The Penguin Baseball thingy seems to keep disappearing from the web, so I snarfed a copy...

And here it is!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:28 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 um, a couple of things - first your code seems to be showing through a bit ... second, is this an even further souped up version?

Posted by: rob at January 27, 2004 01:41 AM (kXZI6)

2 Sorry, I screwed up the code a bit.
Yes, this is version 3, with extra-super-aerodynamic pengis!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 27, 2004 01:44 AM (jtW2s)

3 Cool! I hit one of them suckers 766.3 yards, or feet, or kilometers, or somethin'.

Posted by: Tiger at January 27, 2004 10:40 AM (qWgy0)

4 That's pretty good, but try skimming them along the ground!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 27, 2004 10:57 AM (jtW2s)

5 Dang it, now I'm addicted to this game, and I still have homework to do!

Posted by: CD at January 27, 2004 06:04 PM (23BBG)

6 woot!
1198!!11!!!1

Posted by: yaminohasha at January 28, 2004 04:32 PM (MdGaG)

7 1212.6
And yes, pengi do have much better groundspeed than airborne aerodynamics. Though it's almost worth it to watch them auger in.

Posted by: Light & Dark at January 31, 2004 07:11 AM (Hrm9v)

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I didn't post anything today because I was spending quality time with the grandkids.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:10 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

This is a long weekend for me, since January 26th is Australia Day. In honor of this, Australia's 103rd year as an independent nation, and inspired by Jen[Pete]'s post on 100 Years Ago, I've decided to try a little experiment. Please bear with me, as this may get a little weird.

Let's get the ball rolling, shall we? I'd like you all to welcome my granddaughter Trixie, who will be taking over blogging responsibilities for the rest of the weekend.

Take it away, Trixie Misa!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:32 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 You have a granddaughter? What did you do, have children when you were in preschool?
I have this mental image of you as being around... say 30, and still quite the party boy, albeit brain-heavy party boy.
Granddaughter. Zowie.

Posted by: LeeAnn at January 25, 2004 10:18 AM (HxCeX)

2 Uh, LeeAnn...

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 25, 2004 02:23 PM (jtW2s)

3 She's such a wonderful writer too. You must be very proud of her.

Posted by: Kathy K at January 26, 2004 12:08 AM (Yz3zK)

4 I am! And I remember when she was - uh, will be - will have been - will have had been just learning to walk. She was/is/will be such a cutie!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 26, 2004 12:18 AM (jtW2s)

5 Bugger me for a gullible, speed-reading loon.
*shameful abashment*

Posted by: LeeAnn at January 26, 2004 03:47 AM (HxCeX)

6 What's she look like? Can we see her...never mind.

Posted by: Victor at January 27, 2004 04:53 AM (L3qPK)

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Your objective is simple: Widespread misery

Your motive is a little bit more complex: To show them all

Stage One:

To begin your plan, you must first seduce a Wealthy Heiress. This will cause the world to sit up and take notice, stunned by your arrival. Who is this Evil Genius? Where did they come from? And why do they look so good in classic black?

Stage Two:

Next, you will steal the Pacific Ocean. This will cause countless hordes of Mad Scientists to flock to you, begging to do your every bidding. Your name will become synonymous with fuzzy bunnies, as lesser men whisper your name in terror.

Stage Three:

Finally, you will covertly move your Needlessly Big Weather Machine, bringing about pain, suffering, the usual. This will all be done from a Underground Secret Headquarters of Doom, an excellent choice if we might say. These three deeds will herald the end, and the citizens of this planet will have no choice but to elect you their new god.

Trust us, it'll all come together in the end.

Get your own evil plan!

(Found at Not Quite Tea and Crumpets who got it from our very own Rocket Jones. I read that one, Ted, only I didn't have time to try all the links. Really I did!)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:55 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 Excellent! rubs hands together
I've always wanted to know an Evil OverlordTM.
Just remember the good advice in the Evil Overlord's Handbook.

Posted by: Linda at January 24, 2004 07:46 AM (p434g)

2 Once you've stolen the Pacific Ocean, where do you hide it so that it cannot be found?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 24, 2004 04:51 PM (CJBEv)

3 I'm shocked you didn't choose the Island of Mu for your HQ.....

Posted by: Susie at January 24, 2004 05:46 PM (0+cMc)

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The new MuNu sever has locked up again, and my F drive has turned into a pumpkin.

How long does Windows XP take to chkdsk a 240GB pumpkin, anyway?

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:21 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 Do you need a sympathy card?

Posted by: Susie at January 23, 2004 08:34 AM (0+cMc)

2 And would this be the reason comments are not being emailed as per checked off little box?
Or, as my granny used to say, am I not holding my tongue right?

Posted by: LeeAnn at January 23, 2004 10:33 AM (HxCeX)

3 No. That's probably because the existing server is on a network blacklisted for spam, and your ISP is rejecting them.
Which is one of the reasons I want to move to the new server.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 23, 2004 10:39 AM (jtW2s)

4 Tsk, tsk... servers hanging about with bad companions...
Not complaining, Pixy, I know you're the hardest working man in indecipherable techno stuff.

Posted by: LeeAnn at January 23, 2004 10:50 AM (HxCeX)

5 More a case of the neighbourhood going bad.
The company I signed up with got bought by another group - that's when the spam problems started.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 23, 2004 10:52 AM (jtW2s)

6 All my comments are still e-mailed to me, if that means anything.
Why is your equipment always bugging out, dude? Where do you get that stuff? Just wondering is all.

Posted by: The Bartender at January 23, 2004 05:44 PM (BMSp+)

7 Well, I had a bunch of IBM GXP75 drives. They were famous for dying unexpectedly.
I had a 250GB drive formatted with FAT32. Probably a bad idea.
I have no idea why my F drive just got screwed up. I think it's probably Windows rather than the drives, but it's odd.
As for the new MuNu server - I have no idea what the problem is. We replaced the drive, and it still has the problem.
I suspect that most people do not routinely copy hundreds of gigabytes of data about, or expect their computers to have uptimes measured in years. I do both.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 23, 2004 07:11 PM (jtW2s)

8 Besides which, I have, let's see, 13 computers at home, plus another 8 I'm responsible for at work, plus the two MuNu servers. Some of which work just fine.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 23, 2004 07:14 PM (jtW2s)

9 I see - you're just playing the odds. With that many computers at least some should work some of the time.

Posted by: Simon at January 24, 2004 12:28 AM (ghnB9)

10 Well that's a different story then... I thought all those problems were with the same box.
That's a seriously expensive hobby you have there my friend. Ever wonder how much money you have tied up in hardware alone? I suspect that you probably run a lot of open source and free stuff, but still the software licenses would run a fortune too, not to mention your phone bill. Damn....

Posted by: The Bartender at January 24, 2004 10:10 AM (8jYl9)

11 Almost all of the software I use is open source - the major exceptions being games and the Sonic Foundry (now Sony) software I use to write music.
A lot of the hardware is relatively old; two machines are brand new; six are around three years old, and the rest are older. My SGI O2 dates from 1997, and my Sun Ultra 5 from 1998.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 25, 2004 01:27 AM (jtW2s)

12 Oh, and I used to earn a lot of money. From 1996 through 2001, anyway. I'm still doing okay, but most of the stuff dates from those years.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 25, 2004 01:29 AM (jtW2s)

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Mitch H. of Blogfonte links to an interview with George Soros. Mitch finds the money quote:

Unfortunately, I don't have time to read; I only have time to write.

If you don't have the time or the patience to read the whole interview, do at least look at Mitch's analysis.

I don't have time to read; I only have time to write.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 03:05 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

It would appear that I was right and it was a flaky disk drive after all. Drive has now been replaced, the old Samsung swapped out for a Seagate.

I'm now writing a 40GB file just to give it a little exercise. If that works, I'll consider the problem fixed.

Oh, yes:

How many programmers does it take to change a lightbulb?
None - that's a hardware problem.

Update: 40GB file, no problems. Now I'll just make a copy of that...

Update: Assertion failure in __journal_remove_journal_head() at journal.c:1854: "buffer_jbd(bh)"

Not what I wanted to hear.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:01 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Glenn Reynolds has a new Tech Central Station column up, this time about memory - both computer and human. It's worth reading, though I do have a couple of nits to pick.

First, he suggests that 10TB of storage would be enough to hold a lifetime's worth of experiences, given an estimated data stream of 100MB per second. A quick calculation (86,400 seconds in a day, 365.25 days per year, say 75 years life expectancy) yields a number around 2400 times larger than that. The original article is just a short piece in Wired (scroll down to Digital Recording for the Analog Soul) so I'm not sure exactly what was meant to go into that 10TB - possibly just selected or compressed data.

When Glenn says

Every time I buy a new computer, I just copy my old files over. I should go through and delete the unnecessary ones, but I don't. The reason is that it's too much time and trouble, and the new hard drive -- being, inevitably, much larger than the old hard drive -- has plenty of room. The result now is that I have over 100,000 files.

There's one flaw in the article, though, that I can't easily excuse. Glenn talks about indexing and library science, even quoting Robert Heinlein on the subject:

Figuring out how to index and find all of this stuff simply underscores the wisdom of Robert Heinlein's statement: "library science is the foundation of all sciences, just as math is the key -- and we will survive or founder, depending on how well the librarians do their jobs."

Ms Fnd in a Lbry is about the collapse of civilisation when the master index to the Great Library becomes corrupted, a quite remarkable insight given that the story was written in 1961. The other key insight in the story is that the indexes, bibliographies and glossaries (not to mention the index to indexes, the bibliography of glossaries, and so on) so far outweigh the actual data that the data itself ends up getting lost.

A hint as to the source of this insight came from (of all places) a Marxist mailing list from 1997: Hal Draper became a part-time microfilm acquisitions librarian at the University of California at Berkeley. I can see how that job might have sent his thoughts heading in a particular direction.

If you can find Ms Fnd in a Lbry somewhere - it doesn't seem to have been posted to the web, which is something of a surprise since everything else has - then do read it, because not only is it both insightful and foresightful as I have said, it is also very funny. (As a geek I particularly enjoyed the discussion of how to store multiple bits of data on a single subatomic particle, and how nudged quanta won out over notched quanta. But that's just me.)

Note: The first version of this post used GB when it should have said TB. Twice. I'm sure that's a sign of... Something.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:31 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Look out everyone! It's a meme:

And you know something? You know something? Not only are we going to Sto Helit, we're going to Sto Lat and Genua and the Pseudopolis and Lancre and Slice! We're going to Omnia and Ephebe and Djelibeybi! And we're going to Al Khali and Bes Pelargic and HungHung and EcksEcksEcksEcks! And then we're going to Ankh Morpork. To take back Unseen University! YEEEAAARGH!!

And you know something? You know something? We're going to the ampulla of Vater! And the esophagus! And the duodenum! And the gastric fundus! And the small intestine! And THEN, especially then, we'll go to the anal canal... and take back the integrity of your intestinal tract! BLURRRGH!

And you know something? You know something? Not only are we going to Tenochtitlan, we're going to Tlatelolco and Atotonilco and Coatepec and Tehuantepec and Oaxaca! We're going to Tzintzuntzan and Xochimilco and Iztaccihuatl! And we're going to Huehuetla and Zacualco and Acaxochitlan and Cihuatlan! And then we're going to Popocatepetl. To take back The Temple of The Moon God! YEEEAAARGH!!

And you know something? You know something? Not only are we going to Pennsylvania Avenue, we're going to Oriental Avenue and St. Charles Place and St. James Place and Community Chest and Chance! We're going to Kentucky Avenue and Ventnor Avenue and Marvin Gardens! And we're going to Water Works and Pacific Avenue and B & O Railroad and both shitty purple ones! And then we're going to Broadway and Park Place. To go past Go and Collect $200! YEEEAAARGH!!

(Thanks to the commenters at Tim Blair's place.)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:22 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Your hosting company says that they suspect there is a problem related to software RAID on your server, and they would like to disable it while they run some tests.

And you say, well, the server is not in production yet, so fine, go ahead.

And then they say, how do you disable software RAID anyway?

I think the new server will be a few days yet.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:16 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Now the Nintendo Gamecube can run Minx too. Which is good if you can't get your hands on an AS/400.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:40 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 Damn,
I just picked up a new AS400 system but was agrieved to find that they don't ship Mario Sunshine with it ... woe is me

Posted by: rob at January 21, 2004 01:44 AM (kXZI6)

2 Damn!
I wonder if MAME has been ported...

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 21, 2004 01:46 AM (jtW2s)

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Thanks to Mitch H. of Blogfonte for the link to (ta da!) Nadesico Thumbnail Theatre!

Ruri: Enough with the screeching already! Mr. Greenfield, take the amphetamines AWAY from Spike Spencer and Jennifer Earhart.

Thousands of Anime Fans: Shut up, Ruri! This is the best dub ADV has ever put out. No wonder it took them so long to release it.

Ruri: Grr. Idiots.

Akito: Did someone say anime???

Akito, Megumi, Ruri, Minato, Howmei, Seiya, Goat and Admiral Fukube: WHOA!

Ruri: Ha ha, you have to wait until after the commercials to see what Gai showed us.

Thousands of anime fans: No we don't, we've got DVDs.

Ruri: Grrr.

Nadesico Logo: Quack Quack.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 03:16 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Which Typical Anti-Hero Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
(Thanks to Stevie.)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:44 AM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Crashy badness has migrated to the new MuNu server, which has fallen over five times in the last four days.

I think it may just be a faulty disk drive. Now I just have to persuade the hosting company to do something about it.

Update: At least the hosting company is being helpful. They're taking a look at the server now to see if they can fix the problem. We may be stuck on old MuNu for an extra week while this gets sorted out, but I think we'll survive that.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:53 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Not only Steven Den Beste, who we know had already fallen victim, but now Porphyrogenitus too!

Where will it end, people? Where will it end?

Will Glenn Reynolds be the next to fall? Or maybe (shudder) Lileks?

I'm a lost cause, but maybe you can save yourselves. It's not too late...

P.S. Still no crashy badness. Yay!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:21 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Kei, my Windows XP system, has been rock solid since I replaced the video card.

So apologies to Myxi, my Logitech MX 700 mouse, and I will be buying some nice King Island brie on the way home tonight. Mmm, cheese.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:38 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Like vampires-in-training, the scientists sleep in rooms with blackout shades.

They wear strange wristwatches that sometimes tell them it's the middle of the night when the rest of the world is eating lunch.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Now running at 1792x1344 at 85Hz. It's kind of an odd resolution, and not officially supported by my monitor, but it seems to work just fine.

I tried going even higher, but then I can only run at 75Hz - and I can see the flicker.

Update: And no crashy badness!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:25 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 Pixy's Pixels...a new series coming soon to a blog near you...

Posted by: Susie at January 18, 2004 06:22 AM (0+cMc)

2 Out of curiousity, how big is your monitor, exactly?

Posted by: Jennifer at January 19, 2004 01:19 PM (46KZz)

3 21"

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 19, 2004 06:23 PM (jtW2s)

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Well, the GeForce FX 5700 is out and the Radeon 9600XT is in. The switch was easy and painless. Swap cards. Install drivers. Done. Works.

Crashes since swapping cards: None

The card comes with a rather interesting little cable: At one end, a nine-pin mini-din; at the other, male and female four-pin mini-dins (S-Video in and out) and male and female RCA (composite in and out). Which is odd, because either you're going to plug it straight into another device - in which case you'd want a male plug - or you're going to use a patch lead - in which case you'd want a female plug.

I'm going to try capturing all my old laser discs and burning them to DVDs. That should keep me occupied for the next year or two...

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:49 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

I live in hope...

My new new video card, a GeCube Radeon 9600XT Vivo, arrived today. I'll try installing it tonight.

I don't know what's up with my old new video card. It worked just fine in my Linux box with the default drivers. The reason I swapped it out was that the Linux nVidia drivers don't yet support the GeForce FX 5700 (which is what it is). My Windows box ran fine on the old GeForce 4, but the new card brought frequent lockups and crashes.

I've previously used nVidia cards ranging from the Riva 128 through to the GeForce 4 Ti 4600 Ultra, and never had a problem like this. Given the nature of the problem - it only ever fails when I am actively using the computer, never (for example) while I'm watching a video or while the screensaver is running - it looks like a fairly specific driver issue, but I haven't been able to track down any answers.

Anyway, the Radeon card I now have is the same one I was trying to get before Christmas, so it's not all bad.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:19 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

You preferred the Democratic stance for 1 issue. Democratic Platform

You preferred the Green stance for 2 issues. Green Platform

You preferred the Libertarian stance for 1 issue. Libertarian Platform.

You preferred the Republican stance for 3 issues. Republican Platform.

Which bunch of loonies do you least disagree with?

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:21 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

It's the video card. Gotta be.

Better be, 'cause I just ordered a new one.

Which is a bloody nuisance, because the crashy one is also new.

Grrrr.

Hopefully I'll get the new new card tomorrow, so I can have a less crashy weekend.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:57 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Given the continuing crashy badness of my Windows box, I decided to reinstall Windows. Only... Someone seems to have hidden my Windows install disk! Where could it be? The last time I saw it, it was -

In the CD-ROM drive.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:33 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

... But when I got there,
The sock drawer was bare,
And so my poor feeties had none.

Well, I managed to find a mis-matched pair - one blue, one green, but the same pattern. Which is good enough for going to the office in.

I bought six new pairs at lunch time, all with little sheepies on.

Oh, and my computer crashed again. Even with the new old drivers. Pfft.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:41 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

After the fifth (or sixth) crash of the day, I got fed up and rolled my video drivers back to the previous version. This only took two reboots, a great improvement on the old days.

And since then: No crashes. Use the little scrolly wheel: No freeziness. No black screen of deathness. No BIOS screen at exactly the moment you least want to see it-ness.

Not the mousie, then. Or so it would seem. Or so it would appear to seem. Well, this new and exciting non-crashiness continues tomorrow, I might just see my way to purchasing a small selection of cheesy comestibles.

On the other hand: It went from a crash every two or three days, to more-or-less daily crashes, to two, three, four a day, to four times in three hours. Looks awfully like a case of software rot to me.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:43 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)