Sorry, my article about long division and the future of information technology will have to wait until the weekend. Busy day today; our bill run normally goes out on the 2nd of the month, but that's a Saturday this time. Plus a short week due to Easter equals busy Pixy.

That and one of my rare migraines-that-actually-hurts. Bah. Normally I get the auras but not the headache, but every now and then the full package. Not crippling the way some people get them, but spending half the morning feeling queasy and flinching at loud noises is still no fun.

Anyways, I'm off to play with Nucleus, and then maybe whack a monster or two in FF X-2 before bedtime.

Update: Installed Nucleus using Fantastico, discovered it wasn't the latest version, went and updated Fanstastico, discovered that it still wasn't the latest version, deleted it all and went to bed. Well, posted this update, and then went to bed. Will have went to bed. In a minute. Really.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:38 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Division is 3½ times as hard as multiplication.

More on this subject, with luck, tomorrow.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:39 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

I'm busy reabsorbing the blogosphere after a mostly-absence of a month, and in the course of this endeavour, I wandered over to Wizbang. Usual stuff - the unfortunate Terri Schiavo (skip), Bonfire, UN scandal, various little items, and then I ran into this:

Do I have to draw a picture?

Since the Oozer Zealots don't read or think, typing any more, is pointless. Maybe a picture will sum the whole thing up.

This puzzled me for a moment. Okay, from the labels on the graph, he's talking about evolution, but Oozer Zealots as a term for Creationists is a new one on me.

Then I realised that Oozer Zealots is actually a derogatary term for people accept Evolutionary Theory. Paul - the poster in this instance - is arguing the Creationist point of view.

Well, I went into the comments to see what people had to say about that, and to add my $2 (partly inflation, but mostly because I have a lot to say), only to find that the comments were closed.

Trackbacks weren't closed, though, and Paul receives a well-earned spanking from Pharyngula. Even better, the Commissar offers these two detailed posts, followed by (mostly) informed and rational commentary, explaining where Paul is wrong, why he is wrong, and how we know he is wrong.

Paul does not help his case with this response:

You are an idiot.

And a paranoid idiot at that.

Now I'm a closet bible thumper?

Way to advance an argument.

Back in December, I wrote this:

My aim is to promote Science and Civilisation, and it's a selfish aim. I want the products of Science and Civilisation for myself: Peace and wealth and effective medicine and a comfortable home with air conditioning and a fancy computer and an interesting and productive job. The people who attack Science and Civilisation are trying to deprive me of all that, and I won't allow it.

The Creationists pushing their fraudulent spin on Evolutionary Theory; the Post-Modernists denying the concept of Objective Truth; the Islamists trying to do both at the same time; the historical revisionists; the Psychics; the "Alternative Health Practitioners"; the academics who see their role being not to teach but to brainwash their students into leftist zombiehood; the "free speech" proponents who want to stamp out speech they don't like; Mysticism and Obscurantism; the spammers and scammers and hackers who are doing their level best to destroy the Internet; the nanny-state idiots and the totalitarian hardliners who try to legislate problems out of existence: These and more are what I truly oppose.

The only way you can maintain a Creationist belief system these days - if you are an adult in a developed country - is through deliberate ignorance. Maybe you don't care much about evolution. That's not so bad; not everyone needs to be a biologist. Still, it is probably the single most significant scientific theory ever formulated, and you should care. But if it's not your thing, and you have chosen not to study it, and you've gone into, say, accounting or civil engineering, that's not a problem.

But that doesn't apply to Paul. He's not only chosen to ignore the facts that are at his fingertips, but to spit in the face of the people who are patiently trying to explain the facts to him. He has inflicted ignorance upon himself, and wishes to inflict it upon others.

No.

There are valid questions regarding Evolutionary Theory, but Paul asks none of them, merely repeating the tired old Creationist talking points. You know how you feel when you hear the same old Democrat talking points, refuted countless times, trotted out once again? Well, yeah. Only this is worse. This is Science he's messing with. This isn't just politics, this is real. More even than democracy, this is the bedrock of our civilisation.

Fortunately, in science, what Paul thinks doesn't matter. No working biologist cares one whit what Paul has to say about the matter. No paleontologist is going to lose any sleep over his posts at Wizbang. No geneticist is going to have an upset tummy at lunchtime today.

There's a little saying popular among scientists and engineers: It's so bad, it's not even wrong.* What this means is that what someone has said is so confused that it is neither true nor false, it simply doesn't make sense.

That's where Paul finds himself from the scientific perspective. He is attacking one of the best supported scientific theories we have, from a point of ignorance, with claims long since refuted. Neither Creationism nor it's stepchild Intelligent Design are scientific theories; nor indeed do they have anything to do with science apart from distorting and misreporting scientific findings.

I'm not going to offer a point by point refutation, because it's been done. If you're interested, there is no better place to start than the Talk.Origins Archive. The works of Stephen Jay Gould are also a wonderful and accessible source of information (though he had his disagreements with other biologists on the fine points of evolutionary theory). There is an unending wealth of information on the subject, much of it wonderfully written (and illustrated!), a joy, a delight of learning. All of which Paul has rejected.

In that post in December, I remarked in closing:

So I shouldn't want for subject matter.

* Attributed to Wolfgang Pauli

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:32 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 I've almost stopped reading Wizbang because of that...
I know the futility of trying to point out facts, I used to lurk on talk.origins.

Posted by: Kathy K at March 31, 2005 12:05 AM (TXTKm)

2 You said:
"Then I realised that Oozer Zealots is actually a derogatary term for people accept Evolutionary Theory. Paul - the poster in this instance - is arguing the Creationist point of view."
Both of those are 100% incorrect.
I realize that you came in in the middle of the movie but you are 180 degrees out of phase.
#1) Oozer Zealots are people who believe that everything we know about evolutionary biology today is 100% correct and there is absolutely no chance we are wrong in any way. They further believe that they should not take the time required to listen to anyone who might think we still have many unanswered questions, they should just attack and call people bible thumpers. (After reading this post, you can see your local mirror for an example of this behavior.)
#2) If you had a brain you would notice I specifically argued AGAINST creationism multiple times.
Do you even give half a shit about being right? geeze

Posted by: Paul at March 31, 2005 01:42 AM (zvRKM)

3 I love it. "Paul is wrong" but you have no clue what I said. And you talk about me?

Posted by: Paul at March 31, 2005 01:44 AM (zvRKM)

4 Paul is a Creationist stalking horse. He repeats all their nonsense. He seems to have numerous admitted Creationist commenters that go right along.
"I specifically argued AGAINST creationism multiple times." Deep in comment thread, sure. Never in a headline post.
He uses their tactics repeatedly.
Paul, if you comment here again, please let us know why why said "no inter-species evolution. NOT ONE documented case?" Then when confronted with a list of HUNDREDS of transitionary fossils, you mis-characterized it as '30 or 40 questionable' fossils? Which ones were questionable?
Paul is a liar, a coward, a lazy propagandist, and a serial comment-deleter.

Posted by: The Commissar at March 31, 2005 04:56 AM (FHWvc)

5 Paul, as the Commissar points out, you made the claim that there are no transitional fossils. This is utterly, hopelessly wrong, as you could find out if you did 30 seconds of research - or even listened to the people trying to explain this to you.
It is also one of the most common Creationist talking points.
If you're not a creationist, why are you using their methods and their arguments - both completely discredited - against their targets? Why are you acting exactly like a creationist?
Oozer Zealots are people who believe that everything we know about evolutionary biology today is 100% correct and there is absolutely no chance we are wrong in any way.
And who exactly believes this? You do realise that some biologists disagree with some other biologists on some points of Evolutionary Theory?
Yes?
Well, the point remains that Evolution happened, and is happening right now. That's Evolution the fact. Evolution the theory is our explanation for how and why and when and where evolution happens, how fast it happens, what it can do. There are questions about Evolutionary Theory. There are no questions about whether Evolution happened (at least, not sensible ones). It did.
They further believe that they should not take the time required to listen to anyone who might think we still have many unanswered questions, they should just attack and call people bible thumpers.
I said you are arguing the Creationist point of view. You are. I said all your claims are refuted in one handy place, Talk.Origins, and they are. I noted that the Commisar had refuted your claims in detail, and he has.
I didn't call you a bible thumper. I didn't even call you a creationist. What I did say, wasaul - the poster in this instance - is arguing the Creationist point of view.AndThere are valid questions regarding Evolutionary Theory, but Paul asks none of them, merely repeating the tired old Creationist talking points.But what I think really has you ticked off is thisFortunately, in science, what Paul thinks doesn't matter.You are arguing from total ignorance. If you wish to dispute the findings or theory of evolution, you can damn well learn something about it first. Because until you do, what you say doesn't matter. To science, anyway, and to anyone who does know something about the subject.
Unlike politics, it's not about opinion, it's about facts. Fact is, you're wrong - at best. Present Evolutionary Theory may not be right about every detail, but it's right.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at March 31, 2005 07:57 AM (+S1Ft)

6 Paul is just an example of the most disturbing trends in modern argument; to deny that you're making the points that you're trying to make, and that you don't support the position you support. The Soviets had a term for it: Disinformation.
Not that Paul is the only case of this, it's very widespread, and is historically represented in numerous cases, though it first made its appearance in religion and continues to flourish there, as well as in pseudo-religious ideologies such as Communism and Fascism.
The reason for this is that the more ridiculous or dangerous your argument, the more, and larger, lies and deceits in which it must be cloaked. If you want to control someone, tell them you're liberating them, if you want to steal from everyone, tell them you want to give to everyone.
This method has worked for thousands of years, and continues unabated today, with full and enthusiastic support from those with minds too weak to see the truth of the matter, or those with an agenda that is only supported by such methods because to tell the truth would be death.
People who have to use lies and deception to further their position are easy to spot though, because they will never, ever, let themselves get drawn into an argument based on pure reason and logic, and will always respond to a reasoned argument with insults and unsopportable "facts" that they make up as they go along, or draw from equally dubious sources.
I left the following post on wizbang, I can't wait to see Paul's response, though I think it will most likely get deleted:
I don't know about lighting striking ooze and all that, though electro-chemical reactivity is easily proven and well established, but the Big Invisible Man in the Sky theory (read: myth) is a tough one to prove as well, especially considering that religion makes no sincere effort whatsoever to connect beliefs with reality. (I should have also added here that there are literally hundreds of creation myths.)
But let's suppose for a minute the creationists are right, that there is a Greater Power that made everything, what then? Did it abandon us or does it choose to limit its control or influence over us? Or, an even more scary proposition, what if it is in control of everything? Of the three scenarios; no involvement, limited involvement, or total contol, the second and last are most disturbing, because given the evidence of the sad state of human affaits, God is a sadistic psychopath who gets off on schadenfreude. If the first is the case, then He's nothing more than a deadbeat parent, so screw Him, amen.
By the way, Paul, I dare you to reply without using juvenile insults, though given your previous posts, if you can't insult me, you'll just delete this post and ban me.

Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at April 01, 2005 04:52 AM (0yYS2)

7 P.M.
I'm working thru a question, on the origin of life question. Absent evidence, science admits that it does not know. As an unproven, but not disproven, hypothesis, perhaps God did it.
Creationists then argue, "You cant explain how life started, but I can, therefore I win."
I want to write up a short discussion of the logical fallacy they're employing. Any suggestions?

Posted by: The Commissar at April 02, 2005 12:32 AM (jNXzj)

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Posted by: ya pidoras at July 25, 2006 12:10 AM (NePLc)

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Brought to you by a web server you all know and love,* it's the Skeptic Society Web Forum. Their main site (hosted on a different server) is at Skeptic.com.

* Little hint: this link also works.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:28 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Do not read The Bleat at work this week.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:37 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 Heh heh -- Who knew James had a naughty streak?

Posted by: Andrea Harris at March 29, 2005 01:03 PM (/p8zx)

2 Um... anybody who's read his work?

Posted by: Wonderduck at March 30, 2005 03:42 PM (jUpa5)

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How did it come to this?

High Summoner Yuna (that's me), destroyer of Sin (that's Sin, the giant turtle thing, not sin in general), bringer of the Eternal Calm, saviour of Spira, turning the Fayth of the Final Aeon, the most sacred place in all the land, into a monkey farm...

And I forgot to save the first time, and I had to go and do it all over again! Darn monkeys.

Yes, kids, I've finished Final Fantasy X and moved on to Final Fantasy X-2 (which in the way of these things was discounted by 50% three days after I bought it).

I could have finished FF X much sooner if I hadn't gotten distracted by side quests and stat-maxing. And if you haven't played it already, I'd recommend that (if you do come to play it) you don't get distracted by side quests and stat-maxing. Okay, so the battle with Lady Yunalesca was easy exactly because I'd been running around collecting goodies and building up my team... But the battle with Yunalesca is supposed to be one of the high points of the game, not Splat! Oh, she's dead.

Not entirely my fault, though: In the international version of the game, they've introduced new monsters - the Dark Aeons - and if you're approaching the end of the game and want to go back and collect something you've missed, you'll run into these bastards, and they're flippin' unkillable. I looked up one helpful guide on the net, and it read like the recipe for rabbit stew: First, be about twice as powerful as you currently are. Then...

I didn't need to face down the Dark Aeons, as it happens. They don't really add anything to the game, and since they are actually more powerful than the final enemy, they rather distort your expectations and goals.

Pfui.

Anyway, that said, Final Fantasy X is the best computer game I've played in some time, and has probably the best storyline of any game I've played. I can see why people are (or were) so fanatical about it - there's always a Yuna or three in the cosplay contest at any anime convention. After a visually impressive (if slightly odd) start, it really sets its hooks into you. By the time you've reached the end, you've spent fifty or more hours with the characters, and seen them sacrifice friends and love and eventually themselves in order to save the world. It's not a happy ending either, nor should it be; but it's a good ending.

It's a pity Yuna's such a cabbage. Late in the game she's developed into probably the most powerful force in all of Spira (with the exception of the Dark Aeons, who I will pretend don't exist), and she's still a complete... Cabbage.

Final Fantasy X-2 takes up where Final Fantasy X left off. It's the first true sequel in the series, and for good reason. When you've saved the world, what else is there left to do?

X-2 answers this by being a much more light-hearted game than X. It's like one big side-quest. It doesn't have the same depth or impact as the original, but having Yuna running around dressed as a moogle handing out balloons, or the great chocobo chase (darn thing got away!), or the monkey farm incident, or the massage scene... Ooh. Aah. Oh! Yes! Yes! There! YES! Crunch!

Ahem.

It does have a certain absurd charm. And there's also a more serious game in there, which I'm just now getting to.

If you like role-playing games and haven't played Final Fantasy X, do. If you liked Final Fantasy X, you might also enjoy X-2, but it is a very different game. The combat system takes some getting used to - it's real-time rather than turn-based. The skills system is also completely different, and again takes some getting used to. X-2 has something called "dress spheres", which are basically like character classes in Dungeons and Dragons. You have a Warrior dress sphere, a Thief dress sphere, a Dark Mage dress sphere and so on. Each of your characters can eventually have all the abilities from all the dress spheres, but can only have one sphere active at a time. Switching dress spheres in the middle of a battle is awkward at first, but you are rewarded with a classic mahou shoujo* transformation sequence. Though they don't get naked.

And the game has Yuna wearing hotpants and packing pistols.** She's still something of a cabbage, though.

Anyway, the point is, in as much as this has a point: These games are running on a Playstation 2, which has a 300MHz processor. If the significance of this doesn't strike you, I'll be exploring it in more detail in Part 2, coming soon to this blog.

P.S. I'm back.

* Japanese, literally "magical girl". Think Sailor Moon.
** And optionally, pistils. It's a pun, not an error. The FF translation team should be spanked.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:27 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 If you're enjoying games with plot I'd suggest hitting the Xeno series of games (Starting with Xenogears (if you can find a cheap copy somewhere) then if it catches your interest move on to the Xenosaga games. Similar basic story, but being retold from the beginning).

On an entirely unrelated note... I don't suppose, in your quest to collect literally every bit (or byte) of anime available online, you've come across a Pretty Sammy TV soundtrack? Finding a soundtrack for anything more than a few years old is nigh impossible, but I was just curious if you knew whether such a thing ever even existed.

Posted by: yaminohasha at March 30, 2005 02:39 AM (SOx9v)

2 Yaminohasha - I put a link in the "url" field here (click on my name) - it goes to an English page listing the works of the voice actress for Sasami, listing specifically the "Pretty Sami TV Original Soundtrack"... Is that what you were wanting?
(No, I don't have the slightest idea where to find it, but at least that gives you a name and manufacturers number for it.)

Posted by: Balentius at March 31, 2005 10:26 AM (eeB2q)

3 I have two mini-CDs from Pretty Sammy, but they're from the OAVs, not the TV series.
The TV soundtrack was released as a CD, but I've never seen it for sale anywhere. And I've looked, because Pixy Misa's theme song from the series is hysterically funny.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at March 31, 2005 08:15 PM (+S1Ft)

4 Thanks for the help. At least now I know it exists. I've got a friend heading to Japan this week, and I told him to keep on the lookout in used bargain bins and what-not. Somehow I doubt his chances.
The tracks I want to hear in their entirety are the ones that play when you first see Misa in the Pixy Misa/Cinderalla story in the extras of Pretty Sammy Debut (at least, that's the place I've found it to be the easiest to hear), and the full version of the two ED themes.
Have you seen the music video Chisa Yokoyama did with the "Pretty Coquetish Bomber" song? It's pretty funny in a strange way (or strange in a funny way).

Posted by: yaminohasha at April 01, 2005 02:14 AM (SOx9v)

5 I just randomly stumbled across this, but after playing Yuna's third incarnation (and the second incarnation of YRP) in Kingdom Hearts II, Yuna is still a cabbage. A miniature sized cabbage in hot pants with pixie wings, but still a cabbage nonetheless.
And the title cracked me up. Isaaru and those gosh darn monkeys. I was looking for pictures of Isaaru too, but found something much more entertaining. Thank you.

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Apple have told me, in polite and carefully chosen words, that they are not responsible for people who get bitten by their abrupt price changes.

I have replied, in likewise polite and carefully chosen words, that I do not find this response entirely satisfactory.

We'll see.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 06:32 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

They cut the price of the iPod by a third.

Grrr.

You can't win.

On Wednesday I ordered a new monitor because I noticed it had come down in price. $770 before Christmas, and only $450 now.

Of course, the reason it's so cheap is that they don't make them any more.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:59 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

While cleaning out the computer room at the old office, I kept finding ten volt, thirty amp power supplies. I have no idea why we'd even have one ten volt, thirty amp power supply, let alone a whole collection of them. Certainly none seemed to be attached to anything.

I put them aside for later. It's not every day you trip over a box full of ten volt, thirty amp power supplies.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:09 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 Come to think of it, didn't Tesla's Death ray run off of 10 volt 30 amp source?
Hmmmmmmm.
:-D

Posted by: tommy at February 20, 2005 12:06 AM (VCRgB)

2 I've been wondering where I put those.

Posted by: TallDave at February 20, 2005 10:34 AM (oDnE7)

3 And you never know when you might need one to save the earth from destruction...

Posted by: Susie at February 23, 2005 04:14 PM (RVXEO)

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Posted by: ya pidoras at July 24, 2006 08:48 PM (hNGYv)

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We moved office today. If you've done this, you know what it's like. Brief period of chaos, then everything gets fixed and you settle down in your new quarters and things go on much as before.

Yeah. That's if you're (a) not the lead technical person in the company and (b) it's not a phone company.*

All in all, it actually went smoothly enough. One of the frame relay links isn't linking, half our outgoing lines didn't go out for a few hours, and half our direct numbers didn't get switched across at first. Fortunately, it was the half we don't use much, so we only realised this when we found that we couldn't receive faxes any more.

Oh, and of the three redundant internet links ordered for the new office, a total of zero were installed on time. That led to a certain amount of scrambling.

And my carefully assembled package of rack-mount nuts and bolts got misplaced, and when I unpacked at the new site I found I had a grand total of two of the little clip-in nut thingies, out of several dozen. I have an electrician coming to install some patch panels at the new office tomorrow, and he's going to have a hard time doing that unless I manage to scrounge some more nuts.

* Admittedly, it's a small phone company, but the principle is the same. When you're a phone company, you can't just close for a couple of days.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:48 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 ...he's going to have a hard time doing that unless I manage to scrounge some more nuts.
Heh. Hehe. Hahahahaha.
I think I'm going to take quoting out of context as my new hobby.

Posted by: Jim at February 18, 2005 11:28 PM (tyQ8y)

2 My sympathy.
Try moving an ISP that handles every major bank on a tourist island with an in-season population of over a million (and yes, we did move in-season). That was fun.
Humming the tune to "Night Moves" the whole time...
And sleeping for about 24 hours after we were done.

Posted by: Kathy K at February 21, 2005 11:26 AM (fHxb2)

3 And we still had screams from late-night ATM users, even though we did most of it in the wee hours. Sigh.

Posted by: Kathy K at February 21, 2005 11:32 AM (fHxb2)

4 Did you find your nuts?
If they are those clippy things you need for HP racks then I have some in the bottom of my toolbag and I can drop them off...

Posted by: Ozguru at February 26, 2005 09:08 PM (SxdA3)

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Posted by: ghweagads at May 30, 2011 12:16 PM (M5+Rm)

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So here I am, browsing through the contents of my iPod. Look, I have three separate copies of Bananarama's Nathan Jones: The extended version from their album Wow; the version from the Rain Man soundtrack, which seems to be the same; and the compress-the-hell-out-of-the-dynamic-range version off their Greatest Hits. Which sounds like dog dirt by comparison.

Now I'm over the formatting debacle, I'm a lot happier with it. But why can't iTunes rip music from multiple CD-ROM drives at once? Huh? Why, Apple? Why?

(I have six versions of Glenn Miller's In the Mood on there too. It's not that I'm a Bananarama freak... Or not just a Bananarama freak.)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:04 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Apparently, it's not supposed to take fifteen hours to format an iPod. It should take maybe two minutes. If it does take fifteen hours, try the following:

1. Your iPod display will be showing a blinking "Do Not Disconnect We Really Mean It" message. Ignore it, it's gone insane. Unplug that sucker.

2. Remember how you plugged it into the USB port because the Firewire port was acting up? Well, the reason the Firewire port was acting up was that the cable that runs from the little USB/Firewire panel to the motherboard has come loose. Plug it in properly. And for good measure, reinstall that video capture card you removed before Christmas. And see if you can get rid of some of the dust bunnies that are multiplying down there.

3. All done?

4. Good.

5. Plug the iPod into the Firewire port. The computer will recognise the iPod, but it will not work, because you do not have the drivers installed.

6. Put the CD back in the drive, and install the drivers. This will prompt you to format your iPod. This time it will actually work.

7. After this, the installation program will die because you already have iTunes installed. Ignore it; this doesn't matter.

8. Reboot.

9. Waiting for the computer to come back... Waaaaiting....

10. Right, it's back. Now fire up iTunes. Click on the Synchronise iPod option or whatever it is. Realise that you're already late for work and you're trying to dump 4500 songs on your iPod. It's fast, but it's not that fast.

11. Leave iPod sitting on your desk at home, and head off to work, where you will spend your entire day moving computers from one end of the office to the other.

12. Your iPod is now ready. Enjoy.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:11 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Well, that blasted iPod is still formatting, so here are some short book reviews.

The Algebraist, Iain M. Banks

In Brief: A cast of badly-drawn P. G. Wodehouse characters searches for a map of the fabled London Underground, in space.

Banks does what many thought impossible, and produces a bad book, or at the very least a dull one.

Century Rain, Alastair Reynolds

In Brief: Disaffected Slashdotters, deprived of their favourite website by an all-consuming database bug, return to the Paris of 1959 in an attempt to exterminate the human race.

While there are some strong elements to this tale, the background setting and the motivations of the major parties make no sense whatsoever. Features nano-tech handwaving.

Ilium, Dan Simmons

In Brief: Descendents of humanity find themselves at a loose end, decide to while away the hours holding historical re-enactments and All-Solar-System Summarise Proust Competitions.

If possible, the background for this one makes even less sense than Century Rain. It's like a dumb-plague infected the universe of this novel some time back; I can't see any other way for the situation described to have arisen. Again, features nano-tech handwaving and a general disregard for the laws of physics.

Bah. There's a new C. J. Cherry out, Destroyer, book one of the third Foreigner trilogy, and it's apparently quite good. Doesn't seem to have reached Australia yet, though.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:49 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Browsing through the little booklet that comes with my iPod while it formats, I come across this goodie:

You cannot switch from using iPod photo with a Mac to using it with a Windows PC (or vice versa) without erasing all data on iPod photo.

This of course explains why the miserable piece of crap decided it had to be formatted before I could use it. (It's still bloody formatting.)

Look, Apple, I have a PC and a Mac. You want to sell Macs to PC owners, you have to make the iPod work with both. None of this insane reformatting bullshit, it has to just work.

Now stop sitting on your thumbs and fix it.

(I deleted the first version of this post, in which I was rude.)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:16 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mmmm. Sixty gig of iPoddy goodness... Charging... Charging...

Shiny.

The packaging is superb, too. I wonder if they learned that from the Japanese, who are fanatical about presentation.

And little details: My Palm T3 charges from the dock, which is a USB 1.1 device, and requires a power adaptor. Without the dock and the power adaptor, no recharging. If you want something different, you have to buy it. There's a cable that will let you sync and recharge from any USB port, but (a) it costs extra, (b) no-one has it in stock and (c) there's no online Palm Store in Australia.

The iPod comes with USB and Firewire cables which will both recharge and sync the device, plus a dock which can connect via either cable, plus a power adaptor which will let you recharge without a computer. (It's a mains to Firewire adaptor, which is probably less generally useful than a mains to USB adaptor, but I'm not going to quibble.)

Tonight, I drop 30GB of (entirely legal) MP3s on it. Yay!

One but: Apple Australia, you need to get a new courier company. It took a week for my iPod to get from Frenchs Forest to my office in the city. (Frenchs Forest is a suburb of Sydney.) Same day delivery might not always be possible, but a week?

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:43 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 Cripes, 60 gig!?! Even if i ripped all of my CD's, i don't think i'd have much more than ... ok, 30 gig, but still, that's a lot of songs.

Posted by: tommy at February 10, 2005 03:03 PM (VCRgB)

2 Double cripes, that's the size of the HD in my laptop. Yeesh.
:-D

Posted by: tommy at February 10, 2005 03:04 PM (VCRgB)

3 I've ripped most of my CDs, and have a bunch of stuff I bought on EMusic, and it adds up to about 30GB. And the 40GB iPod really only gives you 37GB, so by the time I finished ripping the CDs I have now, it would be full. Which would be bad. So 60GB.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at February 10, 2005 03:52 PM (dd1tv)

4 oh, aye, well that makes sense. And now you have an excuse to get some 30 more CD's worth.
:-D

Posted by: tommy at February 10, 2005 04:15 PM (VCRgB)

5 I'm coming over all envious and stuff.
The closest thing I have to a portable MP3 player right now is my Axiom pocket PC. Not quite up to snuff as a storage device.
Hmmm...how long til my birthday...

Posted by: Jim at February 10, 2005 09:20 PM (MDLz3)

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One would think that if one were a major telecommunications company and one had a router that crashed every day, and that there was no explanation for this behaviour and that it had been happening for months, and was causing considerable difficulties for one's customers, that one might take steps to correct the issue, and that one might also consider notifying one's major re-sellers.

Of course, one would be wrong.

Oh, and one might advise one's service staff not to fob off customers by blaming the problem on line filters. This applies doubly in instances where there are no line filters installed.

And you know what? You know what? It's bloody hard to write consistently in the first person indefinite subjunctive.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:14 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 One would agree...

Posted by: Susie at February 08, 2005 10:43 PM (MYr06)

2 If one understood, yes.

Posted by: Ted at February 09, 2005 01:11 AM (blNMI)

3 Indeed several would, more or less simultaneously.

Posted by: triticale at February 09, 2005 02:46 PM (8QhBe)

4 It would seem so.

Posted by: Dean Esmay at February 09, 2005 10:54 PM (zNte6)

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I needed a new pair of jeans. And I speak as a guy here, so when I say I needed a new pair of jeans, I mean that there were real live holes in the old pair, and in inconvenient places to boot.

So off I trek to the local jeans store (Jeans West, Centrepoint), track down the style I want (they rename the styles every six months just to keep the customers on their toes), and grab two pairs in my size because then you get $20 off.

Only as it happens they're marked down just now - to $29.95.

I bought six pairs.

Which probably means that I'm going to lose a leg sometime soon. Or rather, since that wouldn't actually prevent me wearing the jeans, I'll grow a third one.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:53 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 There are so many third leg jokes that I don't know where to start.
So I shan't.

Posted by: LeeAnn at February 04, 2005 01:10 AM (vqSdN)

2 The third leg would at least explain the bruises to 110% of your body ...

Posted by: Debbye at February 04, 2005 05:16 AM (gFiTt)

3 I don't buy it. You're from down under, which means you'd fall *up* the stairs, right? Nice try, bucko.

Posted by: Ted at February 04, 2005 09:23 PM (blNMI)

4 Haha these are the side-effects of living in a country that it's upside-down. You develop a weird sense of humor and.... a third leg P

Posted by: Cleopatra at February 05, 2005 06:34 PM (UiLFJ)

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Posted by: ya pidoras at July 24, 2006 11:53 PM (GzPTT)

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What a fun week it's been, what with the tile coming off the roof and the ensuing two days of heavy rain - and don't try to tell me that's not cause and effect - and with the Munuserver getting whipsawed between the hackers who wanted to use it as a spam relay and the ones who just wanted to kill it completely, and me with a bill run to get out and our customer service system deciding to make a bid to become poster boy for the GIGO principle, and at the same time having to work out why someone three thousand kilometres away with no internet access doesn't seem to have Outlook Express installed on her notebook. I should have known it was going to be one of those weeks when I started it by falling down the stairs on Monday morning and winding up with third-degree bruises to 110% of my body.*

Oh, and I'm still trying to recover from the three disk failures I had two weeks back.

Let's not do this again real soon, okay?

* Yes, 110%. I have aches where I didn't know I even had places.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:40 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

In my previous post, I acknowledged that I was attacking strawmen, at least to some degree; I had made up some comments to represent the arguments of the Left which weren't actual literal verbatim quotes, as such.

I needn't have worried.

Little Green Footballs links to a report of a democracy protest in Spain - an anti-democracy protest.

And Glenn Reynolds links to Steve Stirling's fisking of comments at Democratic Underground - comments that are, if anything, even more extreme than the ones I made up.

My strawmen have retired with their feelings hurt.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:01 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

It's perfectly possible for two reasonable, intelligent, well-informed people to disagree. That's because people are different, and find themselves in different situations, so they have differing values. A woman with children values stability and safety, because she wants a good environment for her kids to grow up in. A young man might value opportunity more highly than stability; he is willing to take risks because he has much to gain and little to lose. The goal of society is to find a way to reach a compromise where individual needs are met as well as possible. In a healthy society each individual must give a little, but stands to gain a lot more - that's why humans have always lived in social groups.

But the fact that reasonable people can disagree does not mean that people who disagree with you are necessarily reasonable. This is borne out all too clearly by the protestations of the left against President Bush. They usually run something like this:

You say "Bush speaks of the United States' mission as ending tyranny on the planet (and he really means it!). " Yes, and we all are shuddering about the potential consequences of that intent. You mistake his simplistic worldview and duplicity for idealism and enthusiasm. He surrounds himself with "yes-men" (and women) demanding loyalty instead of working for the greater good. I thought the Reagan years were bad, these years have been Orwellian.

You make it sound that we hate Bush because of his "Forrest Gump" mentality. No, it's because his agenda and particular Orwellian vocabulary have mezmorized so many millions into this "Team America: F***, Yeah!" attitude. People in opposition to Bush's actions are perhaps reacting to the average American's disinterest in global affairs and how the U.S. government interacts with the Middle East, Russia, China, Latin America, etc etc. So when these countries/areas have issues with the US, all these sheep we call citizens do is scratch their heads and go "Waddit we do, sheez? Stupid foreign weasels, they're just jealous of my 54 in Television and yellow Hummer..."

Bush and co take advantage of this simplistic, inward looking attitude to force an immoral and power-hungry agenda, and that's where we draw the line. Maybe we should take a page from Heinlein and define citizens as those people that can look beyond their own selfish, narrow needs and consider the health of society writ large. Everyone else, you're just civilians that shouldn't vote if you can't be bothered to consider life outside your suburb.

But you're wrong on why people hate Bush. It isn't some post-modern disbelief in idealism or freedom or democracy. It's that many people just didn't and don't think Bush was or is sincere when he talks about idealism and freedom and democracy. Remember, for many months a huge majority of America - over 90% - coalesced around Bush because of his response in Afghanistan and in zeal in fighting Al Qaeda and Islamofascism. I was one of them. But when he started talking about Iraq a lot of people said, "Iraq?" Why Iraq? Why not finish the job fighting Al Qaeda and marshalling this massive support we have around the world to stamp out Islamic terrorism where it undoubtedly exists, like in supposedly friendly regimes like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia? Sure, Iraq was no friend of ours, but it never seemed to be a mortal threat. And it was when the great justifications for placing Iraq at the center of the next phase of the fight against Islamic terrorism began to fall apart - no WMD, no operational ties to Al Qaeda, just as the Administration's post-war plans turned out to be so hopelessly optimistic as to puzzle any sincere supporter of the Iraq invasion, many many good-hearted, patriotic, idealistic freedom-loving Americans started to ask, "What the hell is going on?" But instead of any recognition that some of the planning was off Bush planted his feet in the ground. His commitment to democracy seemed so much more about personal honor, political power and sheer stubbornness than a real, humane sense of the historic challenge of the mission. Liberals gave up on Bush after 9/11 not because he was an idealist, but because he clearly wasn't.

The Taliban was bad. They oppressed women, supported terrorism, and gave sanctuary to Osama bin Laden (who is also bad). Plus they blew up those giant Buddha statues.

President Bush got rid of them, and now Afghanistan is a democracy - with women not only voting but getting elected. This is good.

Saddam Hussein was bad. He ruled Iraq as a tyrant, ruthlessly crushing any opposition. He had people pulled off the streets to be tortured or murdered on his slightest whim; he employed men to rape his female prisoners. He also had appalling taste in art.

President Bush got rid of him, and tomorrow the Iraqis go to the polls to elect their new government. This is good.

But, says the left, but, this is actually a bad thing because he is not an idealist. Without that idealism, he is forced to take on the world as it actually is, so his bringing freedom to 50 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq counts for nothing.

The logic of this position is difficult to untangle, but this is how it looks to me:

Axiom: America bad.
Axiom: Conservatives bad.

Postulate: Anything done by bad people is necessarily also bad.

Therefore: If President Bush speaks in idealistic terms, he must be lying.
If he frees entire countries from tyranny, it must be from base motives, and he deserves only scorn.
If people in the government support him, they are only in it for money and power.
If voters support him, they are stupid.

Said Michael Moore:

The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win.

We have declared a bitter war against democracy and all those who seek to enact it.

Democracy is also based on the right to choose your religion, and that is against the rule of God.

Americans to promote this lie that is called democracy ... You have to be careful of the enemy's plots that involve applying democracy in your country and confront these plots, because they only want to do so to ... give the rejectionists the rule of Iraq. And after fighting the Baathists ... and the Sunnis, they will spread their insidious beliefs, and Baghdad and all the Sunni areas will become Shiite. Even now, the signs of infidelity and polytheism are on the rise.

Oh, people of Iraq, where is your honor? Have you accepted oppression of the crusader harlots ... and the rejectionist pigs?

For all these issues, we declared war against, and whoever helps promote this and all those candidates, as well as the voters, are also part of this, and are considered enemies of God.

We - America, Britain, Australia, Poland, and more - we, personified if you need that by President Bush, we are fighting in Iraq and in Afghanistan to create, restore, and preserve freedom. Our enemies are fighting in the name of oppression, so long as they are the oppressors. It really isn't hard to work out.

But the Left will never give any credit to President Bush for this; he is a bad man (see axioms 1 and 2) so the war of liberation in Iraq is a bad thing.

He freed the people of Afghanistan, who are now rebuilding their country under a democratic government with universal suffrage.

Only because Halliburton wanted to build a gas pipeline!

There is no gas pipeline.

He freed the people of Iraq.

We only invaded Iraq because of the WMDs!

It was never only about WMDs.

But it was really just a lie so he could steal their oil!

The oil hasn't been stolen. Instead, enormous amounts of money have been spent to help rebuild the country.

Give him time, he'll steal it.

The elections are tomorrow.

Oppression! Forcing democracy on an unwilling people!

Needless to say, I got no takers.

And still the shrill cries arise from the swamps. Months after a successful election in Afghanistan, and with voting in Iraq just hours away, they still make their complaint. The war is bad - even if it brings peace, prosperity, and freedom to the liberated people - because President Bush is bad. If good things come from bad motives, then they are really bad things.**

The invasion of Iraq was wrong, was always wrong, was based on greed and lies, has done nothing but harm, and we should leave now. America cannot be trusted, not now, not ever, and our enemies [Remember, the ones murdering election workers?] are upstanding and noble.

50 million people are free.

But, says the Left.

No. No buts. No more fucking buts. If I wanted that, I'd read Wonkette.

Tomorrow. The election in Iraq is tomorrow.

(Moonbat quotes courtesy of The Belgravia Dispatch. The uncannily lifelike strawmen are of my own devising.)

* Yes, I am aware that Zarqawi is a Jordanian. If you want to track down an genuine Iraqi-born insurgent and find out his particular reasons for blowing up policemen and election workers, I'd be quite interested in the answers.
** The corollary, that bad results arising from good motives are really good, is too complex (and too stupid) for me to deal with right now.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:12 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

My new 8x DVD burner really is twice as fast as my old 4x model. When was the last time that happened?

Of course, I note that Pioneer now has a 16x model selling for less than I paid for my 8x (which was in turn much cheaper than my 4x). Fortunately for those of us on the upgrade treadmill, that's likely to be it, because at higher speeds than that the discs tend to explode.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:49 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

The air conditioning at the office has failed. Bleah. Bleah.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:35 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 It must be one of those new RAID-5 air conditioners.

Posted by: Rossz at January 24, 2005 04:46 PM (n5Jbg)

2 Sound like a good time to visit Indiana--we are having some of those negative temperatures with which you are so unfamiliar...

Posted by: Susie at January 25, 2005 08:32 PM (vKvLT)

3 Please, help yourself to a metric gigaton or two of our Illinois snow.

Posted by: TallDave at January 28, 2005 04:50 AM (2VQaM)

4 ya pidoras, pizu chujie doors, zaabuzte moi url - http://greatpharmacies.com/ a suda pishite pisma i spamte - admass@pisem.net

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Posted by: creditcard at February 08, 2011 04:30 PM (LJS6t)

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Well, I've declared today a computer-free day and turned off my Linux box to let it think things over.*

In the meantime, here's a question for all my loyal Munuvians: When they make MuNu: The Movie, who will play you? And feel free to make nominations for the other Munus.

* Metaphorically. To put it another way, I got annoyed and went off to read Gene Wolfe's The Knight.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:02 PM | Comments (33) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

So, my other RAID-5 array has dropped a disk, and refuses to raidhotadd it back into place?

And my Windows system is oscillating between 30MB per second and 3, for no apparent reason?

Hmm. Still waiting for the other shoe chicken to drop.

I'm kind of impressed with one thing: CuteFTP is getting 35MB per second between the Linux box and the Windows box. Some of the time, anyway. Yay for Gigabit Ethernet, boo for pretty much everything else.

Update: Oh there we go. The drive went clunk and died again.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:43 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

The response from the 'froup was along the lines of "It should work, and you don't have a whole lot of choice, do you?" So I bit the bullet and hit the button.

And it worked.

I'm sure I've just arranged for some seriously bad karma for myself in the near future, but right now I have my fansubbed anime* back and I'm happy.

* Yeah, it was my anime drive that went south. So you can appreciate the importance of this.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:47 AM | Comments (16) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)