I have not done all that much on theQuotebook lately, but I did add a minor new feature a few days ago. (Perhaps you have noticed? Probably not.) There is now a link on each individual quote page to post the quote to Twitter. So, if you add a particularly funny quote of you friend and want to share it further afield, try tweeting it!

As always, feedback is welcome and appreciated.

Alone on a hill.

As I watch the children play, running everywhere, down the slide, quick swing, rushing to the next thing (now inside, now out again), I think: did I ever have that energy?

But perhaps occasionally, briefly.

The sun goes behind a cloud; the breeze chills.

It turns out that if you take the title of a book and append the phrase “in your pants”, the resulting title is often more amusing than the original. Here I present you some examples:

About the Size of it: The Common Sense Approach to Measuring Things in Your Pants
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in Your Pants
All About Worship: Insights & Perspectives on Worship in Your Pants
Being Human in Your Pants
Calculus: A New Horizon in Your Pants
Computer Networking: A Top-down Approach Featuring the Internet in Your Pants
Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface in Your Pants
Coping with Controversy in Your Pants
The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer in Your Pants
Dick Smith’s Fun Way into Electronics in Your Pants
God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God in Your Pants?
The Snow in Your Pants

For some automated humour, I have just written a little script that will transform the titles of your books most recently added to LibraryThing in similar manner. Take a look at what it does for my books, or try it on your or your friend’s collection.

Oh, and on the topic of pants, if you have not read Star Wars pants quotes, perhaps you will be amused to do so. I cannot find the original site that I remember from years ago, but they are still funny. The premise is to take a line from Star Wars and replace one word with the word ‘pants’, thus improving the line.

Well, it is said that small things amuse small minds.

Following on from the chocolate mug cake, I wanted to try to make other cakey things similarly. One obvious candidate for adaptation was the microwave steamed pudding which I like to make. With a bit of scaling and changing a few ingredients, I managed to make a microwave mug steamed pudding. Again, it is quick and easy to make with a minimum of dishes, and just a single serving, so you can make it for yourself without having a whole lot left over.

Have a look at the recipe (Krecipes / PDF), and try it! Please let me know how it works and what you think.

This book quiz has been going around Facebook a bit, so here I join in.

BEGINS
The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

Instructions:
Copy this into your NOTES. Put an ‘x’ next to those you have read. Tag other book nerds.

[ ] 1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
[x] 2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
It was ages ago though; I could not remember very much when I watched the movies.
[ ] 3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
[ ] 4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
[x] 5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
We studied this in school, in year 9 I think. Or maybe it was year 11, I cannot remember. My English teacher in year 9 and 11 really liked books (and movies) about racism in the American south.
[x] 6 The Bible – God (the whole thing)
Well, most of it anyway.
[ ] 7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
[x] 8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
1984 and Animal Farm are the two books by Orwell that I have read. Did you hear about the recent controversy with Amazon deleting them both remotely from the Kindles of people who had purchased the e-books? Nice irony there.
[ ] 9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
[ ] 10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

Total: 4

[ ] 11 Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
I think I may have started this at some point, but gave up on it.
[ ] 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
[ ] 13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
[ ] 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
[ ] 15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
[x] 16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
[ ] 17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
[ ] 18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
[ ] 19 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
[ ] 20 Middlemarch – George Eliot

Total: 1

[ ] 21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
[ ] 22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
[ ] 23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
[ ] 24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
[x] 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
Again, I read the series ages ago (at some point while in primary school anyway), and so had forgotten most of it by the time I watched the movie of the first one. Oh, and there was the BBC TV version too. That had amusingly terrible special effects.
[ ] 27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
[ ] 28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
[ ] 29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
I think I might have read part of it, but not the whole thing.
[x] 30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

Total: 2

[ ] 31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
[ ] 32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
[x] 33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
Yep, and the BBC miniseries or whatever it was. It was a bit funny having seen that and then seeing the more recent movies.
[ ] 34 Emma – Jane Austen
[ ] 35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
[x] 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
Well, 33 → 36
[ ] 37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
[ ] 38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
[ ] 39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
[x] 40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne

Total: 3

[x] 41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
[ ] 42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
[ ] 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
[ ] 44 A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
[ ] 45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
[x] 46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
I think? I could be wrong. Again, a long time ago.
[ ] 47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
[ ] 48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
[x] 49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
I studied this in school too. Studying a book, reading bits over and over again, having to write essays about it, takes all the enjoyment out of it.
[ ] 50 Atonement – Ian McEwan

Total: 3

[ ] 51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
[x] 52 Dune – Frank Herbert
I read quite a few of the Dune series, despite finding them fairly dull. I may have been too young for them.
[ ] 53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
[ ] 54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
[ ] 55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
[ ] 56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
[ ] 57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
[x] 58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
I think I read 1984, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 all around the same time, one summer, mostly while camping at the Mahia Peninsula. That campground no longer exists. It was demolished to build a subdivision of houses, but then the developers ran out of money or something, and they never got built. There are roads, some lamps, gardens and cleared land (they got rid of almost all the pine trees from the old campground and flattened it more), but no houses. I later read This Perfect Day and Logan’s Run, for a bit more along similar lines. (Well, Logan’s Run is a bit ridiculous. The movie is amusing, primarily for what it says about the time it was made.)
[ ] 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night – Mark Haddon
[ ] 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Total: 2

[ ] 61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
[ ] 62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
[ ] 63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
[ ] 64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
[ ] 65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
[ ] 66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
[ ] 67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
[ ] 68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
[ ] 69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
[ ] 70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville

Total: 0

[ ] 71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
[ ] 72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
[x] 73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
[ ] 74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
[ ] 75 Ulysses – James Joyce
[ ] 76 The Inferno – Dante
[x] 77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
I think? It sounds familiar anyway.
[ ] 78 Germinal – Emile Zola
[ ] 79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
[ ] 80 Possession – AS Byatt

Total: 2

[ ] 81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
[ ] 82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
[ ] 83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
[ ] 84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
[ ] 85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
[ ] 86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mxistry
[x] 87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
[ ] 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
[ ] 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
[x] 90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
I am not sure whether I read all of this. But I probably did.

Total: 2

[ ] 91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
[ ] 92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
[ ] 93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
Apparently Iain Banks is Iain M. Banks, some of whose books I have read.
[x] 94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
[ ] 95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
[ ] 96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
[ ] 97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
[ ] 98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
[x] 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
I never was keen on Roald Dahl, but I think I read this.
[ ] 100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Total: 2

Grand Total: 21

I think the things that occupy my mind at the moment, worry me I guess I could say, can be divided into four main categories:

1. The future
2. God
3. People
4. Girls

By ‘at the moment’, I guess I mean this year. And that order is not particularly significant.

Expanding a little.

The future — well, what am I doing with my life? For rather a while I had been very focussed on study, completing my degree. Well, I got the degree, I got good grades, I graduated, but what does it all mean in the end? Yeah, I got a job. A good academic record and work experience do help with that. But now, what? Was all the effort and stress and everything worth it? And what should I aim for now? Do I have anything to look forward to, or is it all downhill from here? I do not even know what I want, really, which makes aiming for it, planning, rather hard. I guess I like to have a plan.

Well, that was more about the past than the future. Some possible possibilities are:

• Travel: But that would be expensive, for no clear benefit, aim or purpose. Where would I go? And with whom?
• Work: Going where? Why? Though yeah, earning money is kind of necessary to live.
• Further study — perhaps a Masters or even a PhD: But in what? I am severely lacking in inspiration (okay, this is not limited to study, but is particularly relevant to embarking on further study I think). At Vic, or somewhere else in NZ, or overseas? No option is really compelling.

Direction and purpose would be nice.
And what about God, in all of this? Apparently my aim should be to serve Him somehow. It is unclear how I should do that, what effect that should have on my decisions. Well, that leads nicely into my second category…

God — by which I mean faith and Christianity and so on. I am not sure what to say. God seems… well, distant, to say the least. Presumably that is my fault. Actually God is a bit of an odd one out on this list; He is not necessarily on my mind all that much, but He should be. I think?

People — relating, talking, spending time with people. What are friends, what should friends be? How should I treat friends, and what should I expect from friends? Who should I consider my friends anyway? Facebook says that I have 222, but I am pretty sure that it is lying (-;. People are hard.

Girls — well, girls are people too, with all the difficulties that that entails. I am not sure what to say, at least in this public context. I guess I will say nothing more.

There is of course overlap between all of these.

Soundtrack for this post: Simon & Garfunkel ‘Leaves That Are Green‘, Jonathan Coulton ‘The Future Soon‘, The Echoing Green ‘Suffer‘ (it can be found on The Best of IVM Vol. 1). And after that, perhaps some Apoptygma Berzerk. I have been listening to them a fair bit over the past week or so anyway.

I have made a few updates to theQuotebook over the past few weeks (well, okay, months). For those who have not already noticed:

• You can now get an email when you are quoted, or when someone comments on one of your quotes (either a quote that you added or one that you said). This will be enabled by default the first time you log in. Users who have been created to be quoted but have not themselves logged in to the site will not get any emails. I originally implemented it so that they would get emails and so could see when they are quoted and log in if they wanted, but this was changed on request from a user. Let me know which way you think is best.
• It is now a bit easier to sign up if you do not already have an OpenID, as the site now has an option on the login page to get one from myOpenID. The link there will sign you straight in once you have it, thanks to myOpenID’s affiliate programme.
• It is possible to use some basic formatting in quotes and comments. You can make text *bold* and _italic_ like so, and also use BBCode if you are familiar with that. The formatting options for quotes are fairly limited, but comments allow most BBCode.
• There is are now Atom feeds for comments as well as for quotes, so you can subscribe to both in your favourite feedreader (I recommend Google Reader) and keep up with them without checking the site all the time. To subscribe to the quotes and comments on your quotebooks, go to the home page, make sure you are logged in, and then click the RSS feed icon in your web browser (in Firefox it is a little orange icon in the address bar, right-aligned after the URL).

There have also been many minor improvements, such as the ability to add a new quote straight from the page for each quotebook, rather than having to click a link first.

Looking forward, we will hopefully have a new style for the site in the not-too-distant future (thanks to Daniel Sherson). If you are particularly curious, more plans and ideas may be found. Or, of course, you could talk to me.

Comments, suggestions, ideas and other feedback are of course welcome. I make no promises about doing what you say, but I will certainly be happy to listen to anything.

You may have eaten a cup cake, but have you tried a mug cake? One of my aunts, Kristine Hornblow, sent me this recipe recently, and I recommend it as it is particularly quick and easy to make. The whole thing is made in a mug, cooked in the microwave, and can be eaten straight out of the mug too, so no other dishes are required.

Anyway, have a look at the recipe (Krecipes format or PDF), try making it, and let me know how it goes.

I am glad that I do not get sick very often. And even when I do it is generally not very bad really.
I am fortunate to have a good flat this year, with a bunch of pretty good guys really.
I am fortunate to have enough food to eat, access to the Internet, reliable electricity and running water.
I am glad to have met and come to know a little many people over the last few years.
I am glad to be part of a good church.
I am very grateful to my parents for bringing me up and caring for me, and for everything they have done for me over the years, the time they have spent with me and for me.
I am glad for the times friend have shown care for me, talking to me, asking how I am, doing things together, making time to see me.
I am fortunate to have a good job, even though it is frustrating at times, but doing what should be relatively interesting work with some intelligent people.
I owe all to God, Yahweh, who sent his Son to die for me, sinner that I am, that I might be forgiven and restored to relationship with Him. I still do not know how this works, but I am told that it is true and I must believe it. Without God’s grace I am hopeless. With it I must live for Him, somehow.

I would like to tell you about a few local musicians whom I know to varying degrees. They all live in Wellington, and I have met all of them at least once.

First up is Josh Thompson, now calling himself Danjor (previously Tommo39). Danjor’s music is mostly fairly light acoustic rock about God and girls. You can see what he is up to at the Danjor blog, and download some free tracks from his old website. He is working on an album to be released at some point, but in the meantime I recommend that you download his songs and listen to them.

Someone else well worth listening to is Sarah Hughes. She plays female singer-songwriter sort of stuff, again someone singing about life and love and God with a guitar. She does do it well though. Unfortunately the last.fm page for Sarah Hughes refers to another artist of the same name. Sarah has so far released one album, Glimpses. Unfortunately it only has 6 tracks, but I recommend it nonetheless. You will have to contact her directly to buy it; try her blog (linked above). I am not aware of any plans for more albums, but who knows.

Another Josh with a guitar to watch out for is Josh Baker. Josh seems like a fairly interesting character (well, maths students are always cool, right?), and he seems to write a fair number of songs, some of which he records and posts online.

Is there anyone I have missed? Whom do you recommend?

Sometimes I am happy, often I am fairly neural, and sometimes I am unhappy.

When I am happy I tend to be inspired to work on things (or start new projects), to make the effort to talk to people, and even to be somewhat sociable.

When I am unhappy I tend to be unmotivated, not do much, take long walks in the middle of the night or just sit or lie around feeling sorry for myself. I suppose I think more about myself and less about other people.

Anyway, I have given a little consideration to what tends to make me happy. One of the main things, I think, is making things which other people like and appreciate. Some examples of this are:

• I have been doing some work lately on a robot which lorne and I want to make. Trying to get an IO expander working with a Meraki over I2C, programming a PIC to talk to the Meraki, getting parts to build H-bridges, that sort of thing. Having him appreciate how cool it is, and get excited at the little achievements along the way (I2C is working, I just needed to add pull-ups! The PIC is running fine off 3.3 V now, disabling BOREN did the trick!) helps me to keep motivated. Working on a project with smart people is fun!
• It is nice that people are using and apparently liking theQuotebook. It took a lot of work to get it to the point where it now is, and there are still many more things to be fixed, added and improved. What I have really liked though is when friends have taken the time to try things out, think about it, say what they like and dislike, and sometimes offer suggestions. Thanks to shoeshine, Melanie, Josh, Valerie and anyone else who has made suggestions or comments.
• I like it when I bake stuff and people like it. Be it muffins, or the steamed pudding (with custard) which I made tonight and my flatmates consumed, focaccia bread yesterday, the apple scotch I made for the pot-luck we had at my lifegroup quite a few weeks ago (though it got quite burnt; I should never have let myself be persuaded to put it into the oven).

I guess a big part of this comes from just wanting to feel appreciated, or at least acknowledged, by people about whom I care. For similar reasons I guess, I appreciate it when people make the effort to talk to me, email me, ask how I am, even spend time with me. Certainly, I tend to find that talking to people can make me happier, when I can manage it. Or when someone makes the effort to talk to me even though I am frustrated or irritated and unsociable and hard to talk to.

There is still a fair bit about what effects my mood that I do not understand though. Sometimes I am just unhappy or unmotivated for no particular reason that I can see; on the odd occasion I even find myself happy for no reason I can discern.

Oh, and I really enjoyed contradancing the weekend before last at the St. Michael’s fundraiser, once I got into it anyway. I am not sure how that fits in. Probably something to do with the combination of live music, positive social interaction and physical activity. Thanks, Stevie and Allan, for dragging me along.

I have been told that I should tell you all to talk to Bob. Bob is a chatterbot I wrote about three and a half years ago, which learns from what people say to it. Everything it says is based on something it has heard in the past; there is no knowledge of any particular language built into it.

Unfortunately the problem with putting such a thing on the web — or indeed most anywhere on the Internet — is that people tend to type garbage into it most of the time, and so it ends up spouting the same garbage. I have just now cleared its database though, so it should hopefully be relatively sensical for at least a few weeks until it gets overwhelmed with nonsense again. It can even be quite funny at times.

If you are curious, after chatting to it for a while you might want to see Bob chat to itself or see the contents of its ‘brain’.

Swing swing.
Swing, swing.
It is cloudy tonight, though there are some bare patches. Stars visible briefly. The clouds move quite rapidly. I can see the Southern Cross. Now I cannot. The breeze gets up a bit.
10:14 pm now. Early, comparatively. I wonder whether I will sleep tonight.
I can hear something breathing heavily. Irregularly. Some animal I guess, but I cannot see it. Looking around for it, listening carefully. Unnerving.
Back to the swing. Music back on.

Time to stop swinging. Need some certainty in life. On whom to rely, to depend?
Here I sit. Not in the hall of the mountain king. Ouch, too loud suddenly.

The breathing seems to have stopped. Odd.
Perhaps no human will keep eir word. God does, apparently. Not quite sure what to make of it though.
God should be all I need, apparently. But human relationships would be nice too. Should be nice. Some sort of connection? I am not sure how to find it, or make it. Things seem not to work out. What does that mean? Why?
Always why. And how.
Ha, and when.

Just walking now. Downhill. Perhaps I will run later.

I really must get some decent headphones.
What would it be like to be able to control my mind more? Less wandering?More productive? More focussed, less distractable, pointlessly and uselessly sidetracked? What is important in life? What can I do? What can I even hope to do, to achieve?
Keep walking.
Cannot stop, cannot stand still, going nowhere.

Ran. Just a little.

I have a few computer bits and pieces to get rid of, so I thought it best before throwing them out to check whether anyone might want any of them. So, does anyone want any of the following:

• An AMD Sempron processor (I cannot remember the exact model number, but around 1.8 GHz), with heatsink and fan.
• An SBus framebuffer (graphics card), to suit a Sun Sparcstation of some sort. It takes up two SBus sockets, and has the usual 13W3 connector that Sun used to use for their monitors.
• An external audio adapter for a Sun Sparcstation with the appropriate socket. It has a speaker, microphone, volume controls and line in / out sockets.
• Various old PCI graphics cards, and I think some AGP ones too, possibly not so old.
• Various PCI sound cards.

All of that is free to anyone who wants it, so let me know soon if you are interested in any of it. I also have various other bits and pieces that I might be persuaded to part with, so let me know if you are looking for anything in particular.

I often find that I associate things in my life — events, feelings, and so on — quite strongly with music. Some songs remind me of particular times, places, emotions, happenings.
Here are some songs that have been significant over the past year or so.

‘Bottom of Yourself‘ by The Anywheres was a song that I listened to quite a bit at times last year. There were times last year when I felt completely exhausted, drained, unable to go any further, and this song seemed to fit.

So when you get there
Let me know you’re well
I’ll be waiting for your call
And when you get there
Tell me how it feels
To reach the bottom of yourself

Oh, and it quotes Amazing Grace, which makes it even better. Definitely something to listen to during long walks in the middle of the night.

‘Lights of Sunday‘ by Emerald Park is another fairly acoustic, indie song, which I have been listening to a bit earlier this year. Again, something to listen to while walking slowly, at night, to no particular destination. And again, I identify with it as reflecting how I have felt at times.

He’s tired of himself
I don’t think sleep will help
You’re weary and you sleep
‘Cause you’re tired of yourself
When you’re sorry for yourself
You push your friends away
And when you push your friends away
You feel sorry for yourself

Real Synthetic Audio is not a song but a podcast, playing 40 minutes of industrial, EBM and futurepop each week. Driving beats and angry Germans. I got into RSA this last year through my Ukrainian friend Cat, who would often play it while we were working in the lab late at night, night after night. I found it to be good music for keeping oneself awake through the months of 14–16-hour days that is honours.
It is also good for walking fast, or running. It tends to be pretty hard stuff, and there are some songs or entire episodes that I dislike, but I currently have 23 episodes that I listen to on and off. I probably do not listen to it quite as much as I used to, though just a few days ago I was listening to quite a bit.

‘Leaves That Are Green’ by Simon and Garfunkel is a song that I identify with a bit at the moment, feeling that I am getting older without really getting anywhere. Missing people, feeling opportunities slip away.

I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song.
I’m twenty-two now but I won’t be for long,
Time hurries on.
And the leaves that are green turn to brown,
And they wither with the wind,
And they crumble in your hand.

Hello, hello, hello, good-bye,
Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye,
That’s all there is.
And the leaves that are green turned to brown,
And they wither with the wind,
And they crumble in your hand.

My only gripe, though, are the lines “I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song. / I’m twenty-two now but I won’t be for long”. This does not make sense: how old was Paul Simon when he wrote those lines? 21 or 22?
More Simon and Garfunkel songs that I have lately listened to and thought about are ‘Patterns’, ‘Bye Bye Love’ and ‘The Sound Of Silence’.

‘In Christ Alone’, by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty, reminds me of TSCF conferences.

In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

The triumphant final verse is particularly good too:

No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the pow’r of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand.

I bought Stuart Townend’s album ‘There is a Hope’ at the the TSCF mid-year conference last year, I think it was, and there are quite a few really good songs on there, I guess best described as modern hymns.
Some more great songs on the same album, which I think I also remember from TSCF conferences, are ‘There Is A Hope’ and ‘Salvation Song’.

‘Lead Me To The Cross’ by Graham Kendrick (not to be confused with the Hillsong song of the same name) is another excellent hymn, which I remember from the 2006 TSCF midyear conference:

How can I be free from sin?
Lead me to the cross of Jesus
From the guilt, the power, the pain?
Lead me to the cross of Jesus

There’s no other way
No price that I could pay
Simply to the cross I cling
This is all I need
This is all I plead
That his blood was shed for me

The Flaming Lips (or at least, their album ‘Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots’) remind me of working at Innaworks the summer before last, as I first heard them there (thanks to Darren I think). At first I was not too keen on their music, but it definitely grew on me and and I listened to it a fair bit in Memphis last year.

Another song that reminds me a lot of last year is ‘I Am A Rock’ by Simon and Garfunkel. I felt that I could relate to it:

I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.
Its laughter and its loving I disdain.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

And the end, sad, defiant, but still not quite honest:

Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries.

It was something that I listened to late at night, alone in Memphis, anyway.

There are of course many more songs: stuff by Breaking Benjamin, Live, Lagoona, Apocalyptica, Nightwish, Switchfoot, Adiemus and others, and I am really liking The Cranberries at the moment, especially ‘I Just Shot John Lennon’ and ‘I’m Still Remembering’. But I think that will do for now.

Oh, one more: ‘Videotape’ by Radiohead. Another melancholic one, bringing memories of walking home in the dark, tired but not sleepy, dissatisfied. Perhaps it is raining a little.
It is hard to pick just one part to quote here, so do listen to the whole thing, but here is the beginning and the end:

When I’m at the pearly gates
This’ll be on my videotape
My videotape
My videotape

No matter what happens now
I won’t be afraid
Because I know
Today has been the most perfect day I have ever seen.

As usual, Thom Yorke’s voice is amazing in his unique way, and this sparse song demonstrates it well.

What songs are particularly significant to you?

Well, there has been quite a delay since the first and second parts, but this is the third and final post of my series recommending some Firefox extensions that I find useful, and think that you might too.

Here goes.

Google Gears allows web applications to do some things they would not normally be able to do, to do more of the things that it would normally be necessary to install a local applications to do. In particular, it lets web apps (such as GMail and Google calendar) work without an Internet connection by storing data in a client-side database, and also keeping the data for the webpages (HTML, Javascript &c.) locally. It also provides some features to allow Javascript to be executed more efficiently, and — perhaps most interestingly to me — provides access to location information (from WiFi signals, GPS, IP geolocation, or whatever is available). This does require the user to give permission, of course. It is for this functionality that I installed Gears, as it is used by the desktop (iGoogle) version of Latitude.

Ubiquity is a bit difficult to explain without demonstrating it. So, try it. It lets you do all sorts of things in your browser by typing commands. It pops up in front of the current page, and can do things like Googling something, editing the page, posting to Twitter, composing an email, finding a map, and anything else you might think of. The idea is a bit like Quicksilver (or Katapult, or Krunner, or GNOME Do), if you have used any of those, but for the browser rather than the OS, and so with more integration with all sorts of useful web services. It really is quite a cool idea. I tend to use it for quickly looking up in a dictionary words in a page I am reading if I am not sure what they mean, or for Googling things if I want a little more information. It is a bit quicker and less disruptive than opening a whole new tab to do it; I can Google something just by selecting it, then going Ctrl+Space (to show Ubiquity) and typing ‘go’ (for Google; you only need to type enough of a command to distinguish it from the other available commands).
New actions can be added by installing simple scripts (written in Javascript). People have already written all sorts of such scripts which you can install easily, or you can write your own if there is some action you want that nobody has yet thought of.

VeriSign’s OpenID SeatBelt keeps track of your OpenID login, and warns you about Phishing attempts. It will show whether you are currently logged into your OpenID provider, let you login if you need to, and automatically fill in your OpenID when you visit a site using OpenID login. By default it comes configured to work with VeriSign’s OpenID service, but you can easily configure to work with other services (I use it for my OpenID http://q.geek.nz/, which is delegated to myOpenID).
If you use OpenID, it is quite handy. If you do not use OpenID, you should. It saves having to remember so many passwords for different sites, as you can login to any site supporting OpenID with a single account. Actually, there is a fair chance that you already have an OpenID without even knowing it, at least if you use GMail, any Yahoo services, LiveJournal, Windows Live, WordPress.com, or various other services.

Well, that is all from me on this topic. I would be interested to hear what Firefox extensions you, dear readers, use (if, indeed, you use Firefox), and what you think of them. I would also love to hear if you try any of those that I recommended over these three posts.

So there is (or was, I have missed it because I am too slow at writing) a meme going around Facebook called ‘25 things’, where people write 25 things about themselves in a note, and then abuse the tagging system to tag 25 friends who are then supposed to do the same thing. Some people’s things were inane, some interesting, and some quite revealing. Anyway, I am following suit, in case anybody cares to read. Except, I am not writing 25 things, because there seems no good reason for such arbitrary targets.

Comments are welcome of course (appreciated, even). Though maybe it is best to comment in person.

The following things have been written over a period of a few months (I started writing this in January 2009), so my apologies that it is a bit disjointed, and that some points overlap others. My moods have varied a bit over that time too, as happens. Anyway, the things written below were how I thought or felt at some point in the past, and may or may not still be true.

I sometimes (often) avoid talking to people, especially in large groups and when I am tired and stressed, because I find it hard, quite an effort. That does not mean that I do not want to talk to people though; on the contrary I really enjoy a good conversation. If I am non-communicative and you can be bothered I can generally be made to talk. And I will probably appreciate it. Unless I am really trying to do something.

I have two Rubik’s cubes on my desk. And an IBM penguin, with a removable head. Also a rubber band, a peg, a CD, some pens, glue, a few pads, two webcams, a lightbulb (screw fitting), some iron sand in a breadbag (from Wanganui beach, I think), a magnetic strip card reader, a soundcard preamp (with only one channel working), an oscilloscope probe, a bluetooth GPS receiver, various pieces of paper, two clip-leads, my old motherboard and processor (which I should throw out soon, unless anyone wants them), a couple of receipts, and a few other bits and pieces.

If I keep offering to help you, it is probably because I want to spend time with you. Sometimes I get disappointed that my offers to help are not taken up, especially if for no apparent reason. But I guess this is silly.

I want to share more, sometimes. But there are few people I trust enough to talk about things sensitive and important to me, and fewer still with whom I have the opportunity. Perhaps (often) none.

I like talking (listening) to people about things they are passionate about, care about.

I find writing hard, mostly. Sometimes (occasionally) worthwhile. More often necessary.

I am often lonely. Maybe not desperately so, but to some extent. Large groups of people tend to emphasise / amplify this. I guess it is the contrast.

I prefer one-on-one conversations. Maybe 3 people if all are fully involved and engaged. When I am in a happy mood (maybe not quite the best description? A certain sort of mood anyway) I can cope with and even enjoy larger group conversations, but I easily get lost or only participate on a shallow level or sporadically. I tend not to feel really part of the group. Often I find it difficult to hear what everybody is saying, especially if there is background noise or several concurrent conversations. Often I find it difficult to keep up. Sometimes with all this I just give up. When I am tired or not in the mood for it I give up a lot more easily. Large group conversations tend often to be more shallow anyway; mostly joking rather than serious conversation (not that joking is bad, by any means — I certainly like to joke and laugh).

I am not much good at expressing myself at the best of times. When I am unhappy or in a bad mood I tend to be worse.

I have changed a lot in the last two years (or so).

I like hugs, mostly.

I have much difficulty sleeping. This has got worse over the past year. It is partly my own fault, but not entirely. It is 2:30 am as I write this. I went to bed just after midnight. I should get up at 8:00 am but probably will not. Again. (Reading back over this, I do now have to get up earlier to get to work, and so I do get to bed a bit earlier, but I find sleeping hard.)

I really need to buy a new (desktop) computer. I have been planning to do so for over a year now. It is getting more and more of a pain. (Now, as I post this, I have already done so some weeks ago.)

I do not like repeating myself. Read my blog, and Twitter and so on, then talk to me. But please do talk to me! I do really want to talk to people more. Certain people in particular, but most other people too.

I prefer to avoid all mind-altering chemicals. Even ethanol and caffeine. Theobromine is about as far as I go. Not that I have a problem with other people drinking coffee (although I cannot stand the taste), or drinking alcohol in moderation. I think that getting drunk is stupid though, and likewise smoking pot or taking any other drugs. I think it is sad how many people in New Zealand think that alcohol is necessary to have fun, at a party or whatever. My avoidance of alcohol is partly (though not solely) in protest at this.

I often envy people their relationships.

I am not good at / tend not to ask for help. Part of the problem us that when I most need / would want help of one sort of another I tend to be stressed, upset, depressed or otherwise unhappy, and when in such a mood I find it even harder than usual to talk to people. So I tend to hope that someone will ask, and they tend not to (though there are certainly exceptions), and in the occasions that they do I have a bad tendency to push them away.

I type Dvorak.

I like music. Lots of music, both recorded and (sometimes) live. But I am not musical myself.

I do not like missing out on things. If something fun happens and I do not hear about it beforehand, or am not invited, or cannot come, I tend to be disappointed.

I often wonder what other people think of me, in particular what they perceive as my flaws. So do tell me what I am doing wrong; perhaps that way I can improve.

Sometimes, I wish that people would want to come and see me, just to visit, have company, chat, hang out, whatever. Not because they want me to fix their computer, or give them something. Not because I organised something, or because of someone else, or because they need somewhere to crash for the night. Not out of obligation, even. Just because they want to see me, because they might even possibly enjoy my company, and are willing to make an effort for it. Because they feel like it.
Not that any of those other reasons are bad, nor will I reject them. I am willing to help people, to give them stuff that I have sometimes (that is part of the reason that I collect potentially useful things, so do ask), to organise events sometimes.
But really, it would be nice just to talk, to keep company, to scheme and plan and make and joke and build and laugh and create and share and enjoy.

I have a bit of a tendency to play devil’s advocate. Sometimes, if you take a position on something I think not clear-cut or on which I have no strong opinion I will take the opposite position just to see what you will argue, to draw out the conversation. I think that it can be a helpful technique to explore an idea. I may well come out agreeing with you.

That is all for now.

I finally ordered parts for a new (desktop) computer. I have been meaning to do so for at least a year now, but kept putting it off because of being busy or lazy and not knowing quite what I wanted. In the end, I decided upon and ordered:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6750, 2.66GHz for $291.38 from XP Computers
• Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L (Intel G31) microATX motherboard for $125.28 from PC Genie
• nVidia GeForce 8400 GS for $61.43 from PC OnLine Shop
• 2GB DDR2-800 PC2-6400 SDRAM for $32.04 from PC OnLine Shop

Unfortunately the place I ordered the processor from apparently does not have any in stock at the moment, and do not know when they will get more. Others places selling the same model are significantly more expensive, and the closest other model is also quite a lot more expensive. So I guess I will have to wait a while longer yet.

It will be good to have a new machine though, as my current motherboard (I assume) has a lot of problems: the serial port is broken, often when it is cold the graphics card and sound hardware do not initialise properly for the first few attempts at booting it, so I have to keep rebooting until finally it works. Lately it has also been having random crashes at all sorts of times, which may be due to bad RAM or also the motherboard (though I have not tested). And it is a bit old and slow; it was fairly much bottom of the line when I got it about 4 years ago, and even with the new RAM and drives I have got in that time it is a bit of a pain sometimes.

Social interaction is frustrating. Well, attempts at such.
The moon is disappearing. Hidden behind the clouds. Appearing, still blurred. Soft, in a hard world. Nature. Still cold though. Bright and dim. Pink cloud blowing past, oddly dog-shaped. Unshapen now. Light pollution. Quite a breeze tonight, here in this dark playground. Swing, swing.
Too much. The moon fades again. A little dizzy, I walk.
I keep doing this. Over and over again. Still no clue really, how to relate to people. I tend to miss what few opportunities I might have, to … well, talk I guess. To have a real conversation, rather than just basic social niceties. I guess there are exceptions.
This makes me think of the song ‘Lights of Sunday‘ by Emerald Park. Back to the original problem really.
Time to run.
Attempting metaphor, against my better judgement.

You may be aware of Photowalk, a web thing I made some years ago where you can ‘walk’ though areas by going through a whole lot of photos I took, walking forwards between places and turning around at each place to see different angles. Earlier this summer I took a bunch of photos of my old flat, Kelp, and added them to Photowalk. You could start at the front door, or perhaps you would prefer to see my old room there.

Anyway, have a look around. There are 128 photos of Kelp there, of the 441 total.

I decided this afternoon to make some muffins, did not have the ingredients for the flavours I normally make, but found a can of pears in the pantry. So I created these muffins, based vaguely on a recipe I have for orange muffins. They taste pretty good, so I recommend making them. Here is the recipe: Krecipes format, RecipeML or PDF.

As it happens, I have made a batch of muffins each day for the last 3 days. The first batch had frozen raspberries, raspberry jam, a little cinnamon and some dark chocolate (62%, I think), and was constructed based on a recipe for cheese muffins. The second was banana chocolate chip mostly according to a recipe I have, though without enough chocolate. Both could have done with more sugar, and both had to be made with UHT goat’s milk and olivani rather than normal milk and butter. They were alright, but I think this third batch today was the better.

Facebook meme follows.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? My middle name is the same as my dad’s.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Probably 2008. If not then definitely 2007.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Not especially, but I prefer to avoid handwriting anyway.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE LUNCH MEAT? Salami I guess. Though I hardly ever have it any more.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? No.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I am not sure. I hope so.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM? Sometimes.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Not if I had to pay to do it.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CEREAL? Muesli. This recipe.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Of course.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ICE CREAM? I would be most likely to buy chocolate, because it goes well with lots of things or by itself. If I were having icecream by itself though, probably strawberry or some other fruit flavour.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Not sure. Hair? Face? Clothes? I have not really thought about it conciously.

15. RED OR PINK? That depends. I would rather have pink skin than red sunburn. But probably red in many cases.

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVOURITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? Again, that depends how the question is asked. My sinful nature. The difficulty I have sleeping when I want to (at night). Laziness. Not being very good at understanding and interacting with people in various social contexts, especially in groups, sometimes.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? There are many people I miss, some overseas, some who live nearby but whom I do not get to see — or talk to properly, hang out with, whatever — as often as I would like. Jordan Landers comes to mind as one (overseas), but there are others.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST? Not especially.

19. WHAT COLOUR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Off-white shorts with blue thread, no shoes.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Oasis — Live Forever.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOUR WOULD YOU BE? I am not and never will be a crayon. This question makes no sense.

23. FAVOURITE SMELLS? Nice food. Trees, sometimes. Probably others I cannot think of right now.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Not sure. Probably my parents.

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? There was not a specific person, I just noticed it being filled in by various people.

26. FAVOURITE SPORTS TO WATCH? I see no point in watching any sport.

27. HAIR COLOUR? Brown.

28. EYE COLOUR? Brown, I think. Actually, looking in the mirror, maybe more greenish.

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Only when my glasses are broken.

30. FAVOURITE FOOD? I like various foods. Nothing too (spicy) hot though. Bananas are pretty handy.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy endings. Or at least movies that have interesting ideas. Though books tend to be better for that.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’, I think. I do not tend to watch many movies.

33. WHAT COLOUR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Gray, with black arms.

34. SUMMER OR WINTER? What about them? I do not like rain. Sun is nice, but I do not like to be too hot. I guess my favourite weather is a cool, clear day, with some wind but not too much. It is easier to dress up warmly than to cool off when it is too hot. Wind is fun, but a pain when running or biking. It is fine when walking in no particular hurry though.

35. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs are pretty good. I cannot say I have much to judge kisses on. So I guess hugs.

36. FAVOURITE DESSERT? Again, I like lots of desserts. Things with apple tends to be nice, like apple scotch. Most chocolate things are good too. I do not much like whipped cream. Something hot served with icecream is nice. Cakes are good too. A good chocolate brownie is excellent.

37. IF YOU COULD MAKE A WISH? That is not a question.

38. WHAT (in general) IRRITATES YOU? Lack of respect and consideration. Unwillingness to consider other options. Untidyness (that comes into the first one though). Not having enough food. Not knowing what to do, and so being unproductive.

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? The Emperor’s New Mind by Roger Penrose, and The 1972 Annual World’s Best SF edited by Donald A. Wollheim. In a manner of speaking — I started the former almost a year ago and have hardly looked at it since, and I read some of the stories in the latter this summer, but then did not touch it for ages. I used to read a lot, but now tend to get occupied with other things. Like this.

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? My mouse.

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT? I have not watched TV for ages. Two years, maybe? At least not for more than a couple of minutes in passing.

42. FAVOURITE SOUND(S)? Er, music?

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? I am not a great fan of either, so hard to say. Probably the Beatles, but I do not know enough of their music to give a fair judgement.

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Sweden, I think. Though I guess that was home while I was there.

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Probably. For some definitions of ’special’ and ‘talent’, anyway.

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Wellington Hospital.

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK? I have no strong feelings about that, this quiz is not that revealing really. Though if Valerie does it she is likely to give some interesting answers, so I would like to read that. In general, if I know you, then I will read what you write. Within reason.

48. WHERE DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE/SIGNIFICANT OTHER? There is none.

My flatmate Josh recently posted a note on Facebook (which he has since reposted on his blog, so check it out there) basically in support of the proposed amendments to New Zealand’s copyright act which are about to pass into law soon.

Many people have already written about why the changes are so bad. A protest is happening, both online by ‘blacking out’ avatars on Twitter, Facebook &c., and at Parliament tomorrow from 12:00 pm. Some more coverage: The Guardian, NZ Herald, O’Reilly, and Geekzone.

Anyway, I wrote enough of a response to it that I thought it would be worth sharing with the wider world. Here goes, copied from comments I posted on the Facebook note:

“ISPs aren’t going to cut someone’s connection unless they know they’ve been downloading illegally,”
That is not what we have seen in other similar cases, such as the many websites taken down because of false DMCA takedown notices. Suppose that you were an ISP, and had the choice between following a big media company’s request to disconnect a customer who may or may not have breached copyright, or facing expensive litigation for refusing to do so. Which would you choose, in the best interests of your business?

“and let’s face it, it’s not a hard thing to find out for an ISP.”
On the contrary, it is difficult and expensive (even impossible in some cases) to know for sure whether somebody has in fact been downloading pirated material. At the least ISPs would have to install some pretty powerful deep packet filtering, and keep enormous logs of everything all their customers have done over their connections.

This requires a lot of extra equipment, and a lot of space to keep all the data around. Remember also that the Internet is not just the web (HTTP), but thousands of different protocols. And of course as soon as you start using any decent encryption, it is completely impossible for ISPs to determine what you are transferring. All this extra filtering may also result in slower connections, depending on how it were implemented.

“So why do you fear being accused of something you know you’ve done?”
The big entertainment companies are also known to often accuse people of infringing their copyright when they have done nothing of the sort. Some people at the University of Washington did some research into this, and found that it is quite simple to frame anyone you want as having downloaded whatever file over BitTorrent, and in fact received many DMCA takedown notices from big media companies claiming that their (networked) /printers/ were downloading pirated movies (which they certainly were not). Have a look at their site (http://dmca.cs.washington.edu/) and read the paper they published (http://dmca.cs.washington.edu/dmca_hotsec08.pdf). Note that the DMCA takedown thing is aimed against sites claimed to be offering pirated material rather than those downloading it, but Piatek et al.’s approach would work just as well in our case.

ISPs in America and elsewhere, from what I can tell, tend often to act on DMCA takedown notices without much checking, and it is likely that the same thing would happen here. So if you feel like taking someone’s Internet connection out (perhaps you disagree with political statements they are making, or are a disgruntled ex-employee, or a bored teenager…), you could just frame them as having downloaded pirated movies, their ISP will receive a letter accusing them of breaching copyright, and after a few letters they will be disconnected.

So, anyway: sign the petition, come to the protest tomorrow (from 12:00 pm at Parliament, see the Facebook event or the Creative Freedom website for details).

I have over the last couple of months been working on a new website for people to post funny quotes from their groups of friends.

The idea is this: People often like to keep a quotebook for their flat, office, lab, club or other group of friends with funny things people have said, especially quoted out of context. Another approach is writing them up on a whiteboard. The problem with this is that such quotebooks get lost after a while (and whiteboards get erased), losing a part of the group’s history. Also a physical quotebook is only in one place at once, so you cannot show people these funny quotes unless you have it with you.

My website fills this purpose. There are already some websites for funny quotes from IRC &c. (e.g. QDB), but they all seem to lack a social dimension: you can look at funny things people have said, but they are not people you know. A lot of the humour of the sort of quotebook mentioned above comes from knowing the people who said the quotes.

Anyway, I have started making this website (using Ruby on Rails if you are interested in the technical side). You can see what it looks like so far at http://quoteyou.q.geek.nz/, as I have not decided on a proper domain name yet. You can login, create ‘contexts’ for the groups that you are part of (maybe I should just call these groups), and then add quotes to them. You can look up quotes by context or by person. There is an Atom feed for each person, each context, and for all quotes on the site, so you can subscribe to quotes in your favourite feed reader (personally I like Google Reader) or integrate them into other websites.

I am considering some sort of integration with other sites like Twitter and Facebook, though I am not yet sure what form this will take. Suggestions are welcome. I am also planning to let people comment on each quote, so the person quoted can explain what they really meant, or people can laugh at them or whatever.

So, I would like a few things from you, dear readers (assuming I have any readers):

• Ideas for a domain name. All the ones I have thought of so far (quoteyou.com, iquote.com, quoteit.com) are already taken, unfortunately. Can you think of something good that is not already taken? I would like to decide on a domain name fairly soon so that not too many people have to change from the current temporary name to the new one.
• Comments about the site as it currently exists, what you like, what you do not (and why), what could be improved (and how and why). Try it out and see how it works for you.
• Bug reports: does it break, or behave unexpectedly? If so, please let me know, with as much detail as possible so that I can fix it.
• Feature requests: what else should I add? How could it be improved?
• Use it! Create an account, create a context for your flat or office or friends or whatever, add quotes, tell your friends about it.

Please note that at this stage I have not done much at all about the graphic design of the site; a friend of mine is hopefully going to have a look at that soon (though if you would also like to help, please do get in touch).

Please post a comment on this blog post (the original on my blog please, not the copy on Facebook if you are reading it there) with your ideas and suggestions, or email me if you prefer.

I recently discovered that Festival (the text-to-speech software) has a mode for singing. After listening to some of the examples, I decided that the appropriate thing to do would be to get it to sing “Still Alive”, a song written by Jonathan Coulton as the theme song for a video game called Portal. I have not in fact played Portal (I am not a gamer), but I think the song is cool and it works quite well with a synthesised voice.

Anyway, I present to you the results of painstakingly entering the song from the sheet music: Festival singing “Still Alive” (or, if you prefer, the Ogg Vorbis version).

If you are interested in playing around with it, take a look at the XML file I entered to tell Festival how to sing it.

From an article in the ACM TechNews, talking about silicon photonics for optical interconnects:

Sun engineer Ashok Krishnamoorthy says his company prefers to not have the light source on the chip, or even in the data center, because cooling is a problem.

Er, what? Taking the company name a bit too literally, perhaps… d-:

I went walking. And running. I wrote, oddly and surprisingly. I did not set out with this in mind.

What follows is what I wrote. Each break is a new page. The only editing I did was to correct a few typos and spelling mistakes, and to make the first two ‘pages’ (lines) make sense. Much of this is unlikely to make sense. Here it is anyway.

[I] probably just want attention. Selfish.

[I am] lonely in a crowd.

How can I rely on people?

Everybody is talking at once and I cannot hear you and it is so noisy and I cannot hear myself think and argh and I want to escape and hide inside myself and run away and run with you and listen to good music, brain clearing music, and just one person talk at a time, please?

Running, running, running away, running away from myself?, running to stay sane, or am I insane? Lonely, if only I had someone to run with (with whom to run) — but what about God? God, be with me, be my strength, be my purpose, my reason, my hope, my salvation, my motivation; make me want to get up in the morning, to work, to keep going, to love people, even when it hurts (especially when it hurts, so much). Let me not be so selfish; let me serve you, not me; show me your will God! Oh God, be there, be with me, be my light. Light in a dark world, hope among the hopeless, reliable rock among unreliable people, committed totally. Be my strength, not my own; be my reason. Give me your peace, oh Lord! At least let me sleep.
Thankyou, Lord, that you are ever-loving, never-forsaking, unchanging, steady, all-knowing, perfect, flawless, faultless. Talk to me! Be with me God! Now. Always.
I need to get out, out, out, away. But lonely, unsatisfied, never satisfied…
I need you God!

I have never kept a diary. But thoughts, so many thoughts… they never get anywhere… just stew, a big stew, subdued by music, broiling at night, bubbling… nowhere to go…
But why secrecy? What is there to be afraid of? Embarrassment? People realising stupid and silly I am?
Nobody knows what goes on inside my mind (God knows). Nobody really knows me, not all of me (God knows).
My thumb is sore. Cold. (Also my hand.) Back into my pockets.
Passing Karori Normal School now. Normal.
Normally I listen to music. To numb my brain. I like music. My thumb is still sore. I need to stop.
Internal monologue. Monologue.
What am I looking for? What am I really looking for?
Subway. New World, Woolworths. Mobil. There is a car there. Someone going into the building.
I like RSA.
Cold thumb. No need to use the pedestrian crossing lights at thus time of night. No need to press the button.
Typing on this is slow. Especially with a sore arm.
Unedited. Uneditable.
Needing a title. Musing? Walking? Midnight? It is not quite midnight yet. 11:51 pm. Early.
A little cold. Ocassional cars, clearing as the night goes on. This is not a weather forecast.
Should turn back. Work. Sleep. Not tired though. Only tired when I should be awake, sleepless when I should be sleeping. Need to be. Need?
What do I really need?
Should talk more. I should. Cold hand. Legs are fine though. Keep walking. Always keep walking, keep on going.
“A little support is all Sophie needs”. To shine. To shine — how does Sophie shine? Who shines? What do people see? Keep walking. Walking is easy. Life is hard.

New page. Turn the page. A new leaf, what does that mean?
Writing. Writing is hard. Writing properly. Talking is hard. Harder? It depends.
Need to talk. Need to write. Really talk, more often. What is a real relationship? What do friends do anyway? Laugh. Chatter. Shallow. What dod God intend?
Sore thumb. Sore hands.
A playground. I gave been here before. Fun. Fun? What is fun? What is happiness all about?
12:02 am.
Lights.
I really should turn back.
“Karori Park Sports Club & Cafe”
Turning around, turn a new page.

Back. On the left side of the road now. The same side. Walking is getting cold, time to run for a bit. My nose runs. Have to stop typing. This is addictive. Odd. Stop.
Mind. Mine. A title? Back to running.
Warm. Hands still cold though, cannot run with hands in pockets. Well, jog. Breathing heavily. No music to drown it out. Quiet. Peaceful. Here comes a motorbike. And a car. Run, again.
There is a tradeoff. Sleep and sanity. Not that I can sleep.
Need to pray.
brb
Call on God’s name. God is great. Creator of all. Lord of all.
Am I sane? Who is sane? Raise your hand please. How do you do it? How is it done? Really? Just do it.
Time to run some more. Downhill.
There was a car accident here. Last year? Familiar shortcut. From 2007. Not going through that way this time though.
More running.
Nope, just walked.
Oh, I do not understand people (changing topics).
Past the bottom of Northland Road (no, not toad). Familiar route. This is all familiar though. Habit.

Passing a florist. “Valentines Day”, come buy love. Time is running out. Make your time. I fear rejection.
Hello, world. Hello world. Do I know the language? Really? Or just a few textbook examples. A ’social interaction’ phrasebook. Look up your social conventions. Niceties. Never really understand though. I just think I do, occasionally. Flukes. Beginner’s luck. Unrepeatable. Such a shame. Only memories, only a few. Glad, I guess, but bittersweet. Thankyou, but ever again? How? What is the trick?
It is warmer here. Even my hands. Nearly home. I do not want to sleep though. Need to. Responsibility.
Songs going through my head. “Satellite…”. Cannot remember the words.
Walking down the last hill. Home straight. Home. What is home really? What is a home?
No need to check the letterbox. I checked it just a few hours ago. Restrain the habit. Unlock the door.
Shadows. “We see dimly…”
12:50 am

Continuing on from the first part, I list here some more Firefox extensions which I find particularly handy. These ones will probably be useful to a wider range of people.

Adblock Plus makes the web a less irritating place, by blocking all the annoying banner ads around the place. Especially flash ads. Note that after installing the extension you will need to enable a ‘filter subscription’ before it will actually block anything. Just go into the preferences dialog, select ‘Add filter subscription…’ on the Filters menu, and you are away (or more to the point, the ads are away).

Delicious is a ’social bookmarking’ site. You can bookmark web pages you like, and (if you like) share them with other people. For example, see my bookmarks on Delicious. The main advantages I find of Delicious over the usual bookmarks system provided by most web browsers are the ability to organise bookmarks using tags rather than folders, and that my bookmarks are available wherever I am rather than tied to a single computer — I can add a bookmark while I am at work then check it when I get home, access my bookmarks from my phone, or wherever I am with an Internet connection. Anyway, the reason for including Delicious in this list is that they provide a Firefox extension for integrating Delicious bookmarks with your web browser. This makes it much easier to use than having to go to their website each time.

In a similar vein is Read It Later. Again they have a website that you can use by itself, but it is much more useful with the Firefox extension. The way it works is to add a little button to the address bar for you to mark the current page as something interesting to read later when you have time. You can then close the tab, and when you later have time to read something, the page will be there in your reading list. Once you have read it it is removed from the list, so it is like a sort of temporary bookmarks system. Again, like Delicious, the list is stored on their server so you can access it from whatever computer you are using.

There will be one more post to come in this series, covering a couple more Firefox extensions which I recommend.

Does anybody want any of the following, all for free?

• Dell Dimension V350 with 350 MHz Pentium II, 256 MiB RAM, 8 GB hard drive (I think, may be larger), onboard sound, onboard graphics, modem, network card if you want. I can also provide a keyboard and monitor to go with it, and probably a mouse.
• SparcStation IPX
• SparcStation 10
• 2 external SCSI hard drives, to suit either of the SparcStations. SCSI cables included.

I also have a bunch of Sun cables and other gear to go with the SparcStations, which I am happy to throw in. A monitor cable, serial cable for the IPX, AUI-Ethernet adapter for the IPX, audio cables and adapters, an external speaker, probably other things that I have forgotten about.

If you are interested please get in touch ASAP; I am moving flats soon and would like to get rid of this stuff before I have to move it.

I use Firefox quite a bit. The main reason for this, rather than using a browser faster and more integrated with my desktop (such as Konqueror, which I also use quite a bit and like) is its many extensions. I thought it might be helpful to others to list here some of the Firefox extensions that I use, that you, my readers, might also try and find to be useful.

I started writing this blog post quite some time ago (on 2008-12-13 in fact) but then got distracted by other things, so I have decided to split it up into several parts and post what I have written now. I will post more parts later about more Firefox extensions which I find useful.

Anyway, here goes, in roughly the order I started using them.

First up is Firebug. Firebug was for some time pretty much the only reason that I used Firefox, and it is an indispensable tool for anyone doing web development or design, or just curious about how websites are put together. It lets you browse and edit the HTML document tree in real time, see the how CSS is applied to it, map HTML elements to the view rendered by the browser and back, edit the CSS and see the affects as you go, debug Javascript, and more. If you are doing any sort of web development and have not used Firebug, you should install it now.

Operator is a handy extension for doing things with microformats on webpages you visit. For example, if you see an event mentioned on a website (and marked up with hCalendar), Operator will give you an option to add it to your calendar. Similarly you can save people’s contact details to your address book, look up addresses you see on web pages on online mapping sites (like Google Maps), and so on. It can be extended by small ‘user scripts’ written in Javascript to support more microformats, and more services to use them with.

In this video, which I am reposting from a blog I came across, an American comedian named Penn Jillete discusses his view of Christian proselytism, following an encounter with a Christian at one of his shows. Penn seems to be fairly strongly atheist, but you may find what he has to say here surprising. Listen and see; let me know what you think.

I will be heading out of Wellington sometime on 2008-12-31, to spend a couple of nights in Palmerston North with my cousins up there. I will then be going camping with my parents and brothers for a week or so, at Castlecliff (in Wanganui) and Mangaweka. It would be nice to catch up with anyone else who knows me and is around the area (in Palmerston North, perhaps). Are there any such people, who would like to catch up? If so, get in touch. I may not have much Internet access while I am away, so it would be best to contact me before I leave, or else perhaps SMS.

Of course, I am all for catching up with people in Wellington too, though I have not had much luck with that so far.

People are important.
People are unreliable.
God is reliable.

Discuss.