to buy for?

This seems to be the perfect birthday gift.

Paper compression techniques

How do you save a a ton of shipping weight transporting soldiers letters back home? Put the letters onto microfilm and then reprint them when they arrive back in North America.

Something a Flux Capacitor cannot solve.

It is Brokeback to the Future

Similar to the The Shining Trailer remake that came out recently.

Amazon.co.uk: IEE Wiring Regulations: BS7671, 2001 Incorporating Amendments No. 1 & 2, 2004: Books

I have always turned to this book for inspiration and reflection. It is good to see that others feel the same way about this book that defines the the current genre of British Standards.

I am just waiting for it to appear on Oprah's Book Club.

This google page is a quick way to get any site on a mobile device.

Nextbrick

A great resource for those who remember those wonderful little swedish blocks of joy. I would not spend my entire life collecting or building with them but it is interesting to gaze upon those who do.

Combine a Crazy Screaming Lady, a parking lot and a kid with a video camera and hilarity ensues.

BTW, I am looking for a new UK Broadband supplier. Zen are good but expensive for limited speed. Any suggestions are welcome.

The long awaited announcement of the intel based powerbook were announced this week(I have been hearing rumours of an intel apple for over a decade now).

I heard one disgruntled apple owner complain of a lack of PCMCIA slot. Apple has chosen the new ExpressCard standard. It will deter some people with expensive PCMCIA cards in moving up, but I doubt it will make much of an impact. Apple is famous to being on the front of the curve and more aggressive in adopting new standard physical formats from the 3.5 floppy in the Apple Plus to USB in the iMac. They have occasionally been proven wrong in their choices eg NuBus over ISA. But for the most part they have been on the right trail when everyone else comes over.

So ExpressCard looks like a winner format for physical hardware card expansion.

I cycled in a wet cold sleet storm yesterday. It definitely showed the improvements I need to make in the bike and my clothing. I don't think that the bad weather will have cleared up by the time I start commuting at the end of March. So, some mudguards and decent layered clothing may be needed to a make my trip into work a reasonable trip as opposed to the frostbite conditions I had yesterday.

Slate have posted the best hack for those milky coffees that are just lactose wastelands.

The short cappucino (8 oz) actually tastes like a decent coffee. If you prefer to order the venti or tall version, then save your money and buy a quart of milk and chuck it in the microwave (for those into wilderness hacks, try just leaving it in the sun).

So, I have started the New Year eating roots and and drinking weeds.

Liz has decided that we need to detox, despite the fact that we normally eat vegetarian meals. Yesterday I bought a load of fruit and veg (with most of the fruit out of season) and today I started on the juice and herb teas.

I have experienced the physical effects of caffeine withdrawal and it was not pleasant the last time. I will probably need leads of calcium and selenium to deal with the muscle cramps. No pain killers though on this detox, so it may get interesting.

More web based games than is humanly possible to play (all of them rated).

The GeekPod 100 from BatteryGeek.net provides 100 hours of iPod goodness.

Only problem is the foreign charger - so I am hoping for a UK version at some point.

Edit - Further to Michael Harrison's comments about Batterygeek. I have started to think that a homemade solution maybe a better way to battery power the iPod.

The solutions offered by Drew Perry and Chris Diclerico (Verson2 and Version3 seems a reasonable way to approach this.

The 8 hours seems a reasonable amount of time to get the iPod back to a power source and extra batteries could always be carried.

Sustrans Brochures for the West Coast of Scotland Cyclepaths (all pdfs, so download these links).

Clyde and Loch Lomond Cycleway (NCN 7)
Glasgow to Loch Lomond mainly traffic-free path for cyclists and walkers 20 mls

Lochwinnoch Loop Line (NCN 7)
Paisley to Kilbirnie mainly traffic-free path for cyclists and walkers 14 mls

Hillend Loch Railway Path (NCN 75)
Airdrie to Bathgate mainly traffic-free path for cyclists and walkers 14 mls

Paisley and Clyde Railway Path (NCN 75)
Paisley to Gourock mainly traffic-free path for cyclists and walkers 20 mls

Garnock Valley Cycleway (NCN 7)
Irvine to Kilbirnie 18 mls

Ayrshire Coast Cycleway (NCN 7)
Irvine to Ayr traffic-free route for cyclists and walkers 19 mls

Cunninghame Cycleway (NCN 73)
Kilmarnock to Ardrossan traffic free path for walkers and cyclists 17 mls

Clyde Corridor Cycle Route (NCN 75)
Heart of Glasgow to Uddingston traffic-free walking and cycling route 12 mls

edit one more from the East Coast -
The Esk Valley Cycle Route
Musselburgh to Dalkeith largely traffic-free route 5 mls

Perfect for giving this Christmas.

What says love more than handcrafted Duct Tape Wallet.

You can use Gaffer Tape which I find comes in prettier colours than duct tape, has better adhesive qaulities, sticks when it gets cold and stays stuck, and comes off with no adhesive residue (also it does does not remove paint when you remove it). Gaffer Tape comes in more sizes at well from 1" to 4" rolls (the latter is great for sticking cables to carpets).

The alternative Duct Tape cover for a HipsterPDA could also be considered the perfect gift.

edit - more great ideas for the that great tape called Gaffer.

So Tim Berners Lee has a blog

I bank with British Bank and I needed to deposit a Canadian Dollar cheque into the account. So, I phoned them and asked how will it cost for me to deposit this cheque into my account. The guys says "hang on and I will find out".

He comes back and informs me that I will be able deposit this cheque into my account. I ask "how much will it cost" (the original question) and he tells me that I need to ask my branch. I then ask how long will it take for it to clear, and he tells me to ask my branch again.

So, I phoned their helpline and was answered a question I did not ask and was told an answer I already knew. How can they call this a helpline?

British Banks range from incompetent to evil. This event is more incompetent.

Hamachi is fast, secure and simple VPN, the holy Grail of SOHO networkers and Road Warriors.

Well, I cam to Toronto for some meetings and have changed my mind about this town - slightly.

It may not be the most boring town in North America - top ten but not the most boring.

Met up with some friends from Mac and their new spouses.

One of the things that have thrown me is that everyone looks a lot older. Wayne Gretzky is really showing his age.

And you think your users use passwords that are insecure?

At least they can't fire nuclear warheads.

I discussed Sony's attempt at surreptitious DRM shipping with CDs.

This is not the only case of unwanted software being installed by music corporations on individual's PCs.

So, unfortunately now Van Zant, who I assume had no knowledge that their CD would be carrying this software are now having their CD slammed on Amazon.

The only reason I can see that the large music corporations are doing this, is to kill the CD format. As they continue to limit the uses of CDs through the use of more restrictive DRM, the attraction of online sources with their well published DRM becomes apparent. In addition, P2P sources allow people to gain access to uncracked versions of music that they have already purchased.

This fight has only just begun and already the music corporations are losing.

How does the Death Star work?

I am wondering when this will be featured in Make Magazine. "A galactic space station made from PVC and duct tape: We show you how."

Free access to Nature's Insight edition on Sleep

This is important on a lot of the fronts that I am concerned about - the opening up of scientific literature to those who would benefit from it, and the ability to read articles on sleep, since I live with someone who has sleep difficulties.

Buy a cd - get free software.

That is surreptitiously placed on your computer and acts a lot like a rootkit.

All from Sony - the music company you can trust.

Update: Another completely unrelated story has Sony in a pissing contest with Apple using DRM as the main weapon.

New Systm episode has been released.

If NerdTV needs to find inspiration - this is what good interview skills and camera work looks like.

Interviews with some very talented people, bnrought to you by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Computerworld's Salary Survey is out.

See how you compare to our Yank Cousins.

Don't blame me for this little life stealer.

Gravity

Fire an atom amongst gravity sources. Great fun and probably educational - if you were an atom and needed to avoid gravitational forces.

I wonder if naming your kid Google is any worse than naming it Kylie or Jon?

The Escape Pod Podcast

The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine. Each week Escape Pod narrates fun science fiction and fantasy short stories, with commentary and review

Go look at a few thousand SF Covers.

Haul out the conspiracy theories.

Tiny yellow dots have been discovered by the EFF and have published DocuColor Tracking Dot Decoding Guide to show you how this printer is encoding every page you print with a forensic tracking code.

Update:

Here is a list of printers that have been found to do the same.

What could be sweeter than a young man and his rail gun?

The story can be found here.

When USA Today determines that 30 percent of Americans are "early adopters", it means that they do not know how to construct a standard population graph and that they are well behind the bleeding edge where "early adopters" reside.

Amazing Colour photos of World War I

Why are these images more poignant when you see them in colour? Maybe it is the shift in perspective.

This is what happens when a good presentation style is combined with compelling content.

Dick Hardt's Keynote address at O'Reilly's OSCON on Identity 2.0 is well worth watching.

Orson Scott Card, reviews Serenity.

Card is one of the authors I respect greatly, he manages to incorporate the concept of consequence into his books, which results in humans in space, rather than mannequins in spacesuits.

Agenda for Change (or A4C) has managed to screw up the lives of a lot of people who build and manage the IT Systems for the NHS.

Just when we needed some stability in the National Health Service, a new initiative comes along to mess it all up.

They are saying that people will ciculate posts, I see a hemorrhaging of IT Staff from the NHS.

FlickrBlog has some great ideas on doing things with Flickr.

These are some additional tools to the great site that features the Flickr Tool Collection

This guy made a carbon fiber bike in his garage, and then he made a website.

How to install Slax onto your iPod Nano.

Turns it into a portable bootable Linux drive.

I am looking for more podzilla functionality on the nano.

What information is held on hotel keycards?

According to this article, it could be your name, address and credit card informaiton in unecrypted form.

It is not that tough to make a magnetic card reader

Great piece on Make Magazine's Blog where they show off PodZilla.

It is amazing what the podzilla guys are doing with Linux on the iPod. Putting video on the little white box before Apple, better appearance control and loads more games.

Combine Glaswegian and Dolmio Ads and you get this brilliant collection.


BTW - Not Safe for Work (if you have the sound up).

The Washington Post has an article on the End of the Bush Era.

I am wondering what this discussion on the End of an Era actually means on the ground. Is it the impeachment that met Nixon when his numbers got as bad as W's? Or just a change in perception that the smugness is arrogance and not confidence.

The new Berliner edition of the Guardian is due out today.

The last couple days were blogged by the Guardian staff.

I want a workbench - but first I need a house that has enough unused space to put a workbench.

OK, this is a site that is blowing up.

You could say that the The Rawker is like the Star Wars Kid, if you replaced the kid with an aging southern lead singer and the lightsaber with a microphone.

The story is on the website that explains the whole thing.

I do not know how long this site will be up. As soon as, they get broadband into the trailer park andThe Rawker learns how to hook up an ADSL modem, this site is gone.

White people find things, while black people loot

The battery on my iPod was pretty well dead. It would only run for 35 minutes after showing a full charge.

I sent a cheque for £15.50 to ipodstop and received a replacement battery and the tools needed to open the case.

The kit showed up in two days and using the instructions and their online video made replacing the battery very easy.

I left the iPod to recharge for a full 24 hours and it now runs like a dream. The new battery actually should be able to run longer than the original.

Being without the iPod for a couple weeks was a complete pain in the butt. Nice to have it back.

It also is nice to know that the battery is replaceable, so along with the iToque this iPod should last a while.

Stuck? - go to StuckGamer

I find them better than those text files you find on Gamefaqs.

Espresso Porn.com

I don't get it.

Some people find the image of coffee coming out of an expresso machine so pleasing that they label it porn?

Nope, I still don't get it.

Classic Phishing email.

Who could resist the temptation to enter their personal details after recieving this one?

We regret to inform you that your eBay account has been suspended due to the violation of our site policy below: False or missing contact information - falsification or imitation your name, address, and/or telephone number (including use of fax machines pager numbers, modems or disconnected numbers).
Due to the suspension of this account, please be advised you are prohibited from using eBay in any way. This prohibition includes the registering of a new account.
Please note that any seller fees due to eBay will immediately become due and payable.
eBay will charge any amounts you have not previously disputed to the billing method currently on file.

http://www.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?verifyccplace

If you have recently updated your billing information, please disregard this message as we are processing the changes you have made. This notification expires on August 30, 2005. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Thank you for using eBay!

A good By New York Times article on the current hi-tech/high priced gadgets available for cyclists.

Power meters in your hubs, new heart meters - all available for a price.

Registration is necessary - so use bugmenot

Getting the band back together.

R&F on 202

The good people at Make have a new temptation for me to resist.

I have succumbed to the Blog and various videos, which tend to dilute the print edition.

But now they have released the entire Volume 3 in Digital form. I need to resist this temptation, since I know it will simply diminish the joy of that little square package coming through the door.

So, I will get the Digital Edition (for no extra cost) but only after the print edition is in my hot little paws.

Stopped at Clyde Tunnel Corner

Stopped at Clyde Tunnel Corner
Originally uploaded by MrLithic.

I took this photo this morning and then read the article by Lionel Shriver.

This photo is a perfect example of what she is talking about. The construction crews have not considered anyone but motorised traffic by laying these cones up to the center-line. If they had left a 2-3 foot path for cyclists, we would not forced into the right-hand lane, on an already dangerous intersection.

The Cycle Chat at Lochwinnoch

The Cycle Chat at Lochwinnoch
Originally uploaded by MrLithic.

I saw these two guys chatting away on the shore of Near Castle Semple Loch and had to get a photo.

The Castle Semple rest area is a regular stop for cyclists and there were dozens of bikes and their associated riders out that day.

Liz having Lunch at Lochwinnoch

Liz having Lunch at Lochwinnoch
Originally uploaded by MrLithic.

Ladies who lunch (and ride 28 miles to Kilbirnie and back)

Artwork near Glengarnock

Artwork near Glengarnock
Originally uploaded by MrLithic.

Liz spied this hidden artwork on the trail past Kilbirnie

Artwork near Glengarnock

Artwork near Glengarnock
Originally uploaded by MrLithic.

Liz spied this hidden artwork on the trail past Kilbirnie

Liz trains for The Tour

Liz trains for The Tour
Originally uploaded by MrLithic.

Elizabeth adopts the aerodynamic profile that will serve her well in the Tour de France

The Folly outside Lochwinnoch

The Folly outside Lochwinnoch
Originally uploaded by MrLithic.

This Victorian Folly sits outside Lochwinnoch - never been up to see it but it looks good from a distance

Disused Railway

Disused Railway
Originally uploaded by MrLithic.

The disused station on the way to Kilmacolm

Disused Railway

Disused Railway
Originally uploaded by MrLithic.

The disused station on the way to Kilmacolm

Disused Railway

Disused Railway
Originally uploaded by MrLithic.

The disused station on the way to Kilmacolm

Disused Railway

Disused Railway
Originally uploaded by MrLithic.

The disused station on the way to Kilmacolm

Cyclepath to Kilmacolm

Cyclepath to Kilmacolm
Originally uploaded by MrLithic.

Cyclepath to Linwood

Cyclepath to Linwood
Originally uploaded by MrLithic.

Some photos from cycle trips during my time off.

First set are cycling from Paisley to Kilmacolm on my own.

GROW RPG is very cool - no idea what to do, but that does not stop me playing.

Does the Scribe, Mozilla Firefox Extension add a office type functionality to web forms?

I am looking for something that has secure online storage with the ability to link to other web services, like Flicker, Gmail, and a web Calendar and do basic office functions (word process and spreadsheet type stuff).

The evolution of my Hipster

The evolution of my Hipster
Originally uploaded by MrLithic.

This is shows the stages that my Hipster PDA has undertaken.

I gave up the 3x4 version, since I needed to cut 4x6 cards in half to get the right size cards (it originally made sense). Also the 3x4 cards were not compatible with Douglas Johnston's DIY hipster pages which I really like.

The 3x5 one is much easier to refill (open pack of cards - job done). I then made a gaffer tape cover for it and chucked in a couple DIY cards and dividers between sections.

Finally, I tried to make a better gaffer tape cover and turn it into a gaffer tape envelope to hold the cards. Unfortunately, this is not very easy to open and make quick notes. So, I pack it into the rucksack and use it to carry extra 3x5 cards and DIY pages. Works a treat.

I use these along with a notebook for projects to keep myself organised. Not sure if I am doing this right (still find processing a bit difficult) but it definitely makes it easier to sleep at night when I am not trying to remember everything I need to do.

A very nice Railway Bridge

A very nice Railway Bridge
Originally uploaded by MrLithic.

Saw this repainted bridge along the Sustrans Cyclepath to Kilmalcolm.

I have just noticed that Sean Kennedy reminds me of Mike from Spaced.

I am now looking for Brian.

Just wondering if this group are terrorist sympathisers?

Thank God for the bombing of London's subway today

What is the current American rule on groups that sympathise with terrorists?

Time to take out Kansas.

Hoops for Palestine

Hoops for Palestine
Originally uploaded by MrLithic.

These Bhoys were making their stand for an independent Palestine - or they found a cool flag and were waving it to irritate the police.

MrBen

MrBen
Originally uploaded by MrLithic.

The Benster enjoying the crush in Edinburgh

Off to the Edinburgh Demonstrations along with MrBen, Bagpuss and their associated spouses.

I will return with pictures and hopefully some stories.