After all the excitement last night (and having as little as three hours sleep the night before) I got to sleep very quickly. I actually think I fell asleep on my back which is something I *never* do (I think) -- so that goes to show just how sleepy I was.
Xiaoxiao says I was mumbling in my sleep too, which is unlike me. But the weirdest thing is the dream I had. The beginning has already gotten pretty hazy now but somehow a friend had a great big time machine (that seemed to handle very much like the first graphics lab I did)... actually, maybe it wasn't a time machine but a parallel dimension machine -- that would make a lot more sense. Also, I don't think it was always massive, either, I think it could change shape and look normal in parallel dimensions.
But anyway, I'm not ``me'' in this dream but some kid, probably around 15 years old, who has a little baby brother and a sister of a similar ago to me. Some weird stuff around the beginning involves stuff around the house with our Mum, the baby crying a bit (probably) and eating breakfast. Yes, I remember being told to eat up.
After eating up our breakfast my sister and I decide to go somewhere. I'm not too sure where it was but it might have been a friend's house... a friend that just happens to have a big red parallel dimension machine. I think he'd just got back from somewhere in it but we went out for a spin. We did some travelling for a while before approaching a planet that the ship/computer seemed to think was a planet of total war or something equally crazy. I think it got that fairly wrong but I doubt it matters.
We flew closer to the surface of the planet which we quickly realised wasn't really a war planet but more (if you can picture this) an ultra-modern city with a sort of film noir appearance. I think our spaceship thing changed to become a small red vehicle now -- it might have been a motorbike but I'm not too sure. We spent a while just driving around the city enjoying ourselves but I think we must have been spotted as being a bit out of place so we rushed somewhere and ended up in a very small bedroom.
The bedroom was fairly normal -- a bed, a computer, a door and a window. Probably like any university student's hovel but a bit cleaner. I think we might have used the computer a bit -- we switched it on at least. I figure we must have thrown the people trying to catch us because we were getting ready to leave when (shock horror!) somebody was trying the door! I mentioned the bed... we both got under there to hide.
If this wasn't weird enough in walked me and my sister (in the dream). wtf!? Ah, well, this is probably the parallel dimension stuff kicking in... but quite what I'm doing living with my sister with a single double bed -- I don't know (maybe that's normal in a parallel dimension world)! Buggered if I know how but the other set of us (the ones not hiding under the bed) know we're there. I think the other me looks under and is pretty surprised but tries to touch me -- he reaches out his hand but just as he touches me it goes weird and green... it's like it turns jellified so he can't touch us.
Buggered if I know why because otherwise these guys seem pretty normal (except the single bed thing). Actually, I think there was some firing of bright white things but they didn't seem to have any effect. I guess we must have come out from under the bed and made friends with them. Obviously we can't tell our other us's mother because that would be weird. So we decide to try and get back without them knowing.
In time-travel films there is always a bit where the ones from the (altered) past/future ask ``Where is your little baby brother?'' which makes the film all sad and lovable. Well, guess what!? That's exactly what we said. Only unlike films it didn't get dwelled upon or cried over for ages. To be honest, I don't think my brain could calculate all of this weird multi-parallel-dimension love circle stuff out so it just glossed over it quietly.
Our big red spaceship thing has gone now. Probably turned into a big red helium baloon and floated away to Lena's 99 Red Baloons for all I know. So we need another way to get back to our real planet. Next thing I know the four of us are walking on a steep bank along the side of a river/canal (don't ask). We're obviously determined not to be seen as it is around dusk and we're trying to be quiet. We get a bit further and it is a sort of junction between three rivers (or a split into two if we had been coming the other way). Don't ask me why but there is a pretty woodern bridge with people on and there are two more groups of people on other banks of the river. So much for not being seen!
But evidently there is a timelimit because we can't stop or come back later. If you imagine a fork in a river as you come up to it we are coming to the river that forks from the right fork... and we need to be on the left fork. That involves walking right up to the fork and then down the left fork. I don't know why we can't just walk over the ground but it's a dream so it doesn't matter.
We eventually get there (unseen) but the plan to return home somehow involves jumping into the with very specific clothing on. Don't ask me why but the other us have the right clothes and we have the wrong ones. To get the right ones involves changing clothes. As it's a dream that requires getting totally naked to do so. Unfortunately there are other people about and they would think we were weird if we just took our clothes off and swapped. So I (I think this was the real me deciding, not the me in the dream) decide that if we all take our clothes off and leave them in piles by the side of the river we can all jump in, get wet and then get out and return to different piles of clothes (the ones we want).
Great, I'm now naked and just about to jump into a river. My sister and her double have done the same. But for some reason the other me is sat dangling his legs into the water with all his clothes on! Noo! I won't be able to get home if he doesn't hurry up. So I decide to start wrenching his tie from him (because he's wearing a tie, a white shirt and a proper suit jacket and trousers) but he's not having any of it. Eventually I get it (I think) and then he probably gave in and jumped in too.
So all four of us (two sets of twins from parallel universes) are naked in the water. But we need to get back so we all get out and put on the clothes we want. I mentioned the timer that meant we couldn't stop. Well, that started counting down from 10 seconds about a minute ago (slow, weird film/dream time to add suspense). It's now seriously close and we (my sister and I) get the return-to-Kansas clothes on and are about to jump into the water when the other me grabs us and jumps in too.
A brilliant flash of light (I'm making this up, but there was some sort of effect I can't remember) and we return home. Somehow psycho other me has come with us, even without the right clothes. I guess he became a normal boy (or a good pretender) because our mother (being a non green squishy handed mother) accepts him quite readily.
It was just as Xiaoxiao woke me up that I heard the other me say something involving Jedi Land. I have no idea how that has anything to do with Jedi but obviously it does. Something tells me that I've just made up for not having dreams for about the last zillion films I watched (or am about to watch). The film noir city must have been Sin City (not seen it yet), Jedi Land is obviously Episode III and some bits were from a crazy Korean film we watched a few days ago. There are more too, I swear, but I just can't name them.
Anyway. That's enough of me and my weird dreams for now. Tune in next week for another exciting installment.
Saturday, 30 April 2005
A few games of pool...
Was pretty much what we did last night when we met up with JoJo, her sister and Rob for a few drinks at Harry's Bar.
It's been absolutely ages since Xiaoxiao and I were last there... probably over a year ago. It's changed a bit too -- the main bar has all been redecorated and has plush new furniture but fortunately Paddy's Lounge (the pool area) is just the same as it always was.
I embarrassed myself for a while playing pool and (almost) getting beaten by Xiaoxiao. It was good to see Rob and JoJo again and especially weird that I don't think any of us have changed a bit... except maybe JoJo's pool skills, which seem to have ceased to exist. Probably just lack of practice (like me... or maybe not).
Next door there was some talent contest going on with the organisers giving out free MP3 players. Quite a cool idea, especially given you can pick up really cheap ones in quantity for practically nothing! Some idiot ended up bidding £45 for one of these.
Possibly the weirdest thing that happened all night is that I spotted a girl I was sure I knew from school. I ``observed'' her at the bar for about five or ten minutes before deciding to go over and ask her if she went to school in Hull. She looked utterly confused to begin with but then she recognised me so it was okay :) I still couldn't remember her name (which is a little embarrassing as she knew mine) but she told me it was Valli and I instantly felt stupid for not remembering. I've got her number so I'll hopefully give her a ring and we can meet up for a drink sometime.
All in all, a pretty good night. Now, if only everybody would stop smoking... ;)
It's been absolutely ages since Xiaoxiao and I were last there... probably over a year ago. It's changed a bit too -- the main bar has all been redecorated and has plush new furniture but fortunately Paddy's Lounge (the pool area) is just the same as it always was.
I embarrassed myself for a while playing pool and (almost) getting beaten by Xiaoxiao. It was good to see Rob and JoJo again and especially weird that I don't think any of us have changed a bit... except maybe JoJo's pool skills, which seem to have ceased to exist. Probably just lack of practice (like me... or maybe not).
Next door there was some talent contest going on with the organisers giving out free MP3 players. Quite a cool idea, especially given you can pick up really cheap ones in quantity for practically nothing! Some idiot ended up bidding £45 for one of these.
Possibly the weirdest thing that happened all night is that I spotted a girl I was sure I knew from school. I ``observed'' her at the bar for about five or ten minutes before deciding to go over and ask her if she went to school in Hull. She looked utterly confused to begin with but then she recognised me so it was okay :) I still couldn't remember her name (which is a little embarrassing as she knew mine) but she told me it was Valli and I instantly felt stupid for not remembering. I've got her number so I'll hopefully give her a ring and we can meet up for a drink sometime.
All in all, a pretty good night. Now, if only everybody would stop smoking... ;)
Friday, 29 April 2005
Batman Begins
Just on my way to bed but... just spotted the Batman Begins trailer is out (thanks Slashdot!). What a brilliant looking film! I think this is one film I'd quite happily queue up to watch on the opening night.
It's a real shame it doesn't get released in England until June 24... I'm in China then. I wonder what the release date will be for China? A couple of cinemas in Beijing and Shanghai provide undubbed versions with Chinese subtitles -- I only hope they don't censor any of the good bits!
It's a real shame it doesn't get released in England until June 24... I'm in China then. I wonder what the release date will be for China? A couple of cinemas in Beijing and Shanghai provide undubbed versions with Chinese subtitles -- I only hope they don't censor any of the good bits!
Creative WebCam NX Pro
Woohoo! I discovered my Creative webcam kicking about in the CD rack earlier on so I figured I'd have a search now that I'm using Linux for my desktop. I'm ecstatic to say that thanks very much to the great guys over at http://mxhaard.free.fr/camera.html -- it works!In theory it provides a v4l (Video4Linux) interface. It's showing up in GnomeMeeting but it seems to get no further than that. I'm sure I'll get it working with just a little bit of extra coaxing...
Also, I have discovered MultiSync, which is a neat application/daemon for keeping things synchronised. Of particular interest is the SyncML support. From what I gather SyncML is the service offered by telephone companies for PDAs and the like to synchronise with. With a little luck I should be able to get a SyncML server set up on my CompSoc account allowing me to keep my contacts, calendar and to-do items synchronised between my laptop and desktop efficiently.
Wednesday, 27 April 2005
UPDATED: We're all going on a summer holiday...
Woohoo! Got my return ticket to Shanghai booked today. I've got to provide a few more details and there is the small matter of paying but otherwise I'm good to go!
I'm flying from London Heathrow at 15:25 on Sunday 19 June and I'm due to arrive at 09:40 (China Time (GMT+8)) on Monday 20 June. Xiaoxiao's flight is a day after mine so that presumably means I'm spending a day with Xiaoxiao's aunty on my own again :P
My return flight is at 12:10 on Tuesday 13 September and I'm due to arrive at London Heathrow at 17:30 (the same day).
I'd've preferred to fly from Manchester but it would have worked out at least £70 more expensive. I'll lose a lot of that with my train fair to/from London but I save a lot in time -- I fly direct to Shanghai on a nice cosy Virgin plane while Xiaoxiao flies with Lufthansa and has to change in Germany.
I think I've also settled on a school to teach at now too. With any luck I'll be teaching for just two weeks at a foreign language school in Beijing. I spoke to the English teacher at around 4am today and she seemed very helpful and friendly. The only disappointing thing is that I'll be teaching 6-12 year old children! I have no idea how that will go but the money is the best so far and I understand that there is a high school as well, so with any luck I'll at least be able to find some slightly more advanced learners to talk (read: get to translate for me) to.
UPDATE: I meant to add a link the first time around but I forgot. You can see the school I might be teaching at at http://www.shanglischool.com/
I'm flying from London Heathrow at 15:25 on Sunday 19 June and I'm due to arrive at 09:40 (China Time (GMT+8)) on Monday 20 June. Xiaoxiao's flight is a day after mine so that presumably means I'm spending a day with Xiaoxiao's aunty on my own again :P
My return flight is at 12:10 on Tuesday 13 September and I'm due to arrive at London Heathrow at 17:30 (the same day).
I'd've preferred to fly from Manchester but it would have worked out at least £70 more expensive. I'll lose a lot of that with my train fair to/from London but I save a lot in time -- I fly direct to Shanghai on a nice cosy Virgin plane while Xiaoxiao flies with Lufthansa and has to change in Germany.
I think I've also settled on a school to teach at now too. With any luck I'll be teaching for just two weeks at a foreign language school in Beijing. I spoke to the English teacher at around 4am today and she seemed very helpful and friendly. The only disappointing thing is that I'll be teaching 6-12 year old children! I have no idea how that will go but the money is the best so far and I understand that there is a high school as well, so with any luck I'll at least be able to find some slightly more advanced learners to talk (read: get to translate for me) to.
UPDATE: I meant to add a link the first time around but I forgot. You can see the school I might be teaching at at http://www.shanglischool.com/
Childminder
When I was young I always had a childminder to look after me during the day. My parents both worked full time so it worked out quite good for me -- after all, childminders always seem to play lots of games and stuff like that.
As I was sat on the bus in this morning I quite randomly wondered about what it would be like to meet up with one of the girls who looked after my sister and I. Joanna lived with us for a while... I don't know how long it was -- a year? Two? Anyway, Joanna was great, I remember quite clearly playing Lego with her and my best friends Adam and Tom (from down the road).
Sadly Joanna died in a car accident quite some time ago. At the time nobody told me but I found out a year or two later.
It's odd how you can go for so long without thinking of somebody for them to suddenly pop up quite unexpectedly. I wonder what it would be like now for the four (Adam, Tom, Joanna and I) of us to meet up...
As I was sat on the bus in this morning I quite randomly wondered about what it would be like to meet up with one of the girls who looked after my sister and I. Joanna lived with us for a while... I don't know how long it was -- a year? Two? Anyway, Joanna was great, I remember quite clearly playing Lego with her and my best friends Adam and Tom (from down the road).
Sadly Joanna died in a car accident quite some time ago. At the time nobody told me but I found out a year or two later.
It's odd how you can go for so long without thinking of somebody for them to suddenly pop up quite unexpectedly. I wonder what it would be like now for the four (Adam, Tom, Joanna and I) of us to meet up...
Xiaoxiao's aunty
Woohoo! We just called Xiaoxiao's aunty so I decided that I would talk to her first:
Aunty: wei
Me: wei, ni hao!
Aunty: ni hao
Me: hello
Aunty: hello, how are you?
It seems after almost a year she still remembers me. And to all those synics that will say something about not many people ringing up and saying ``hello''... well, I think she knew before then. Sometimes you can tell when people recognise your voice.
Anyway, that's pretty cool. With any luck I'll get my flight to China booked tomorrow and I'll be jetting off to see Xiaoxiao's aunty and the rest of her family sometime in late June!
I can't wait!
Aunty: wei
Me: wei, ni hao!
Aunty: ni hao
Me: hello
Aunty: hello, how are you?
It seems after almost a year she still remembers me. And to all those synics that will say something about not many people ringing up and saying ``hello''... well, I think she knew before then. Sometimes you can tell when people recognise your voice.
Anyway, that's pretty cool. With any luck I'll get my flight to China booked tomorrow and I'll be jetting off to see Xiaoxiao's aunty and the rest of her family sometime in late June!
I can't wait!
Tuesday, 26 April 2005
PC-BSD
I stumbled across PC-BSD over at Slashdot. Wow! This project comes very close to some ideas I had a while back about wrapping FreeBSD up in cotton wool to make it appeal to the masses in general.
Right now it all looks very basic -- a spicer up installer and stock KDE desktop -- but I'm sure with care and attention PC-BSD could one day rival the likes of Ubuntu in terms of desktop greatness.
Good luck, guys!
Right now it all looks very basic -- a spicer up installer and stock KDE desktop -- but I'm sure with care and attention PC-BSD could one day rival the likes of Ubuntu in terms of desktop greatness.
Good luck, guys!
Firevision
I was once a proud customer of Firevision, a cheap domain registrar and DNS/email forwarding provider. Things have changed a lot since I bought my first domain -- recently email to my domains hosted with Firevision get delayed and disappear for long periods of time.
It has happened again with lewiz.net (my primary email domain) today and I've gotten a little fed up. I've already got two domains with 123-reg so one more won't hurt. Problem is... I've not received the email requesting authorisation for the move. I hope it turns up soon.
It has happened again with lewiz.net (my primary email domain) today and I've gotten a little fed up. I've already got two domains with 123-reg so one more won't hurt. Problem is... I've not received the email requesting authorisation for the move. I hope it turns up soon.
Monday, 25 April 2005
Unison
It's been a while since I last used Unison and I'd quite honestly forgotten what a brilliant piece of software it is.
Anybody that has accounts on more than one computer can probably benefit from it or similar software. I personally have accounts on four machines: my desktop, my laptop, noisy (my CompSoc account) and my university account. Keeping all of these in sync can be a big pain, especially when it comes to things like labwork which I largely do on my desktop and end up tweaking just before I get them marked at university.
Usually I forget to move the last-minute changes back to my desktop machines so things get out of sync. This is where unison comes in -- unison stores state information about files on both machines. This means that if I create a file on computer A it will automatically get copied to computer B. However, if I then go ahead and delete the file on computer B I will be prompted to delete the file on computer A.
Creating files to delete them isn't very helpful in itself, but when combined with frequently changing documents, new files being created and old junk being removed at different times on different machines unison comes in very handy.
I'm using unison largely as a backup solution. I've got my data synchronised between my desktop, my laptop and my CompSoc account but I've chosen to synchronise just my lab work with my university account.
If keeping data in sync across multiple locations sounds handy then unison would be a very good place to start looking.
Anybody that has accounts on more than one computer can probably benefit from it or similar software. I personally have accounts on four machines: my desktop, my laptop, noisy (my CompSoc account) and my university account. Keeping all of these in sync can be a big pain, especially when it comes to things like labwork which I largely do on my desktop and end up tweaking just before I get them marked at university.
Usually I forget to move the last-minute changes back to my desktop machines so things get out of sync. This is where unison comes in -- unison stores state information about files on both machines. This means that if I create a file on computer A it will automatically get copied to computer B. However, if I then go ahead and delete the file on computer B I will be prompted to delete the file on computer A.
Creating files to delete them isn't very helpful in itself, but when combined with frequently changing documents, new files being created and old junk being removed at different times on different machines unison comes in very handy.
I'm using unison largely as a backup solution. I've got my data synchronised between my desktop, my laptop and my CompSoc account but I've chosen to synchronise just my lab work with my university account.
If keeping data in sync across multiple locations sounds handy then unison would be a very good place to start looking.
Friday, 22 April 2005
Quick meme (what a crap word)
I got this from Paul who got it from Jon who probably got it from somebody else. I've got nothing better to do so I figured I'd do the last question. Maybe somebody will even come along and make me joyous by bothering to comment on something ;)
Who are you?
Are we friends?
If we’ve met, when and how did we meet?
What social event or place would you like to go to with me?
Would you kiss me?
Describe me in one word.
What was your first impression?
Do you still think that way about me now?
What reminds you of me?
If you could give me anything what would it be?
How well do you know me?
When’s the last time you saw me?
Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn’t?
Are you going to put this on your blog and see what I say about you?
Who are you?
Are we friends?
If we’ve met, when and how did we meet?
What social event or place would you like to go to with me?
Would you kiss me?
Describe me in one word.
What was your first impression?
Do you still think that way about me now?
What reminds you of me?
If you could give me anything what would it be?
How well do you know me?
When’s the last time you saw me?
Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn’t?
Are you going to put this on your blog and see what I say about you?
Linux-supported passive dual DVI graphics card round-up
When it comes to computers I'm particular about a few things: noise, size and general outlook. As far as I'm concerned computers are now at the stage where performance is ``guaranteed''. I'm not doing any hardcore gaming, number crunching or anything like that. 99% of the time my CPU chugs along quite happily at no more than 5% utilisation. My laptop (a Vaio X505/CP) has a whopping 20GB hard disk and 1.1GHz Pentium M processor -- performance and capacity-wise this is pretty much what I require. The point being that people can now be far more choosy about things like noise and size.
My main machine is quite old now -- it's a Shuttle SN41G2B (the cute black one) with an XP2800+ CPU, 1GB of RAM and an 80GB hard disk. Most of the time this is overkill for what I do -- web browsing, chatting, email and occasionally some coding. I've got two very sexy ViewSonic 17" TFT panels but driving these properly is a pain. As far as TFTs go these are pretty much top of the line -- each has a DVI and two RGB inputs (three in total). Problem is that I'm particular about noise and I don't have enough space for replacing fans with massive heatsinks, etc.
So, my graphics card requirements are thus: Single AGP card providing dual DVI output without any fans. Oh... did I mention that I have to be able to view crazy OpenGL stuff on *both* screens *at the same time*?
This is not an easy thing to achieve but there are a number of cards that appear to fit the bill: Matrox Millennium P650 (half-length AGP card with two DVI outputs), Matrox Millennium G550 (low-profile, half-length AGP card with LFH-60 connector and dual DVI dongle) and the Nvidia Quadro4 NVS 280 (low-profile, half-length AGP card with LFH-59 connector and dual DVI dongle).
Over the past week I've tried all three of these cards. I'd like to provide a very brief round-up of each, explaining their pros and cons.
The Matrox P650 is a very sexy looking card with two DVI-I connectors. No messing around with Y-splitters to get two monitors hooked up. Based on the Parhelia chipset it provides some pretty good performance under Windows. Under Linux the performance is a little lacking -- running a regular sized glxgears I can get 800FPS. It requires very new beta drivers (1.4.1 at the time I write this) which messed up my system a little. The driver supports a merged framebuffer (OpenGL on both screens) but in those mode I couldn't get any higher than 1024x768 per screen. What's more, in the merged framebuffer mode I can only have a single stretched desktop -- the driver does not support pseudo-Xinerama for ``intelligent'' window placement. The card £70 on eBay and I'll hopefully cover my losses if somebody Buys it Now. Undoubtedly a brilliant card for Windows but Linux support is lacking.
The Matrox G550 is a half-heigh half-length AGP card. It has a standard LFH-60 connector and can drive two DVI-I displays or two RGB displays. The G550 is ageing a little now and 3D performance wasn't so great (no glxgears stats). I had great trouble getting it working under Linux but it did work and with a custom patch for the mga_hal driver I could even get it working with pseudo-Xinerama, thanks to the driver being open source. The main problems were very poor performance and difficulty in setting the card up. I got mine including a dual-RGB and dual-DVI cable for £31 including delivery.
Finally the Quadro4 NVS 280 from Nvidia. I think this is a PNY card but I picked it up on the cheap on eBay so have no way of telling. It might not even be an NVS 280 although I think it is. The card is definitely based on the GeForce 4 chipset (NV18GL if that means anything to you) which means 3D performance will be pretty good. This shares the same physical properties as the G550, although the heatsink is a lot sexier. Unfortunately it uses a seemingly non-standard LFH-59 connector (exactly the same as the 60 pin but with a pinout from what I can see) so I had to get a dual DVI splitter shipped from the US -- fortunately this was only £11 including P&P. Nvidia have great Linux support in the form of their closed-source driver -- installing this under Ubuntu was a breeze and getting the pseudo-Xinerama merged framebuffer working required adding just ``Option TwinView "true"'' to my xorg.conf. This works brilliantly and glxgears reports 1000FPS anywhere across my 2560x1024 desktop -- much to my delight it even works on both panels at the same time with no reduction in FPS. I took a risk when buying the card on eBay and got it for £19.50 including delivery, with the splitter cable from the US costing £10.94 -- in total the NVS 280 cost me just £30.44! I spoke to another fellow Quadro NVS owner on AOL IM and he said that lspci reported his Quadro as a GeForce FX5200 (which is why I am not certain I have an NVS 280) unlike my Quadro4 NVS AGP 8x from lspci. Even if it's not an NVS 280 I'm still damn impressed.
Good job Nvidia!
My main machine is quite old now -- it's a Shuttle SN41G2B (the cute black one) with an XP2800+ CPU, 1GB of RAM and an 80GB hard disk. Most of the time this is overkill for what I do -- web browsing, chatting, email and occasionally some coding. I've got two very sexy ViewSonic 17" TFT panels but driving these properly is a pain. As far as TFTs go these are pretty much top of the line -- each has a DVI and two RGB inputs (three in total). Problem is that I'm particular about noise and I don't have enough space for replacing fans with massive heatsinks, etc.
So, my graphics card requirements are thus: Single AGP card providing dual DVI output without any fans. Oh... did I mention that I have to be able to view crazy OpenGL stuff on *both* screens *at the same time*?
This is not an easy thing to achieve but there are a number of cards that appear to fit the bill: Matrox Millennium P650 (half-length AGP card with two DVI outputs), Matrox Millennium G550 (low-profile, half-length AGP card with LFH-60 connector and dual DVI dongle) and the Nvidia Quadro4 NVS 280 (low-profile, half-length AGP card with LFH-59 connector and dual DVI dongle).
Over the past week I've tried all three of these cards. I'd like to provide a very brief round-up of each, explaining their pros and cons.
The Matrox P650 is a very sexy looking card with two DVI-I connectors. No messing around with Y-splitters to get two monitors hooked up. Based on the Parhelia chipset it provides some pretty good performance under Windows. Under Linux the performance is a little lacking -- running a regular sized glxgears I can get 800FPS. It requires very new beta drivers (1.4.1 at the time I write this) which messed up my system a little. The driver supports a merged framebuffer (OpenGL on both screens) but in those mode I couldn't get any higher than 1024x768 per screen. What's more, in the merged framebuffer mode I can only have a single stretched desktop -- the driver does not support pseudo-Xinerama for ``intelligent'' window placement. The card £70 on eBay and I'll hopefully cover my losses if somebody Buys it Now. Undoubtedly a brilliant card for Windows but Linux support is lacking.
The Matrox G550 is a half-heigh half-length AGP card. It has a standard LFH-60 connector and can drive two DVI-I displays or two RGB displays. The G550 is ageing a little now and 3D performance wasn't so great (no glxgears stats). I had great trouble getting it working under Linux but it did work and with a custom patch for the mga_hal driver I could even get it working with pseudo-Xinerama, thanks to the driver being open source. The main problems were very poor performance and difficulty in setting the card up. I got mine including a dual-RGB and dual-DVI cable for £31 including delivery.
Finally the Quadro4 NVS 280 from Nvidia. I think this is a PNY card but I picked it up on the cheap on eBay so have no way of telling. It might not even be an NVS 280 although I think it is. The card is definitely based on the GeForce 4 chipset (NV18GL if that means anything to you) which means 3D performance will be pretty good. This shares the same physical properties as the G550, although the heatsink is a lot sexier. Unfortunately it uses a seemingly non-standard LFH-59 connector (exactly the same as the 60 pin but with a pinout from what I can see) so I had to get a dual DVI splitter shipped from the US -- fortunately this was only £11 including P&P. Nvidia have great Linux support in the form of their closed-source driver -- installing this under Ubuntu was a breeze and getting the pseudo-Xinerama merged framebuffer working required adding just ``Option TwinView "true"'' to my xorg.conf. This works brilliantly and glxgears reports 1000FPS anywhere across my 2560x1024 desktop -- much to my delight it even works on both panels at the same time with no reduction in FPS. I took a risk when buying the card on eBay and got it for £19.50 including delivery, with the splitter cable from the US costing £10.94 -- in total the NVS 280 cost me just £30.44! I spoke to another fellow Quadro NVS owner on AOL IM and he said that lspci reported his Quadro as a GeForce FX5200 (which is why I am not certain I have an NVS 280) unlike my Quadro4 NVS AGP 8x from lspci. Even if it's not an NVS 280 I'm still damn impressed.
Good job Nvidia!
Private Japanese conversation group
I had my (second) Japanese conversation class today (Thursday) and it was after the ``big test'' on Wednesday. The test went horribly for me, which is really annoying but it can't be helped. I've never been good at learning vocabulary and I even struggled to remember all of the grammar properly. What's worse is that I'm due for a speaking test (with just me, Shao-sensei and Bunto-sensei in the room!) in just over two weeks!
But as we finished the class I asked if Rory, Michelle, Celine and Gloria were going to come have a drink at the Union bar. This turned out to be more than one... more along the lines of four or five for Rory, along with a good number of games of pool. Now I've never been good at pool, nor have I really even known how to play that long, but in the first game I played I beat Michelle. After that it pretty much went downhill really.
I called Xiaoxiao and got her to come and join us, which she did, after finishing her group meeting. Unfortunately Gloria had to leave just as Xiaoxiao arrived but shortly afterwards we were joined by Li, Michelle's boyfriend. In the end I invited everybody to come to Rusholme with Xiaoxiao and I as we had been planning to go out for a curry. I have absolutely no idea which ``establishment'' we ended up in but the curry was pretty lousy to say the least.
Nonetheless, I had a great time and I think everybody else did. Rory spent much of the time telling us about his (friends') escapades with hookers in the various countries he's visited (China, Thailand and Amsterdam spring to mind) -- fortunately I was able to counter with my experiences in Shenzhen and even Tokyo! The rest of the time we generally seemed to be taking the piss out of somebody in our group or laughing at Giant Baby.
We even spoke a few words of Japanese...
But as we finished the class I asked if Rory, Michelle, Celine and Gloria were going to come have a drink at the Union bar. This turned out to be more than one... more along the lines of four or five for Rory, along with a good number of games of pool. Now I've never been good at pool, nor have I really even known how to play that long, but in the first game I played I beat Michelle. After that it pretty much went downhill really.
I called Xiaoxiao and got her to come and join us, which she did, after finishing her group meeting. Unfortunately Gloria had to leave just as Xiaoxiao arrived but shortly afterwards we were joined by Li, Michelle's boyfriend. In the end I invited everybody to come to Rusholme with Xiaoxiao and I as we had been planning to go out for a curry. I have absolutely no idea which ``establishment'' we ended up in but the curry was pretty lousy to say the least.
Nonetheless, I had a great time and I think everybody else did. Rory spent much of the time telling us about his (friends') escapades with hookers in the various countries he's visited (China, Thailand and Amsterdam spring to mind) -- fortunately I was able to counter with my experiences in Shenzhen and even Tokyo! The rest of the time we generally seemed to be taking the piss out of somebody in our group or laughing at Giant Baby.
We even spoke a few words of Japanese...
Tuesday, 19 April 2005
Original resolution photos (really!)
This time I've really made my original resolution images available. You can reach them at http://noisy.compsoc.man.ac.uk/~lewiz/photos/.
They're not sorted perfectly yet and some of the dates are incorrect for those photos in China. The Japan and Hong Kong dates should be correct though.
They're not sorted perfectly yet and some of the dates are incorrect for those photos in China. The Japan and Hong Kong dates should be correct though.
New website ideas
I've been thinking about how my current website is limited in various different ways. The code has gotten a little messy now as I've added more and more features. As I noticed that there was a new GNOME panel plugin that allowed me to very quickly post a new entry on many standard blogs I wondered about implementing this feature on my own.
I thought about it a bit and figured out that it would be too much effort, especially as I also want the ability to categorise future entries and provide more features. After searching through what is currently available I quickly decided there is nothing that meets my requirements -- mainly a good blog, regular content (like old websites used to be), categories and this new entry posting feature.
After a little thinking I've come up with a few ideas. I'll probably expand on these a little but once I've got these pesky exams out of the way I might start work. With any luck I might even be able to get the very basics in place before I (hopefully) fly to China for the summer holiday. Anyway, here's what I've got so far:
I thought about it a bit and figured out that it would be too much effort, especially as I also want the ability to categorise future entries and provide more features. After searching through what is currently available I quickly decided there is nothing that meets my requirements -- mainly a good blog, regular content (like old websites used to be), categories and this new entry posting feature.
After a little thinking I've come up with a few ideas. I'll probably expand on these a little but once I've got these pesky exams out of the way I might start work. With any luck I might even be able to get the very basics in place before I (hopefully) fly to China for the summer holiday. Anyway, here's what I've got so far:
- Users
- Groups: users, bloggers, admin
- Multiple categories (general, computers, holiday, etc.)
- Hierarchical categories (computers->linux, computers->windows, holiday->2004, holiday->2005)?
- Archive
- Calendar
- Wiki-style editing of non-blog content
- Proper themes
- Plugins
Monday, 18 April 2005
Voting and Confirmation
Paul mentioned to me how any Christened male can become Pope and that it is not restricted to the Cardinals.
I already knew that but it got me thinking about how religion works. I've been Christened so officially I'm a member of the Church of England... or at least that's how I understand it. Regardless of that fact I am in no way religious. I don't mind having been baptised (not Christened, thanks Paul!) though because it opens all sorts of doors -- I can go to church a bit if I'm about to get married and then enjoy a nice church service. Maybe that's just me being a little cynical but I doubt I'm the only person that's looked at it that way.
But what I was really thinking about is Confirmation. I don't know much at all about the Roman Catholic church but I do have to wonder why it is legal for young individuals to be allowed to partake in such a long lasting activity as this. Drinking and voting are set at the age of 18 (too high, in my opinion), sex, smoking, national service and a few other things are only allowed after the individual's 16th birthday. So why is it that religion is exempt from these ``watersheds''? Is it right? I'm not sure I think it is...
I already knew that but it got me thinking about how religion works. I've been Christened so officially I'm a member of the Church of England... or at least that's how I understand it. Regardless of that fact I am in no way religious. I don't mind having been baptised (not Christened, thanks Paul!) though because it opens all sorts of doors -- I can go to church a bit if I'm about to get married and then enjoy a nice church service. Maybe that's just me being a little cynical but I doubt I'm the only person that's looked at it that way.
But what I was really thinking about is Confirmation. I don't know much at all about the Roman Catholic church but I do have to wonder why it is legal for young individuals to be allowed to partake in such a long lasting activity as this. Drinking and voting are set at the age of 18 (too high, in my opinion), sex, smoking, national service and a few other things are only allowed after the individual's 16th birthday. So why is it that religion is exempt from these ``watersheds''? Is it right? I'm not sure I think it is...
Saturday, 16 April 2005
Frank Sinatra, Mobster
I'm obviously a couple of decades behind with this ``news'' but it turns out that Frank Sinatra ``might'' have had ties with the mafia. I was quite surprised by that. Anyway, Sinatra tried to sue the director of The Godfather for libel, saying that the role of the singer (was he Fontaine?) was based on his suggested involvement with the Mafia. There's a whole load more info at http://crimemagazine.com/sinatra.htm.
Anyway, you heard it here first!
Anyway, you heard it here first!
Plans for the summer
The summer holiday isn't too far away now so I've begun thinking about what I'd like to spend my time doing over the summer. I previously asked if I could take a year out to do some backpacking but the university do not allow this, very much to my dismay.
So, obviously some sort of travelling is on the books. Exactly what yet, I'm not sure. There are two places I'd like to visit now (having previously visited Japan -- the place I've wanted to visit for so many years) -- Thailand and Laos. I'd also like to visit Tibet too (travel the old Silk Road from Beijing).
Unfortunately I'm ``rather'' strapped for cash and flights to Thailand are not cheap, to say the least. As for Laos, well... let's not even go there! I've been talking to Xiaoxiao about visiting China again (something I definitely want to do -- there's so much more to see) and her family have even offered to let me stay with them again for a short while.
After my Japanese conversation class last Thursday I went to the Student Union bar with Rory-san and discussed teaching English in China. He had the opportunity to teach English for three months at a school in Zhejiang province two and a half years ago during his gap year. Thanks very much to this conversation I set out searching the Internet and it really is easy to find these placements. The Chinese are desperate to get English natives to help the students out.
Now I don't have a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate but in China that doesn't really matter. Sure, they would like one but they're certainly not going to turn a perfectly good candidate down. After all... the English-natives are there primarily to help with aural work, not grammar. Having said that, my grammar is reasonable (or so I'd say) and my speeling (I'm sorry, I couldn't help it) is good -- I got two A grades at GCSE level and I currently work transcribing newspaper articles. With the right tact they'll think these qualifications are excellent and I'm perfect for the job!
Early this morning, as a trial, I asked Xiaoxiao to call some schools in her province (also Zhejiang) and ask if they would be interested in having a native English speaker work for one month. We called numbers advertising on websites and had luck with two of them -- not bad for a trial run. I can expect to receive around 5,000RMB for one month (more if I had a TEFL certificate but weekend courses cost about £400!). That's around £320 and includes good (or so we're told) accommodation with a PC, Internet connection, air conditioning, a DVD player and a TV! What's more is that I'd only work around three or four hours a day!
I quickly worked out how much that would be per hour -- it's around £4.50. Not much, you might think, but in China that will go a very long way. Put it this way, in one day (£18) I could buy myself around 68 double cheeseburgers from McDonalds!
As soon as we get another telephone card we'll try some more numbers and see where we get from there. Obviously I'm not restricted to Zhejiang province but it would be nice to be close to Xiaoxiao if possible. Since the summer holiday is three months long I would hope to spend the remaining two months travelling around China using some of the money I earn from teaching. In particular I want to visit the world's largest Buddha in Sechuan province, as well as re-visit Huangshan and Yangdangshan mountains.
Maybe if I have enough time I may even get to travel the Silk Road from Beijing to Tibet! Anyway, I'm seriously excited about this and I'll need to start planning this properly. But now, I must go and learn some Japanese vocabulary for my monster test this coming Wednesday... :(
So, obviously some sort of travelling is on the books. Exactly what yet, I'm not sure. There are two places I'd like to visit now (having previously visited Japan -- the place I've wanted to visit for so many years) -- Thailand and Laos. I'd also like to visit Tibet too (travel the old Silk Road from Beijing).
Unfortunately I'm ``rather'' strapped for cash and flights to Thailand are not cheap, to say the least. As for Laos, well... let's not even go there! I've been talking to Xiaoxiao about visiting China again (something I definitely want to do -- there's so much more to see) and her family have even offered to let me stay with them again for a short while.
After my Japanese conversation class last Thursday I went to the Student Union bar with Rory-san and discussed teaching English in China. He had the opportunity to teach English for three months at a school in Zhejiang province two and a half years ago during his gap year. Thanks very much to this conversation I set out searching the Internet and it really is easy to find these placements. The Chinese are desperate to get English natives to help the students out.
Now I don't have a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate but in China that doesn't really matter. Sure, they would like one but they're certainly not going to turn a perfectly good candidate down. After all... the English-natives are there primarily to help with aural work, not grammar. Having said that, my grammar is reasonable (or so I'd say) and my speeling (I'm sorry, I couldn't help it) is good -- I got two A grades at GCSE level and I currently work transcribing newspaper articles. With the right tact they'll think these qualifications are excellent and I'm perfect for the job!
Early this morning, as a trial, I asked Xiaoxiao to call some schools in her province (also Zhejiang) and ask if they would be interested in having a native English speaker work for one month. We called numbers advertising on websites and had luck with two of them -- not bad for a trial run. I can expect to receive around 5,000RMB for one month (more if I had a TEFL certificate but weekend courses cost about £400!). That's around £320 and includes good (or so we're told) accommodation with a PC, Internet connection, air conditioning, a DVD player and a TV! What's more is that I'd only work around three or four hours a day!
I quickly worked out how much that would be per hour -- it's around £4.50. Not much, you might think, but in China that will go a very long way. Put it this way, in one day (£18) I could buy myself around 68 double cheeseburgers from McDonalds!
As soon as we get another telephone card we'll try some more numbers and see where we get from there. Obviously I'm not restricted to Zhejiang province but it would be nice to be close to Xiaoxiao if possible. Since the summer holiday is three months long I would hope to spend the remaining two months travelling around China using some of the money I earn from teaching. In particular I want to visit the world's largest Buddha in Sechuan province, as well as re-visit Huangshan and Yangdangshan mountains.
Maybe if I have enough time I may even get to travel the Silk Road from Beijing to Tibet! Anyway, I'm seriously excited about this and I'll need to start planning this properly. But now, I must go and learn some Japanese vocabulary for my monster test this coming Wednesday... :(
Friday, 15 April 2005
And on and on...
ffs! Everything on our dining table is now vibrating in time with the music being played downstairs.
You know it's getting silly when that starts happening.
You know it's getting silly when that starts happening.
And the beat goes on...
... and on and on and on and on!
I'm starting to understand why people go around murdering their neighbours -- they just want a little bit of peace and quiet!
For pretty much the whole of last week the downstairs flat has been playing music. It's unbelievable... I got back after having some labwork marked at about 11:30AM and, judging by past experience, the music won't stop now until 10 or 11PM!
I wouldn't mind too much if the music wasn't loud, or if they put the bass to a normal level. All I can hear right now is ``dum, dum-dum'' over and over and over. Now, anybody that's been around when I'm playing music will know that I'm a big fan of loud music -- almost to the point that the louder it is the better it is. I don't mind them playing music as loud as they can for a short while (read: two or three hours at the most) but it becomes too much to cope with when there is nowhere in your flat that you can't sit down in silence for just a few minutes.
Now that I think about it... it's a Friday. That could very well mean that the music won't stop until 2 or 3AM today. I'm starting to wonder what the people below them think about it or those next door. I'm not too sure if we have any neighbours living next door to us but we fairly frequently watch films late at night/early in the morning. We don't have them turned up too loudly but I'm sure the occasional explosions would be annoying.
I'm wondering what can we do now. Speaking to the landlord might be the best course of action -- but that will probably only help us if the guys downstairs have the same landlord and, even then, he might not be willing to intervene. I suppose just going downstairs and talking would be best but that's definitely easier said than done. For the time being I think I'll just try my best to ignore it and go downstairs and ask them to turn it off when we go to bed. If we get any trouble once we've asked I suppose we're almost in a position to call the police... but that's not really somewhere I want to go.
I'm starting to understand why people go around murdering their neighbours -- they just want a little bit of peace and quiet!
For pretty much the whole of last week the downstairs flat has been playing music. It's unbelievable... I got back after having some labwork marked at about 11:30AM and, judging by past experience, the music won't stop now until 10 or 11PM!
I wouldn't mind too much if the music wasn't loud, or if they put the bass to a normal level. All I can hear right now is ``dum, dum-dum'' over and over and over. Now, anybody that's been around when I'm playing music will know that I'm a big fan of loud music -- almost to the point that the louder it is the better it is. I don't mind them playing music as loud as they can for a short while (read: two or three hours at the most) but it becomes too much to cope with when there is nowhere in your flat that you can't sit down in silence for just a few minutes.
Now that I think about it... it's a Friday. That could very well mean that the music won't stop until 2 or 3AM today. I'm starting to wonder what the people below them think about it or those next door. I'm not too sure if we have any neighbours living next door to us but we fairly frequently watch films late at night/early in the morning. We don't have them turned up too loudly but I'm sure the occasional explosions would be annoying.
I'm wondering what can we do now. Speaking to the landlord might be the best course of action -- but that will probably only help us if the guys downstairs have the same landlord and, even then, he might not be willing to intervene. I suppose just going downstairs and talking would be best but that's definitely easier said than done. For the time being I think I'll just try my best to ignore it and go downstairs and ask them to turn it off when we go to bed. If we get any trouble once we've asked I suppose we're almost in a position to call the police... but that's not really somewhere I want to go.
Wednesday, 13 April 2005
Heeelp meee!
Argh! The fucking people downstairs! It's the time it is now and they haven't turned their music down at all. If anything it's gone up!
They've been playing crappy drum'n'bass music since about 8pm without stopping. I'm trying to do some algorithm work (with requires a little concentration) but all I can hear is thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud.
Aaaarrrrgghhhh! I am going out of my mind!
They've been playing crappy drum'n'bass music since about 8pm without stopping. I'm trying to do some algorithm work (with requires a little concentration) but all I can hear is thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud.
Aaaarrrrgghhhh! I am going out of my mind!
Tuesday, 12 April 2005
Ubuntu
I've added a cute little Ubuntu button. I guess I had little better to do (apart from my CS work). Maybe I'll figure out a better place for it to go when I'm not so tired.
Monday, 11 April 2005
Best Sex... Ever!?
So as I'm walking towards Stretford Mall to drop some DVDs into the post and pick some things up for dinner a young woman approaches me and says: ``Excuse me?''
Nine times out of ten this is a bad sign. It usually means somebody wants to ``borrow'' some money from you. But this lady looked quite smart and presentable -- not really the sort of person that would go around scrounging for money.
And she wasn't. Instead, she had a question for me: ``Excuse me... when was the best sex you ever had?''
Riiight. Not the sort of question I was expecting but I had a go at answering anyway: ``Umm, not too sure really...''
By this time she's pretty much walked away already but since I'm quite amused by the whole thing I decide to ask: ``Why?''
No response. Still, it kept a big smile on my face all the way to the mall and back!
Nine times out of ten this is a bad sign. It usually means somebody wants to ``borrow'' some money from you. But this lady looked quite smart and presentable -- not really the sort of person that would go around scrounging for money.
And she wasn't. Instead, she had a question for me: ``Excuse me... when was the best sex you ever had?''
Riiight. Not the sort of question I was expecting but I had a go at answering anyway: ``Umm, not too sure really...''
By this time she's pretty much walked away already but since I'm quite amused by the whole thing I decide to ask: ``Why?''
No response. Still, it kept a big smile on my face all the way to the mall and back!
Saturday, 9 April 2005
Waterboys
Last night we watched Waterboys, another Japanese film about triumph over all odds (think Swing Girls).It is by Shinobu Yaguchi, the same guy that directed Swing Girls. Anybody that's read the Swing Girls entry will know that I absolutely loved that film, which is based on this one. I was a little disappointed with Waterboys as it followed exactly the same structure, making it overly predictable and more than a little boring. Still -- if I'd watched Waterboys before Swing Girls I would probably be writing much the same thing about that.
Most worrying of all is the Waterboys TV series, set two years after the film. Xiaoxiao and I watched the first episode last night and I don't think I've ever been so shocked at how crappy TV series can be. Having said that, I think we'll give it an episode or two more before ruling it out entirely.
Friday, 8 April 2005
Panorama
Well, I've been hunting for a neat two-display wallpaper for a while now so I figured I'd have a go at making my own. While we were in the Lake District I went out of my way to try and take a few photos that I could try and stitch together.This is my first (successful) attempt at creating the panorama. I took the two photos with my Dad's Olympus C-2020Z and then stitched them with Hugin. I used the low-quality stitcher for this one and I've not yet run it through enblend so it is massively obvious where the images have been stitched. In fact, the only thing I've done with this is crop the borders.
I'm pretty impressed with the software, more than anything else. I'll probably post another higher-resolution one once I've spent a bit more time using the software and blending them.
New photo galleries!
I've spent a few hours or more each day since I first announced that I'd managed to recover some holiday photos from Japan. I've spent this time figuring out exactly what I did, where and when. It sounds a fairly easy task but it wasn't. Since I lost my original journal entries I couldn't use those, nor could I rely totally on the dates of the photos. In the end I spent hours of tedious work cross-referencing camera dates, receipts, filenames and the Internet in general.I've now got a pretty concise list of exactly what I did. Because I never made any real record of which temples I visited in Japan on which days sorting these out was very difficult and time consuming too. I've done a fairly good job though, I think, and there are plenty more photos with names and short descriptions than previously.
I've rearranged a few of the galleries, even deleted one (after moving the photos) as well as introducing many more. If you're already up-to-date with my photos then these are the galleries that have been added or have changed:
- Temples, Kyoto, Japan (mostly just rearranged; no names/descriptions yet)
- More Temples, Kyoto, Japan (mostly just rearranged with names and descriptions)
- More Temples, Kyoto, Japan (almost all new photos; many named and with short descriptions)
- Nara, Japan (all new photos; many named and with short descriptions)
- Fontaine Capsule Hotel, Japan (all new with descriptions)
- Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan (all new; many named/descriptions. Includes Yamaha NS-1000Xs!)
- Imperial Palace, Tokyo, Japan (all new; names/descriptions)
- Tokyo Buildings, Japan (all new)
I've also re-oriented all portrait images. No more head twisting.
I really hope somebody will enjoy these. I know I've really enjoyed looking at other people's photos of Japan as I've been searching over the past couple of days. Let me know what you think!
Thursday, 7 April 2005
Japanese JR Trains
Since rediscovering a whole pile of lost photos I've been on a mission to pin down exactly where I went and when. This is problematic for a number of reasons -- I no longer have my journal entries, the data/time on my camera was set wrongly and I can't read half of the receipts/bills as they are frequently in kanji and not katakana/hiragana (although even then I struggle with anything but the most basic things (like Hotel Suuteshi or something like that)).
But, I'm well on the way. I've almost pinned everything down to a single day, I have exactly dates for transport and most of the places I visited are in order. When I've got it done I'm going to stick it up here, more because that way there is less chance of me losing it (CompSoc have backups :) but also because it might be quite interesting.
While I've been doing this I've spotted a few things that are most amusing, like the day I travelling from Tokyo Station to Osaka Station. Since I was being a really tight git I bought a five-day JR train pass instead of a Shinkansen return ticket. As a result I spent almost the whole day on one train or another -- far too long considering I was in Japan just 23 days!
Anyway, here are the trains and changes I had to make. Most amazingly I did not miss one connection where the changeover period was a matter of minutes on more than one occasion. Why don't trains in England run as well?
But, I'm well on the way. I've almost pinned everything down to a single day, I have exactly dates for transport and most of the places I visited are in order. When I've got it done I'm going to stick it up here, more because that way there is less chance of me losing it (CompSoc have backups :) but also because it might be quite interesting.
While I've been doing this I've spotted a few things that are most amusing, like the day I travelling from Tokyo Station to Osaka Station. Since I was being a really tight git I bought a five-day JR train pass instead of a Shinkansen return ticket. As a result I spent almost the whole day on one train or another -- far too long considering I was in Japan just 23 days!
Anyway, here are the trains and changes I had to make. Most amazingly I did not miss one connection where the changeover period was a matter of minutes on more than one occasion. Why don't trains in England run as well?
- 11:03 Depart Tokyo Station on the Tokaido Line.
- 13:13 Arrive Numazu Station.
- 13:20 Depart Numazu Station on the Tokaido Line.
- 14:13 Arrive Shizuoka Station.
- 14:25 Depart Shizuoka Station on the Tokaido Line.
- 15:37 Arrive Hamamatsu Station.
- 15:50 Depart Hamamatsu Station on the Tokaido Rapid Line.
- 16:24 Arrive Toyohashi Station.
- 16:37 Depart Toyohashi Station on the Tokaido Rapid Line.
- 18:41 Arrive Maibara Station.
- 18:54 Depart Maibara Station on the Tokaido/Sanyohonsen Rapid Line.
- 20:14 Arrive Osaka Station.
Wednesday, 6 April 2005
Disabilities
Okay, not really something I try and campaign about but after watching Oasis, which is about a girl with cerebral palsy and a late-twenties man just out of jail following a hit-and-run accident, I can't help but be shocked.
The scene that upset me the most was where Jong-du took Gong-du to his mother's birthday meal. I was upset at the reaction of the people sat around the table. But there were so many other scenes that I just couldn't help feel ashamed, not because I've done anything wrong, but maybe because I didn't do something right. And I'm need even ashamed for me, but for everybody else too.
Obviously this was a film designed to ``set off'' these thoughts and emotions (which it did very well) but faced with a situation like that just how would you act? The easy answer is ``act normally''... but what does that really mean?
The scene that upset me the most was where Jong-du took Gong-du to his mother's birthday meal. I was upset at the reaction of the people sat around the table. But there were so many other scenes that I just couldn't help feel ashamed, not because I've done anything wrong, but maybe because I didn't do something right. And I'm need even ashamed for me, but for everybody else too.
Obviously this was a film designed to ``set off'' these thoughts and emotions (which it did very well) but faced with a situation like that just how would you act? The easy answer is ``act normally''... but what does that really mean?
Tuesday, 5 April 2005
The Lake District
I've been talking about going to spend a few nights in the Lake District for a few weeks now, longer if you consider that many months ago I briefly suggested we do some walking one holiday.
But yesterday we finally set off to Windermere by train, after already putting it off one week. We were up at the early hour of 7am (good for us, especially considering that somehow we managed to only get to sleep around 3am!) and were soon sat on the train wondering how we were going to carry all of the extra crap we'd brought with us (tent, sleeping bags, food, etc.)
Anyway, once we arrived it struck me just how little I knew about Windermere, or where to start walking. It's damn easy when you're not ``arranging'' things and you just follow your Uncle (which is what I've done in the past). With a little time we managed to find a rucksack shop. Now, if ever there was a bad place to buy a rucksack, then I'm sure the Lake District is that place. Regardless, I went ahead and bought a super-massive uber rucksack of doom, thinking how handy it would be when/if I go to China this summer. Last year I had my uncle's big rucksack and my black ``Head'' bag (the one I wear everywhere) and I managed to pick up another great big bag to bring stuff back with me. This rucksack is the answer to all my needs -- fully loaded it'll weigh an absolute tonne, but it has so many straps to compress it down it doesn't matter if I set off with it half empty, only to fill it up.
We loaded the tent, two sleeping bags, clothes and food into my bag and off we went. A bus to Ambleside was all it took (well, and a bit of getting lost in the town centre) before we were well on our way to some hiking on the fells. I've never been a big person for names so I won't really try and described where we walked, other than saying that we climbed up a big hill behind Lake Windermere and then headed over lots more big hills towards Ambleside. At this point we descended the big hill, followed a nice path, crossed a bridge over the stream running off the lake and walked to the town.
This took us a fair while as we tried to reach the top of every peak we could (or at least... we just headed towards the big piles of stones) but we had a really nice rest on a bench overlooking Ambleside. Once we reached the town we found The Red Lion inn (or was it the Red Lamb? It seemed to have two names, neither of which I can remember) where we had a nice a nice dinner at exactly 6pm.
After dinner we set off back up the mountain (this time to the west) in search of somewhere to pitch our tent. Now I'm no great outdoor tent-type person but I didn't think this would be too hard. But the fells aren't as flat as you might expect, or at least these ones weren't -- the areas we'd walked earlier on had plenty of nicely sheltered, flat and dry places to set up camp. Not so this time. But we finally found somewhere suitable (just as it was beginning to get dark) only to discovered that Olivia's tent was missing some rather critical parts -- most notably the tent pegs (we could have maybe used some sticks instead) but also one of the structural poles! There was no way we could have done without that so we packed up in lightning speed and headed back down as quickly as we could.
By the time we reached a road it was dark and getting very cold. We walked back to the town centre and checked around the B&Bs for somewhere with a reasonable price. The minimum was around £30 per person, a little more than we could afford (especially given I'd just bought this new bag). A Youth Hostel would have done, but neither of us are members and the chances are we won't be back again, so that would have worked out at largely the same price. In the end we decided we'd find out if there was a train back home (which there was, at 10.25pm!) and see if we could get a taxi back to Windermere.
We managed all of this and at around 12.30am we were back at our flat in Manchester. We had a brilliant day out (bar the frantic downhill scrambling in the dark) and we've learned a few useful things for next time. Firstly -- a day is quite long; if you're up early enough you can get loads of walking packed in, save money on your train fare (around £11 for a day return as opposed to £17 for an open return) and bus ticket, as well as cut down on the things that need carrying. In fact, price-wise buying two train tickets and coming back to Manchester would have been only marginally more expensive, as well as affording us time to get a shower, prepare some more sandwiches, and so on. Secondly -- don't trust siblings. Never do it. If they say ``here is a tent'' than damn well get it out and put it together, just to be sure. Thirdly -- if you're camping then find somewhere to pitch your tent before you have your dinner, even if it means backtracking the way you came. There's nothing worse than running around a mountain in light drizzle trying to find somewhere to pitch a tent!
All in all, we had a great time. Plenty of things we can do better next time, although we'll probably just go for a day trip. I've uploaded some of the photos I took -- mostly they're of Xiaoxiao, me or Xiaoxiao and I (on those rare occasions when I got away and in position fast enough) with a few of the beautiful scenery thrown in for good luck. Anyway, the photos are available in The Lake District gallery.
But yesterday we finally set off to Windermere by train, after already putting it off one week. We were up at the early hour of 7am (good for us, especially considering that somehow we managed to only get to sleep around 3am!) and were soon sat on the train wondering how we were going to carry all of the extra crap we'd brought with us (tent, sleeping bags, food, etc.)
Anyway, once we arrived it struck me just how little I knew about Windermere, or where to start walking. It's damn easy when you're not ``arranging'' things and you just follow your Uncle (which is what I've done in the past). With a little time we managed to find a rucksack shop. Now, if ever there was a bad place to buy a rucksack, then I'm sure the Lake District is that place. Regardless, I went ahead and bought a super-massive uber rucksack of doom, thinking how handy it would be when/if I go to China this summer. Last year I had my uncle's big rucksack and my black ``Head'' bag (the one I wear everywhere) and I managed to pick up another great big bag to bring stuff back with me. This rucksack is the answer to all my needs -- fully loaded it'll weigh an absolute tonne, but it has so many straps to compress it down it doesn't matter if I set off with it half empty, only to fill it up.
We loaded the tent, two sleeping bags, clothes and food into my bag and off we went. A bus to Ambleside was all it took (well, and a bit of getting lost in the town centre) before we were well on our way to some hiking on the fells. I've never been a big person for names so I won't really try and described where we walked, other than saying that we climbed up a big hill behind Lake Windermere and then headed over lots more big hills towards Ambleside. At this point we descended the big hill, followed a nice path, crossed a bridge over the stream running off the lake and walked to the town.
This took us a fair while as we tried to reach the top of every peak we could (or at least... we just headed towards the big piles of stones) but we had a really nice rest on a bench overlooking Ambleside. Once we reached the town we found The Red Lion inn (or was it the Red Lamb? It seemed to have two names, neither of which I can remember) where we had a nice a nice dinner at exactly 6pm.
After dinner we set off back up the mountain (this time to the west) in search of somewhere to pitch our tent. Now I'm no great outdoor tent-type person but I didn't think this would be too hard. But the fells aren't as flat as you might expect, or at least these ones weren't -- the areas we'd walked earlier on had plenty of nicely sheltered, flat and dry places to set up camp. Not so this time. But we finally found somewhere suitable (just as it was beginning to get dark) only to discovered that Olivia's tent was missing some rather critical parts -- most notably the tent pegs (we could have maybe used some sticks instead) but also one of the structural poles! There was no way we could have done without that so we packed up in lightning speed and headed back down as quickly as we could.
By the time we reached a road it was dark and getting very cold. We walked back to the town centre and checked around the B&Bs for somewhere with a reasonable price. The minimum was around £30 per person, a little more than we could afford (especially given I'd just bought this new bag). A Youth Hostel would have done, but neither of us are members and the chances are we won't be back again, so that would have worked out at largely the same price. In the end we decided we'd find out if there was a train back home (which there was, at 10.25pm!) and see if we could get a taxi back to Windermere.
We managed all of this and at around 12.30am we were back at our flat in Manchester. We had a brilliant day out (bar the frantic downhill scrambling in the dark) and we've learned a few useful things for next time. Firstly -- a day is quite long; if you're up early enough you can get loads of walking packed in, save money on your train fare (around £11 for a day return as opposed to £17 for an open return) and bus ticket, as well as cut down on the things that need carrying. In fact, price-wise buying two train tickets and coming back to Manchester would have been only marginally more expensive, as well as affording us time to get a shower, prepare some more sandwiches, and so on. Secondly -- don't trust siblings. Never do it. If they say ``here is a tent'' than damn well get it out and put it together, just to be sure. Thirdly -- if you're camping then find somewhere to pitch your tent before you have your dinner, even if it means backtracking the way you came. There's nothing worse than running around a mountain in light drizzle trying to find somewhere to pitch a tent!
All in all, we had a great time. Plenty of things we can do better next time, although we'll probably just go for a day trip. I've uploaded some of the photos I took -- mostly they're of Xiaoxiao, me or Xiaoxiao and I (on those rare occasions when I got away and in position fast enough) with a few of the beautiful scenery thrown in for good luck. Anyway, the photos are available in The Lake District gallery.
Monday, 4 April 2005
Recovered holiday photos!
I went home this weekend to pickup some stuff from home. Among them was my Dad's Olympus digital camera -- the one I took to Japan with me. While in Japan I tried to upload some photos I'd taken that were stored on a memory card, unfortunately when I switched the cards over in Kinkos (a copy shop) the FAT from one card got written to the other, meaning that I was unable to access any of my pictures regardless of the fact that they were still actually on the card (the FAT is just an index that tells the computer which part of the card to look at to find the picture).My intention had always been to bring the card home, back up the whole card onto my machine and then figure out how to recover the data without the FAT. However, somewhere along the way the card got lost or mixed up. As I was getting the camera and the case ready to take away with me I checked in an inside pocket where I expected to find a plastic carry case for the other card but to my surprise there was the missing card! I had totally forgotten about putting it there so it was quite a surprise to find it!
Anyway, I brought the card, the camera and the card reader back to Manchester with me and I had the image of the card dumped in no time. This ``image'' is a single 128MB file that can be viewed under Linux as though the actual card was connected -- however, the image is read-only and multiple copies can be made -- essential if you're going to try funny things to get the data from it.
Within a matter of minutes I found a post in comp.lang.perl.moderated on Google Groups with a snippet of Perl code attached that went through the file sequentially to find images. Since JPEG files have a unique header the script simply searched through the image for the header and then write the data following the header to a file. With absolutely minimum fuss I now have 320 images that were previously unreadable!
Not all of them are new -- a few had already been deleted from the FAT (but not the card itself) so there are one or two duplicates of my escapades in China and Hong Kong. However, there are absolutely loads of photos I was missing from Japan, including a few of Alison, who I met while wandering around Kyoto.
I always knew these were some of the best holiday photos I'd taken and I think I'm right. I'll do my best to get a photo gallery up sometime very soon. In the meantime I'll just keep floating around with this super-high!
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