Editorial
Icons
As you might have guessed I love icons. So much so I wrote a spider to find them. Here you can find all the icons it found.
Sharing an office with Will
The other day I looked at a photo of me and Will going to a summer school in the first year of my PhD. My god I had a lot of hair back then. The only think that has changed since then is my regular screaming matches with Will. I decided to keep a diary for eventual use in court.
We are all individuals now
I am starting to get tired of the Apple drones thinking they are cool and are "thinking different" by all listening to their iPods at the bus stop. I wonder if the cord on the ear phones is strong enough to strangle them.
Python screengrab code
I was getting annoyed at the pause in X during a screen grab (which happens every 30 seconds) so I wrote my own screen grabber in python. I am starting to really like the language (especially for little tasks like this).
import gtk
screenshot = gtk.gdk.Pixbuf(gtk.gdk.COLORSPACE_RGB, gtk.FALSE, 8,
gtk.gdk.screen_width(), gtk.gdk.screen_height())
screenshot.get_from_drawable(gtk.gdk.get_default_root_window(),
gtk.gdk.colormap_get_system(), 0, 0, 0, 0,
gtk.gdk.screen_width(), gtk.gdk.screen_height())
screenshot = screenshot.scale_simple(400, 300, gtk.gdk.INTERP_BILINEAR)
screenshot.save ("screenshot.jpeg", "jpeg", {"quality":"20"})
Are you happy about your self?
What is your biggest fear? Why do you feel compelled to do things you know are foolish? Why do you care what people think? As with many things in life this is one of a small number of contributing factors into creating a complex system which is our supposedly conscious self. I do believe that men and women are very different in this respect. Men and women think different things about their friends of the same sex. Both are instinctively driven to believe others are competitors yet wish others to treat them as their comrades. In a way you can excuse this two faced behaviour as a condition a lot of people suffer from. Ultimately the most repugnant thought is that other people think as badly of you as you are capable of thinking of others.
Starting with the men, there is a in built culture of homophobia (or rather "homosexophobia"). Groups of heterosexual men are disgusted at the promiscuity of their homosexual cousins despite their own hypocritical behaviour and fantasies. It seems fine to think of women as sexual objects but the thought of you being a sexual object becomes offensive. Even predatory women cannot cause such an effect on men due to the fact that men can't imagine and even don't want to know how women think. Knowing how a person thinks of you quickly becomes disconcerting and even frightening. In the end why are heterosexual men so scared about any sort of contact with gay men? The answer is that we know what we are thinking when we are in contact with people we are sexually attracted to. We don't like to be thought of that way.
Women are not much better in that respect. They are self obsessed for a good reason. They see others as competitors and will think badly of them. They will call them fat, ugly and cheap in their heads. This in-turn would make anyone paranoid. If you are thinking these things about other people then they surely must think them about you. The people I found most comfortable with themselves where simply too gentle (or too ignorant) to hate others. In the end God (or whoever wrote the ten commandments) got this one right and "Do onto others as you would have them do onto you" does not just mean the things they will find out about but if you don't like being thought of badly, stop thinking badly of others.
History
Jo Ebergen: "History does tend to repeat itself"
Ivan Sutherland: "Yes, just like any other random sequence"
Unix compression tools review
I took 13 Unix compression tools and put them through their paces.
Coding under Influence
I have sacrificed myself inorder to review intoxicating substances for my fellow geeks. Coding under Influence explains which drug is the best for coding.
Will and Badgers
Ever wondered what will's head is composed of? Well here is the answer.
Charlie uses
I thought it might be nice to thank all the people who wrote all the tools I use every day.
Thank you
Are you happy now?
Me: <scratch> <scratch>
Sooty: "Stop that!"
Me: "What? ... scratching?"
Sooty: "What ever it is thats making you happy."
Are you listening?
Sooty: "You could at least pretent to be listening!"
Me: "I am pretending!"
Sleep
I have just returned from Vancouver.
On the way there I was up for over 48 hours. On the last flight I
started hallucinating but still couldn't sleep. On the way back I
decided to switch to UK time and after not sleeping on the plane when
I got back at 10am I tried to stay up all day until my normal bed
time. I did make it but unfortunately I the proceeded to sleep from
11pm till 4pm the next day. (That's 17 hours! Must be some kind or
record)
Which now means that tonight I managed to only sleep till
3:30am. I am now considering giving up on this
resynchronising business and waiting
until I have to go away again in a weeks time to LA.
I often wake
up at 4am and can't get back to sleep. This is mainly due to
excessive drinking but also due to my other addiction which is
Beachcomber
Bay and the lovely Casey-Lee
Jolleys</drool>. There is not much that can make me get up
at 6am to watch a Channel 5 program.
USB powered everything
When I was making the webcam the only way to get the power out of
the PC was to do this.
I was wondering why there is no external power connectors for things
such as modems, hubs, external zip drives etc. I concluded that none
of the companies would agree on the standard and there wouldn't be
that much demand for it anyway.
A couple weeks ago I decided to
buy a tiny ikkle network hub. I went for the Gigabyte
SW005 and as a very cute feature it not only comes with a power
adaptor but also with a usb power lead. As you can very easily use up
two extension leads to plug in two computers along with all their
peripherals I thought the idea was great.
And what happened to my
theory that there simply isn't any demand for power from a PC
connections? Well how far can I get from the truth. You can now get
lights,
toothbrushes,
heat blankets and hot drinks cups
(note it works on Mac as well as Win!). All all wasting valuable USB
ports (only one or two on a laptop).
So what does Mr "No one
will want those" have to say? I think they will start making USB
power only connections on planes, in hotel bathrooms, and coffee
shops. Everything will be USB powered. One of my least liked
connectors powering everything and me being frustrated because I
can't tell which way is up on the things. Ah well, at least I don't
have to carry those plug converters.
Chairman Miau
Chairman Miau has been overclocked!
Voices
Tibi: "The voices tell
me to kill and destroy"
Tomaz:
"Fuck! You need help!"
Tibi:
"What? You want to help me kill and destroy!"
Sex education
Me: "You must have had
sex education by the time you were thirteen"
Will:
"No I did German instead"
Hungry?
Me: "You know what's
great when you're hungry?"
Matt:
"What?"
Me: "Food"
Matt: "Yeah"
War, Ignorance and Politics
Charlie Says:
"If you have fleas,
Then shoot the dog."
Japanese Flash
Show me, Show you, KikoMan, KikoMan
Dr. Fun
Aliens afraid of shrimp?
Sooty: "You know those
aliens who live in under sea cities?"
Me:
"I am aware of their work."
Sooty:
"Do you reckon they are afraid of shrimps who scuttle across the
floor while they're watching TV?"
Monkey Nuts
Sooty: "Stop eating
those damn nuts! If you eat any more you will turn into a great big
monkey nut!"
Me: "What
would you do then?"
Sooty:
"I would feed you people until you turn back."
ASCON 2002: Lawrence Lessig
A great talk by Lawrence Lessig at ASCON 2002. Listen
to it.
He discusses the history of copyright and its impact on today's
society. To be taken with a pinch of salt but very interesting. Makes
a refreshing change to see a lawyer trying to make the world more
fair and free rather than only caring about money.
Go to his
website.
AARRGGGG its war!
This is a real popup I got today. This is fantastic stuff! Its like being in the 50's and digging nuclear bunkers but with a deeper capitalist twist. Do you want to kill your children? Luckily in the UK we have a ton of these pills (Iodine) to be distributed to the public.
New
logo
harlie's
website has a brand new logo. As of yet I still have not raised the
£200 required to register it but as usual all donations are
happily accepted. To donate, please send food (Aldi produce only
please) or cash to the usual places. Although I have not registered
it yet, please do not steal my harlie
logo. I must inform you that once I have enough money I will start an
aggressive registering, patenting and copyrighting program. Do not
link to harlie
logo. Any reproduction of harlie
logo including but not exclusive to digital, paper, crayon or oral
will be prosecuted. I do not permit any discussion of but not
restricted to harlie
logo. Any complaints should be addressed to spam@dev.null.
Thank
you.
CharlieAid
Help
with the CharlieAid fund! Charlie has recently had the misfortune of
having a plastic cup develop on his chin, and the intricate surgery
required to remove it is very expensive. Please help with our
`Rock-a-thon' to raise money to return Charles to his original
cupless state, and to promote awareness of Chincuppery. Dig deep, and
give anything you can -- note that we don't just accept used £20
notes with non-sequential serial numbers, we would be grateful for a
broad range of items ranging from digital cameras to CAD software
products. Please note that, however genuine the intent, we cannot
accept donations of cups of any kind, as this would enrage us and is
tasteless. Please contact us at the address below to arrange delivery
of donations, air-hockey tables, arcade machines, etc. Thank you, and
good day to you.
c b at c s dot m a n dot a c dot u k
Am I allowed to express my opinions?
<RANT>
A few weeks ago I was on slashdot reading and
replying to comments on the asynchronous computers story.
As
someone who researches asynchronous logic I get a little excited
about stories like this but also feel this strange compelling desire
to help morons try and fight their inability to find the other side
of the coin.
I sent a few posts explaining to people that maybe
the stuff that they have learned about at school electronics and thus
making them the world expert of the matter and dribble on on slashdot
for hours explaining why everyone is wrong might be in fact NOT the
only method of doing things!
But even worse than the typical
slashdot geeks who recall their school education and believe in
nothing else than what "Mr Smith my IT teacher said" are
the sad geek wannabees.
You know the ones. The ones who have no
idea about the topic but are very very keen. Unfortunately due to
their total lack of engineering skills they didn't make it as
engineers.
But luckily their five minute memory span was exactly
enough to remember and regertutate what someone told them is going to
be the "next big thing".
Having no recollection of what
happened more than five minutes ago helped them to convince their
managers that the future is in: Java, Intraweb, .net, C# or anything
else some marketing presentation decided to stick in their heads.
After all not only are these people easy to convince but they
themselves are very convincing to others. You cant get a better liar
than someone who doesn't know they are lying.
Unfortunately there
is enough of these trend followers that you can get the whole world
to do anything you want. Lets say you want the world to only use my:
OS, ID cards, mechanically recovered chicken burgers ...
Spend
all your money on the marketing presentation. And the product? Well
who cares about it until its accepted anyway? By then you will be
rolling in it so you will be able to spare some cash that way.
Except for one little thing. Patents, patents and more patents.
You might not know what your product is yet so your patents will have
to be very broad.
So how do you convince the world with no
products? That's the simple part, once you have gained a critical
mass of idiocy then the others will fall with the rest.
Who cares
if your product has already been done? As long as you have enough
people believing in you the little people thinking you might be wrong
get destroyed on the sidelines.
Trying to convince the people at
the top who have never been wrong to not go down the route some
marketing presentation has showed is quite difficult. And probably
impossible. But I stupidly try again and again.
So when I read a
message like "What about company X? I went to their presentation
and they told me they were the best so I will tell everyone else."
where I have also been to company X's presentations and read about 10
of their papers and found their approach to be based on marketing
hype I cry.
Unfortunately I didn't just cry. I was feeling stupid
so I decided to inform the party that company X was pants and their
contribution to the real world was somewhere between nil and
confusion.
They then replied showing exactly what I feared. They
did just go to one presentation and their whole perception of the
real world was based on the one maybe two hours exposure to this
company's corporate strategy.
This is where I should have
stopped, why should I care if there is one less moron with his foot
stuck in an animal trap? After all when freed hey will just jump head
first into another one.
But something inside me said 'This person
cares, they want to know the trough, tell them, tell them'.
So I
explained the company's basis and why its wrong. I didn't stop there.
I also stated my belief that they seem to also apply the business
strategy stated above.
As a little aside. I advise you not to do
this. Although companies will state this fact to future investors as
these company models make a hell of a lot on money they don't want
everyone else to know.
So phrases like "We have developed an
aggressive patent program" are ok. It tells investors that their
business will be profitable but doesn't reveal any wrong doing.
But
phrases like "Patent now think later" are not ok. They have
spent considerable amount of time trying to confuse everyone into
submission and do not appreciate their drones being shown the light.
So how do you stop someone badmouthing your company strategy
online? Well you have two options.
The first is to ask the person
directly for evidence of their opinions and if they cannot produce
any then ask them to withdraw their statement.
The second is much
more interesting. You don't have to threaten the person directly.
After all a lawsuit will cost you more than the person is worth.
You
simply plead ignorance and claim you thought the person was speaking
on behalf of the company where top people sat down in a meeting and
after several hours of deliberating they decided to send a comment on
a random web site.
So I was wondering where can this stop? Your
ISP or boss will not want any hassle and will readily give in to any
demands from external threats. Am I allowed to express my disgust at
any companies dealings? What if tomorrow I write something stating
that I do not approve of some large OS company's monopoly, can they
threaten to stop supplying the university with software unless some
student is silenced?
What opinions are you allowed to have? Can I
write a critical book review? Complain that my bus was late? Claim
that my chicken burger tastes like crap?
But I'm not bitter. Its
not as if any of this has happened. And companies like that don't
exist. Why would good people believe and suck up to them anyway?
These aren't even my opinions, at least I don't think I am
allowed them. They sure as hell are not opinions of my employer.
</RANT>
Opinions and Views
This website should be treated as a personal website. All opinions
and views expressed are my own and not approved by the department of
computer science nor by the University of Manchester.
Additionally
any views expressed outside of this website should also be assumed as
my personal opinions which I might have no evidence to support.
I
do frequently make mistakes and often lie (That's right! I was not
brought up my a herd of wild mountain postmen).
"Work"
I'm a student at University of
Manchester in the Amulet
group. Here I have been given a wodge of money to do "research".
Since September 2001 I have spent my time researching sitting about
and doing fun things. I have rediscovered my passion for soldering
and electronics gore.
Oh yeah and I do have some ideas on
counterflow, bit-level, asynchronous / self-timed, dual-rail, early
completion / evaluation, early acknowledge pipelines.
About Charlie
After being abandoned at birth Charlie was adopted by a herd of wild mountain postmen. Growing up on the rough streets of Nottingham he learned the vital survival skills of circuit design and croquet. After joining the circus for a number of years as a wolf child act Charlie decided that the best way to conquer the world would be to do research for large international conglomerate. After earning his first million he decided to suddenly spend it all on cheap lap dancers and feeding his growing gummy bear addiction. Spending the next 3 years on the streets and on one night consuming several gallons of Dandelion and Burdock, Charlie found himself a shadow of his former self and decided to return to hardware design. For weeks Charlie could be seen in Canal Street offering to sell his body to hardware designers wanting a gimp to optimize their schematics for food and a few precious cans of D&B. His big break came when optimizing a credit card for several undisclosed multi-national banks. Charlie seized this opportunity and infected all cards with the deadly anti-capitalist virus. Unfortunately due to a missing semicolon the virus instead of stopping the users from pointless expenditure rendered any card holder uncontrollably shopping until they run out of money. Capitalism was safe for another day but a secret group of communist countries hired Charlie and paid him in Aldi vouchers and all their latest 486 computers he wanted. These computers would be delivered to a skip outside the Computer Science department where he was pretending to work on asynchronous technology while secretly working of the anti virus. The anti virus had to be written in a way that would not arouse suspicions from the capitalist mind-controlled co-workers so a programming systems that on the outside appears to be a set of web pages was developed. Using this programming system Charlie is able to write 1000 lines of code per day but make it look as if he was innocently browsing the web. Later he was joined by Chairman Miau to star in a low budget cop TV series.
Sooty (Shuet-Ying) is my girlfriend and this is her website.
I'd love to receive E-mail from you but:
Much though I love receiving unsolicited bulk email, I am now so overwhelmed by the number of people who want me to look at their email offerings that I am forced to charge $50 for each unsolicited bulk email or offer to "buy this report" I receive, plus an additional $100 bandwidth fee per email for HTML or attachments, charged on your behalf to your ISP if you do not pay within 30 days or, in the case of non-US companies or individuals, to your country's US embassy. I also charge $50 for testing your "unsubscribe" utility, which is a great bargain since so few of them work, and I know you want yours to operate properly.
Please don't claim I "opted in" or "subscribed" to your bulk email. I didn't, and don't try to claim I did, because we both know you're lying. "Someone else must have subscribed you" is not valid, either. If you choose not to use a double opt-in (subscription confirmation) system, you are being rude to people who get your people without asking for it, and you should be grateful that I am charging you a little money in return for pointing out the problem so you can correct it instead of letting you keep on being stupid until you get black holed or your ISP cuts off your service. And if you sell/sold any of my personal information, including my email address, as part of any kind of sales or contact database without my express, written personal permission in advance, you must pay $5 royalty per copy sold, minimum $500. It's my name and information, pal, not yours. Capice?
All charges are "plus $80 per hour track down and collection fees," and do not include court costs, so when you get my bill please pay it promptly.
If you cannot abide by these Terms of Service,
do not send me unsolicited bulk email. If you choose to send me
unsolicited bulk email, you accept these terms automatically.
Remember, you are the one who initiated the transaction, not me. I
did not ask you to send me unsolicited bulk email. (If I did, it
wouldn't be unsolicited.)
Original concept by Robin
Miller