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Random stuff, randomly updated.
Archive for July, 2008
Man on the moon
Thursday, July 24th, 2008Never is enough
Friday, July 18th, 2008HP shatters excessive packaging world record
Quite amazing. One big box, containing 16 smaller boxes, each containing two sheets of paper (which were also wrapped in foam, for some reason).
Talk about waste! That could just as easily all gone in a Jiffy bag or something. I always thought Cisco’s packaging for Callmanager licences was stupid – an A5 sheet of paper, in an A4 cardboard envelope, in a bigger oversized envelope.
At the very least, they do bundle up many of the A4 envelopes into one bigger one, but it’s still very wasteful. Oh, and add to that the fact each of those A5 sheets of paper is accompanied by a little wad of paper (in itself shrink-wrapped) called the ‘Information Packet’. Nice pun Cisco! All it contains is a warranty – a warranty for a bit of paper, probably.
I bet it doesn’t cover accidental shredding.
War on Drugs
Thursday, July 17th, 2008Felony complaint filed against Barenaked Ladies’ Steven Page
Quite surprising. Amazingly bad timing too, considering they’ve only just released Snacktime, an album aimed at kids.
Drugs in music has always concerned me – so many musicians seem to be dabbling in drugs. Thankfully, they’re not all up to the levels of Amy Winehouse or Pete Doherty, but it seems to be a pretty universal thing. I stopped subscribing to Total Guitar magazine as I mostly got fed up with all the references to drugs in the interviews. I personally abhor their use; I rarely drink (I don’t get binge drinking), and smoking disgusts me, so drugs use is a massive nono.
I don’t understand why anybody needs to use drugs. Life can be hard at times, but not that hard, surely?
However, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon was probably nearly all written under the influence of something, and it’s considered a classic album. Who’s to say what it would have been like otherwise? It might have ended up a footnote in musical history. I often wonder what the writers of Family Guy have been smoking sometimes – and I’m not being ironic when I think that, yet I’ll sit there laughing like a drain at it.
I suppose I’m a hypocrite really. Maybe I’ll just stop appreciating anything creative.
1.2 Gigabytes
Sunday, July 13th, 2008What happens when you export your iTunes library to an XML file, then try and open it in Internet Explorer 7?
This:
It took me a while to regain control of my machine and kill it. I’ve got 2Gb RAM anyway, but when you consider a normal session for me is using about half that anyway (not Vista’s fault, more the junk I run), it was swapping out to disk like crazy. The end result being lots of swapping, and a PC which is barely useable. The XML file is about 12Mb, but obviously all the other stuff in the default XML stylesheet in IE adds a massive overhead.
I shan’t be doing that again in a hurry.
RATS!
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
There’s a new sitcom on BBC2 called Lab Rats. The reviews for it have been a bit varied, with some saying it’s absurdist nonsense, and others saying it struck a good balance. Personally, I fall into the latter camp.
It was wonderfully absurd; the whole bit with the lemons was quite zany, and the giant growth serum was a funny angle. The Russian scientist was also quite good.
The ‘issues’ seemed to revolve around the timing and pacing of the show. Some jokes fell flat because there was too much dead space after the joke, or jokes were dropped in (possibly adlibs) which made them miss the beat, so they got ignored.
However, this is the first episode. so it’ll probably sort itself out over the course of the series.
It has potential.
