Version Five Point J

Now blogging at:

2008-06-05T15:56:00.001+02:00

God helps those whom help themselves

2008-03-27T10:47:00.001+02:00

Take a look at this article on failed faith healing. Discuss.

shooop da whooop for free

2008-03-27T10:41:00.002+02:00

Adobe Photoshop has released a free online version Photoshop Express. It doesn't have all of Photoshop's advanced features, as it's aimed more at the casual user (for blogs, Facebook etc.), but who cares, it's free!

7 Stories Revisited: Demolition Man

2008-03-10T12:03:00.004+02:00

Once again, I am revisiting the 7 stories concept, previously discussed here and here.

I went for dinner and movies at a friend's house on Saturday. Dinner was great, and the movies turned out to be whatever was showing on South Africa's free channel. This just happened to be: Freaky Friday. Not exactly my type of movie, but the food and company was good and so I watched the film. In the end, mom and daughter realise that they understand each other a bit more than before and have now learnt to meet each other halfway.

And that's just how Demolition Man ended, with the dirty sewer-dwellers cleaning up a bit and the overly anal-retentive surfacers dirtying down a bit. Increased understanding and peace prevail. Demolition Man can be one of my 7 stories.

Maybe you should've stayed at home and studied...

2008-03-10T11:08:00.004+02:00

... like your parents think you were.

Maties in the news.

Good Night, Sweet Prince

2008-03-05T09:40:00.002+02:00

Ernest Gary Gygax
27 July 1938 - 04 March 2008

Racism me up a youtube

2008-02-27T17:38:00.004+02:00

Links to the recent nonsense at the University of the Free State: 1, 2.

It's great to see that racism and apartheid in this country only happens/happened between black and white.

/sarcasm

Sunday Tribune: I can read and write good

2008-02-25T11:05:00.004+02:00

Yesterday, while doing a bit of Sunday morning grocery shopping, I spotted the Sunday Tribune's (24/02/2007) headline: "Petrol: Stand by for R10". Interested, I picked up the paper and continued to read the front page whilst doing the rest of my shopping (reading and navigating a trolley through a crowded store is a skill I picked up as a trolley jockey in my youth). Eventually, I moved on to another front page article entitled: "Durban boy killed over juice, sweets".

The story relayed in the article was a pretty sad one. I would link to it, but unfortunately, you need to be a Sunday Tribune subscriber to access the full-text version of the article (I know; BOO! We want free info!). However, I don't really want to talk about what the article was about, but rather about how it was written. Barring the horrid murder of the comma in the article title, the journalists go on to toss numerous English grammar rules out the window. Again, I wish I could link to the article itself. For a frontpage article to be so horribly written is a sin. Disgusted, I decided not to buy the newspaper and probably never will again.

I know that journalists and editors are under a lot of pressure to meet deadlines etc., but why can't you just run your spelling and grammar check?

Hardcore Hax vs Softcore Hax

2008-02-22T12:06:00.009+02:00

I recently stumbled across the following job advert:

Information Warfare Specialist / Computer Scientist / Computer Engineer

CSIR Defence, Peace, Safety and Security has a vacancy in its Systems Modelling Competence Area. The Systems Modelling Competence Area provides a well balanced portfolio of capabilities to perform research and development and knowledge applications including technological innovation required for developing systems for the Department of Defence, intrusion detection research, firewall and honeypot research, as well as complex adaptive systems research. The main application area is national defence and security.

The vacancy is in the netted systems research group, which has the following competencies: modelling and simulation; networked systems; network security in the fields of information warfare, network systems, communication systems and other application areas.

Requirements:

A minimum of a BSc (Hons) or BEng degree

Knowledge of modelling architectures

Knowledge of software development lifecycles

Keen interest in networked systems and information warfare

Experience in systems modelling

Analytical skills

SA citizenship is necessary as a security clearance is required for this position

Must be willing to pursue postgraduate studies.

Responsibilities:

Development of software systems for modelling and simulation

Network analysis (packet level data analysis)

IW and C4I3RS focused research

Operation-based simulation and analysis

Simulation and functional analysis of systems and subsystems

Implementation of algorithms on systems

Design and execution of field experiments, analysis and interpretation of data, and client feedback

Design and specification of systems.

The ideal person would be an enthusiastic and self-motivated individual. He/she would have to take ownership of a project and take initiative in the position. He/she would have the ability to make decisions, meet deadlines and have excellent writing skills. Communication skills, mainly fluency in English, are important, as he/she will be expected to grow effective relationships with specific clients and will interact and liaise with clients and staff members on a daily basis. An ability to work well under pressure as well as to work as part of a team is essential.

By applying for this position at the CSIR, the applicant understands, consents to and agrees that the CSIR may solicit a credit and criminal report from a registered credit bureau and/or the SAPS (in relation to positions that require trust and honesty and/or entails the handling of cash or finances) and will also verify the applicant’s educational qualifications and employment history.

The CSIR gives preference to candidates who meet the requirements and who will add to the cultural and gender diversity of the organisation.

Should you meet the above requirements and wish to contribute to the success of the organisation through this position, please submit your CV clearly indicating the position you are applying for, for the attention of Mat Viljoen, email mviljoen@csir.co.za

Information security is a high priority in today's business world, true. This position focuses heavily on the hard side of information security. However, I find it a little disconcerting that the job specs don't really cover the soft side of information security. I think that the ideal candidate should not only show interest in hard information warfare, but also in 'soft' subjects such as competive intelligence and social engineering. Hackers are not the only information security risk out there and a software solution will only be as strong as its dumbest user. Information security requires a more holistic approach.

Hacking is so terribly nineties.

Yes, this does look like a job ad for hackers to me too.

Invite 20 Friends and then you can win a youtube with this app

2008-02-20T08:23:00.004+02:00

Yes, I'm guilty of using social networking sites such as Facebook.

And I want to make a complaint. Sorta.

Remember in the good ol' days, when you did an online quiz (be it 'which LotR character you are?', or 'what's ye ol' DnD alignment/race/class combo?', or 'what hanky-panky position best describes you?', or even 'which hanky-panky position are you?')? You would have to go to a lovely site with a nice array of radio buttons, you'd make your selections and then some handy html code would get spat back out at you. Then you'd take that html code and post it wherever you wanted (even if that was just in a txt file hidden in the darkest section of My Documents, because you're too shy to let people know that you are Samwise, but can't bring yourself to just toss the quiz results aside).

Then you get Facebook applications. Those things for which you get more invites to than parties, funerals and pyramid schemes. Those things that clutter the profile pages of the masses.

And now to my complaint: Why have these two concepts (online quizzes and Facebooks apps) merged into one? Quiz apps are increasing the number of apps displayed per profile page (I have no statistical proof to back this up, but I'm at least 84.75% correct on this). Do people really like the 3 mb download wait for their profile pages? Bah.

And mom said WWE wouldn't teach me anything

2008-02-18T16:32:00.001+02:00

Daring Apprentice

2008-02-18T14:30:00.001+02:00

If you're into Magic: the Gathering, then you should be looking at this open source project:

Project Wiki
Creator's Blog

5000gp worth of diamonds required for raise dead blog spell

2008-02-18T14:23:00.005+02:00

To answer the 7 stories query, originally posted on the 14th of November 2007, I have found this Google Answers answer.

I always thought that Google Answers was a brilliant service. I still mourn its passing.

Will try to blog more in the future.

New Life in Durban

2007-12-10T15:59:00.000+02:00

I've made the move to a new job in Durban. I've already got myself a place to stay and refrigerator. So all I need now is a new gaming group so that I may game.

Classified for Gaming Group 1
Classified for Gaming Group 2

Hospitality

2007-11-22T14:35:00.000+02:00

My girlfriend's sister is about to enter the 10th grade of the South African education system. One of the subjects she has chosen is called Hospitality (or something very similar). Now remember, the current ZA education system aims to turn out more skilled labourers than skilled thinkers and academics. Alright, remembering that? Well, part of the Hospitality curriculum involves teaching minors how to mix drinks. Mixing drinks is now for marks.

Things to waste your time on whilst perusing YouTube

2007-11-21T04:35:00.001+02:00

Holding out for a Hiro

2007-11-14T16:34:00.001+02:00

I am most disappointed with the second season of Heroes. To improve the show, I think that Parkman needs to get paralyzed from the waist down and Clair needs to get her skeleton coated in a rare super tough metal.

As I am often reminded by my friends and colleagues in the literary side of academia, there are in fact only 7 original stories. Everything else is just a variant or combination of these 7. And now, I believe that one of those 7 stories is the X-men story.

"is it can be lightz tiem now plz?" - God

2007-11-02T18:00:00.000+02:00

So, I'm stuck in OR Thambo as my flight is delayed indefinitely. Thus, turning to the internet for comfort, I began reading the good book again; the lolcat translation. It can't be any worse than any of the other translations out there, can it? Plus I think it allows prophylactics.

Blog Undying

2007-08-29T12:27:00.000+02:00

So, I haven't blogged in awhile (primarily due to computer troubles... a month after the warrantee expired), but I hope to get back into the habit. There were several things I wanted to blog about, but, alas, they would now be considered old news.

Things I wouldv'e blogged about:

Dungeons and Dragons 4th ed.
Action Jenga
Lorwyn
Puck and DotA
Alcoholic Clepto Health Ministers
Xbox and Wii

Network Adapter
Dead. Killed. Three thousand to repair.
Farewell my laptop.

Magic in Paarl

2007-06-18T18:06:00.000+02:00

Date: Sunday, June 24
Place: Kudo's Entertainment, Paarl
Registration: 10h00 (round 1 starts @ 10h30)
Format: Standard Constructed
Entry Fee: R45, includes a Time Spiral booster
First Prize: 1 x FS booster + 1 x TS Tournament pack

Plus Timespiral DCI prize support.

If there's enough interest, the constructed tournament will be followed by a TPF draft.

Long Time No Blog; Stupid Quiz

2007-06-15T13:00:00.000+02:00

Now everybody knows that I did OKCupid.

Your Score: Spellsword

59% Combativeness, 36% Sneakiness, 61% Intellect, 50% Spirituality

Aggressive, but with the brains to back it up: You are a Spellsword!

Score! You have a prestige class. A prestige class can only be taken after you've fulfilled certain requirements. This may mean that you're an exceptionally talented person, but it probably doesn't.

Spellswords combine arcane might with combat know-how. They're much tougher than mages, like to wear armor, and can cast spells through their weapons. They're very, very, good at doing lots of damage to a single target very quickly, and while not quite as tough as most fighters, are still pretty hard to kill.

You're both smart and aggressive, which means that you're probably pretty dangerous when pissed off. You also tend to be somewhat straightforward, which is nice, and don't have much use for spirituality or mysticism.

Link: The RPG Class Test written by MFlowers on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Magic Tournament in Stellenbosch

2007-05-20T23:12:00.000+02:00

Format: Standard Contructed

Entry Fee: R15

Date & Time: 25th May 2007, 19h00
Venue: Neelsie, Stellenbosch

Prize Support: 4 Planar Chaos boosters for 1st place PLUS normal DCI prize support.

Don't forget your towel!

My Life for Aiur

2007-05-19T14:55:00.000+02:00

Starcraft 2!!!

Kekekekekekekekekekekekekekekekekekekekekekeke!!!

Link 1
Link 2

Is Facebook going to kill the Blogosphere?

2007-05-15T13:11:00.000+02:00

Probably not, but all the relationship gossip is going to turn my life into a soap opera.

Magic Tournament in Paarl

2007-05-14T22:44:00.000+02:00

Format: Standard Contructed (Future Sight Legal!)

Entry fee: R45, includes 1 Planar chaos booster.

Date & Time: 20th May 2007, 10h00
Venue: Kudos, Paarl.

Prize Support: 4 Planar Chaos boosters for 1st place PLUS normal DCI prize support.

Facebook and Social Network Analysis

2007-05-11T12:31:00.000+02:00

For those of you who don't know, Facebook has a handy little app that allows you to conduct some simple social network analysis. Once logged into Facebook, go to http://developers.facebook.com. There you'll find a link called Product Directory. Follow the link and there you'll find, amongst other things, Interactive Friend Thing. A new great way to waste more time on Facebook. Thanks to Shaun for tip.

Magic Tournament in Paarl

2007-05-08T14:17:00.000+02:00

Date: Sunday, 13 May 2007

Registration: 10h00

Place: Kudos Sci-Fi and Fantasy shop, First Floor, Boland Bank building, Cnr of Lady Grey and Lower Main Road, Paarl. (Its the tallest building in Paarl's CBD (11 storeys). You can't miss it.

Format: Standard Constructed, Swiss rounds.
Entry: R45, includes 1 booster

FIRST PRIZE
1 Timespiral Tournament Pack

1 Planar Chaos Theme Deck

Plus there will also be DCI prize support!

PS: Bring some cash - Kudo's stocks all sorts of Fantasy and Gaming goodies - Anime, Comics, Figurines, consoles + games.

Friendly Neighbourhood Patriot

2007-05-04T16:05:00.000+02:00

Spiderman 3 gets 6/10 from me.

Too long and...

...drawn out. Music lacks. Emo. And Topher Grace doesn't say "We are Venom!!!".

Let's hope that Surfer is better.

A Memes!

2007-05-03T11:51:00.000+02:00

Cattell's 16 Factor Test Results

Warmth	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	26%
Intellect	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	82%
Emotional Stability	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Aggressiveness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	66%
Liveliness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	62%
Dutifulness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Social Assertiveness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Sensitivity	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	22%
Paranoia	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	54%
Abstractness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	62%
Introversion	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Anxiety	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	58%
Openmindedness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	78%
Independence	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	74%
Perfectionism	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Tension	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	42%

Take Cattell 16 Factor Test (similar to 16pf)
personality tests by similarminds.com

Birthday Politics and Getting Engaged

2007-05-03T11:30:00.000+02:00

No, I didn't get engaged. That would be my younger brother. Lexi says that there are certain things about this arrangement that I should be worried/care more about. But I don't. Good for him, no?

Learning is Fun when Learning is Wiki

2007-04-25T11:50:00.000+02:00

I'm currently teaching a course on Information Systems Development to second years. Stellenbosch University employs WebCT Vista as its e-learning platform of choice. (Some of you may remember me bad mouthing WebCT last year). Anyway, I wanted to experiment with the class, using some of the new technologies available out there, specifically those focusing on web2.0 concepts and user generated content.

For awhile, I was planning on using podcasts (unfortunately, we lack in appropriate sound recording equipment) and blogs. I couldn't quite figure out a way to make the blog more than a simple discussion board, with individual blog posts and their comments being nothing more than message board threads. So, I started a wiki at pbwiki. I would have used WebCT, but it lacks a lot of functionality (i.e. no blogging/wiki options or an undo button/option - you'd be surprised how infuriating it is to work and not be able to simply undo an error).

My co-lecturer and I have very little time to actually teach the course (about five weeks) and it's a rather exhaustive subject field. Thus, many chapters are being designated as 'self-study'. I created the wiki in order to give the student a communal work space in which they can discuss and work on the self-study chapters together. If you want to check out the wiki, you'll find it here.

Future Sight Draft

2007-04-24T12:04:00.000+02:00

There will be a triple Future Sight draft on Thursday (26/04/2007).

Time: 18:30
Cost: R90
Venue: Neelsie, Stellenbosch

Look what I found @ del.icio.us

2007-04-23T11:33:00.000+02:00

I still can't get the daily blog post del.icio.us update thingamagig working with blogger. But the following link is just good enough to break through my laziness and force me to post the link manually so as to share in that which is SKULL TOAST.

Hey Oslo

2007-04-23T10:51:00.000+02:00

For 2007, 9.74% of my hits came from Oslo. Hey Oslo.

Read Step Number Three-and-Twenty

2007-04-19T14:15:00.000+02:00

1. Go to www.google.com
2. Click on 'maps,' above the search bar...
3. Click on 'get directions'
4. Type 'New York' in the first box (the 'from' box)
5. Type 'Paris' in the second box (the 'to' box)
6. Click on 'get directions'
7. Scroll down to step No23

She's back

2007-04-17T12:44:00.000+02:00

Apples en Bananas.

An Experiment in D20

2007-04-16T15:21:00.000+02:00

http://cotgods.pbwiki.com

General Knowledge; Your Taxonomy is Wrong

2007-04-13T10:20:00.000+02:00

Ever noticed in general knowledge games (all of them, board and tv) that questions that do not fit in a particular category x are asked in that category x? I have. And it annoys me. When playing a game in which you can choose the category from which your next question will come, you would expect the question to fit the category... and then it doesn't. Don't you feel like a dumbass when you, the supposed expert of field x, get an alleged field x question incorrect?

Examples:

There is no such thing as a Sports category. There is only a Sports History category. Big difference. I don't know who won the 100m sprint in 1904, but I do know what a hat trick is in cricket, the distance for a penalty shot in basketball, I know what an ippon is in judo and the offside rule (though it's not cool) in soccer. I know stuff about sport, but not sport history. In fact, have you noticed that, I estimate, 40 % of all non-history category questions are history questions.

Geogrpahy questions are restricted to the domain of the atlas. The discipline covers more than capitals and rivers. When a question deviates from the atlas, it asks you to name parts of a boat. Um, sure.

What the hell is the Entertainment category? It contains more questions about literature and fine art than the Arts and Literature category. A&L is lucky to still manage to hang onto Greek mythology questions.

General k games and shows that don't attempt to categorize questions are superior to those that do. 30 Seconds pwns Trivial Pursuit.

Socialist Gamer

2007-04-11T12:00:00.000+02:00

So, based on a previous post, I've been thinking about how to make group games, in general, more fun. I'm fortunate enough to have a varied group of friends and acquaintances (ah, the benefits of university life in the spring time of my youth), which means that I can have very different gaming experiences with any one of the many games we play based on with whom I'm playing with or against. Even varied team compositions within one particular group of friends makes for a new gaming experience.

However, I have noticed with several games that by the time one player or team is nearly 80% of the way to their win condition, another player or team stills sits at/near the starting position. The leading team has no competition. There is no challenge for one team and the others feel pretty useless. I prefer close situations as they make for the most memorable games. Plus, if games are consistently close, people would want to play more. It really sucks when you can't find people to game with, because they're tired of losing, or rather: losing badly.

Recently, I've noticed that I've been playing games differently to a)make the game more fun for everybody and b)increase the challenge for myself. Now b might sound a bit nasty and pompous and arrogant, and to some point, it is; however, sometimes your opponents do lack the necessary challenge to truly test you. This doesn't mean they're stupid (at least not in every instance), but rather that they may be new to the game, a stranger to most of the other players or etc.

At first, I didn't notice that I was making these gameplay changes (people normally hate it when I go easy on them or take the time to use the taunt maneuvers in fighting games), but now I believe I can make the most important of these gameplay changes, using my pseudo-knowledge of communism and socialism, explicit:

Be willing to take the fall.

Most people play just for themselves or their team. Well, if you want to win the game, that's what you have to do, right? True. But this isn't about winning anymore. This is about making the game fun for everybody. And it's definitely more fun for me, at least, when I am truly challenged. Just what counts as 'taking the fall'? Well, it differs for every game. Plus, I don't mean taking completely self-destructive moves that remove you from the game totally, but rather moves that handicap you in some way. Sometimes, this can be decided before the start of the game (eg: setting life totals handicaps in fighting games), but this isn't always possible. I shall use the classic boardgame Balderdash as an example. In Balderdash, it's votes that count. Without going into a detailed explanation of the game, at the end of each round, every player must vote for their favourite answer. Every player provides an answer and they are read out anonymously. For every vote a player's answer receives, that player may move one space on the board. However, one of the available answers is always correct and if you vote for that answer you will move an additional two spaces on the board. So how would one take the fall here? Easy, spread the votes around. For example, in my most recent game, I often received multiple votes per round, thus constantly moving ahead. Worst of all, I got 5 votes in the first round. When I was more than halfway to the finish, there will still four player within 3 spaces from the start. If I remember correctly, there was one player still in the starting position. To avoid such situations, the other players should have done as I suggest now: If one definition already has a large number of votes, don't vote for it. Even if you believe that you're giving up two spaces, think about this: You could be helping to catapult one player far into the lead (and actually lessening the chance of you winning) and you're also denying other players the chance to even move. By votingdifferently from the pack, more players will move more spaces and less players will feel useless and pathetic. On several occassions within that game, I voted for obviously incorrect answers and towards the end of the game, nobody was left that far behind and it was also a ridiculously close loss for me. Because of the turn structure of the game, I had one extra turn as dasher than the victor, meaning that victory came down to turn order (as I lost on the turn I had my extra dash). I didn't mind as it was a fun and memorable game for all (I believe).

I hinted above that I don't want to make anybody feel bad about their gaming capabilities, so if I've played against you and after reading this, you think I went easy on you and believe that I'm a bastard and are upset that I have now caused you to have to adapt your cognitive frameworks to include the possibility that you suck at boardgames, please just remember that this is about making the game fun for everybody and not about me showing off. Next time you bring the game about which I know nothing and we'll game.

Damnation

2007-04-10T12:46:00.000+02:00

Foil.

Trivial Pursuit; You Suck

2007-03-27T10:28:00.000+02:00

Hasbro and their affiliates make some great games, both contempory and classic, including Dungeon and Dragons, Magic: the Gathering, Play-Doh and Cluedo. They also make Trivial Pursuit.

I played Trivial Pursuit this weekend. I hadn't played it in years. I was on the winning team. I think the game, as is, sucks. It's nothing more than a glorified Snakes 'n Ladders that also has the potential to make some players feel stupid. My team answered four questions in a row (not bad), but were not rewarded with a pie piece, because we didn't land on an arbitarily designated pie piece square. Not my idea of fun.

Also, as we were a bunch of nerds playing, we discovered several questions and/or answers that were incorrect. For example, the questions do not make a distinction between poisonous and venomous. This can make a huge difference, depending, of course, on the question (especially when playing with ecologists, botanists and zoologists).

And so I propose the following house rules:

Remove the Snakes 'n Ladders element i.e. Make each pie piece square an enforced stop. For example, if you are 3 squares away from a pie piece square and you roll more than 3, you will then stop on the pie piece square and the excess movement will be forfeited. As the board stands, the pie piece squares are seven spaces apart. Thus a team will always need to answer at least one qualifying question before each pie piece.
Remove the reroll squares from the new boards. Play with the old boards. The reroll squares are obviously there as Hasbro's attempt to make the game faster and more streamlined. It is full of fail within these house rules.
Play with nearby internet access so that academic debates can be settled quickly without any punch-ups.

And so I was fiddling with del.icio.us

2007-03-22T21:18:00.000+02:00

Damn, I still can't get the del.icio.us experimental daily blog post function to work with blogger. Does anybody know how to get it working? Maybe it's a Google/Yahoo thing.

Sometimes you just don't get it

2007-03-19T09:10:00.000+02:00

"The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,/ Chief nourisher in life's feast."

Gawds, I'm Lame

2007-03-19T00:36:00.000+02:00

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Disease, Death and Free Interwebs

2007-03-11T14:03:00.000+02:00

Excuse the absence. I've been ill.

Happy New Year

2007-02-18T00:01:00.000+02:00

The day that was

2007-02-15T11:53:00.000+02:00

Or was. Meh.

My Office is Spartan

2007-02-13T10:54:00.000+02:00

They are cream coloured
My four naked office walls
Zen, but dreary: yes.

Naked Girl and Fire Extinguisher

2007-02-04T11:25:00.000+02:00

Every year I get smarter, because it would instead be very sad if every year my neighbours got this much dumber.

Vensters 2007: Eleven Songs in the World

2007-02-02T11:38:00.000+02:00

And one of them is die Leeuloop. JA!

Um, couldn't think of a suitable post title

2007-01-29T10:49:00.000+02:00

Thanks to Minnaar for this one:

Phallic Logo Awards

Only 96 days to go

2007-01-26T16:49:00.000+02:00

Anima

BESM 3rd Edition

Must own... must not search for pdfs on rapidshare.

Returned to the Blogosphere

2007-01-26T00:59:00.000+02:00

Le Fauve and Shaun.

Lars? Gay? NOooooo!

2007-01-24T23:31:00.000+02:00

Yes, Metallica is gay. God says so. Remember to love God's way.

Does the J need a JSpace?

2007-01-23T14:13:00.000+02:00

Since two of my personal heroes, Jenna Jameson and Batista, both have their own myspace pages, I though to myself: Why don't I have a one? If I'm gonna research web 2.0, then I might as well be a part of one of the bigger sites, shouldn't I?

J on Myspace.

All Growed Up

2007-01-15T12:49:00.000+02:00

Never before have I awaited Trevor's speech. My risk profile (when it comes to money) is set to aggressive. My mom says that's because I have youth on my side.

Bowling for Port Elizabeth, Ninja Burger and Chevrolet

2007-01-03T16:37:00.000+02:00

Up the mountain, Car, Sex and Happy Tree Friends

2006-12-12T02:23:00.000+02:00

The most disturbing thing I've witnessed in awhile. Should have taken a photo.

Adultery, Honour and the Wambles

2006-12-11T03:03:00.000+02:00

Wamble:

To move in a weaving, wobbling, or rolling manner.
To turn or roll. Used of the stomach. Nausea. Or, my favourite:
Rumbly Tummy.

Bond, Four Years and a Fifth Wheel

2006-12-08T13:11:00.000+02:00

Remember when you first started blogging? You'd blog everyday and write about everything. And now you don't. Same thing here. Now I only have time to blog about a third of my post titles.

Casino Royale: Watchable, but needed to be 10% grittier and 10% shorter.

The Racial Stereotyper in U

2006-12-01T12:14:00.000+02:00

I went to the House of Pasta and Noodle (Eikestad Mall, Stellenbosch) for supper last night. It's a pretty cool place and I really enjoy the food there. I was there with a white friend. The only staff member on duty then was a Chinese guy from Shanghai (if I remember correctly). He was running both the kitchen and the till. The kitchen has an open plan and the entire front shop can be viewed from there.

Then in walk two other potential customers. They looked at the menu and made there decision. But nobody was around to take their order; Shanghai was busy in the kitchen with white guy and my orders. So new customers automatically assume that I work there and that they can place their order with me - because I'm Chinese. Wow. I don't think I give off 'I'll be your waiter' vibes. Insensitive much?

Weddings, Break-ups and Cold Showers; Tis the Season

2006-11-30T09:51:00.000+02:00

Right now, other than butchering semi-colons, I'm watching my geyser being replaced. It burst two days ago. But not in a fiery explosion of steam and, well, hot water and lack of fire. It rather just began to leak and drip annoyingly (taking a page right out of my own book). Only 25 more sleeps till Christmas.

I bet that I can make a longer Christmas wishlist than you can

2006-11-27T17:48:00.000+02:00

Yes, it's the Biker Mice from Mars game for PS2 and Nintendo DS!

Happy Feet

2006-11-27T00:53:00.000+02:00

I watched the South African Happy Feet pre-release today. It was an enjoyable and watchable movie with surprisingly heavy undertones. The movie is rife with social commentary and a bit of socialist propaganda. Or maybe I am just being too smart for the movie. Whatever.

In any event, I enjoyed watching the movie (it are being a good movie). Go watch it.

Useful Firefox Tool

2006-11-21T20:49:00.000+02:00

Today, I want to talk about Greasemonkey. What is Greasemonkey? Well, according to Dive Into Greasemonkey, it's:

Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension that allows you to write scripts that alter the web pages you visit. You can use it to make a web site more readable or more usable. You can fix rendering bugs that the site owner can't be bothered to fix themselves. You can alter pages so they work better with assistive technologies that speak a web page out loud or convert it to Braille. You can even automatically retrieve data from other sites to make two sites more interconnected.

Greasemonkey by itself does none of these things. In fact, after you install it, you won't notice any change at all... until you start installing what are called “user scripts”. A user script is just a chunk of Javascript code, with some additional information that tells Greasemonkey where and when it should be run. Each user script can target a specific page, a specific site, or a group of sites. A user script can do anything you can do in Javascript. In fact, it can do even more than that, because Greasemonkey provides special functions that are only available to user scripts.

So what does this mean? Well, it means that you can customize your Firefox experience even more. And so, you can make a great browser better and make playing Kingdom of Loathing a lot smoother with these scripts.

A book I think I want for Christmas (if Christmas weren't for pagans)

2006-11-21T02:21:00.000+02:00

American Born Chinese

More Loathing

2006-11-13T09:42:00.000+02:00

There are some nice people in the Kingdom of Loathing. Today I learnt about buffbots. For those not in the know (thanks to Heinz):

This is what you need to do, Adventurer!

First of all, make sure you are not in a fight, or you cant recieve buffs.

Kmail Noblesse Oblige (#594822) with these amounts of meat, one amount per kmail. no message, just the amount of meat, please!:

2 meat
8 meat
10 meat
12 meat
17 meat
18 meat

and wait a good while for you to recieve the buffs! The buffbot needs time to process them :)

When you get all of the buffs, you may adventure once again!

Good luck!

loathing it up

2006-11-09T17:23:00.000+02:00

The Kingdom of Loathing is a really great way to spend about 30 - 40 minutes, unless, of course, you get involved in the chats, forums, wiki. Well, for those of you joining KoL and wanting to find me:

I play as character #1136067, or Tahlen, currently a level 5 seal clubber. Tahlen belongs to the clan of Snugglemonsters (they're great for newbies, from what I can tell so far). Look it up once in-game.

The Kingdom of Loathing

2006-11-08T15:48:00.000+02:00

If you don't have anymore time to waste on the internet, then stop reading now. The Kingdom of Loathing is a Browser-Based MMORPG.

This game provides a humourous alternative to all the role-playing games out there. Trading meat for pants is always fun. The game is turn-based and you have a daily cap on your turns (meaning that you can't spend too much time playing - unless you open multiple accounts).

Go play. And pass the test of literacy.

The Dichotomy of my Movie Viewing Habits

2006-11-07T18:18:00.000+02:00

As most of my real-world acquaintances, whom have gone out to the movies or rented a DVD or video with me, could probably tell you that my movie viewing habits are slightly out of sync. I enjoy the thinking movies, the clever movies and generally abhor the stupid-low brow toilet humour of the Wayans brothers and rom-coms. Then, occassionaly, I want to go and see a movie like this one:

The Tenacious D Movie

The AV Debacle

2006-11-02T18:08:00.000+02:00

Sadly, I ran into problems with Clamwin Anti-Virus. It did not want to integrate well with MS Outlook, slowing my machine down horribly. Perhaps my settings were incorrect, but I did not quite feel up to fiddling around at such slow speeds. Perhaps it would have worked better with Thunderbird. Unfortunately, my organization (Stellenbosch University) is so entrenched in the MS mindset and being unsure of the compatibility between Thunderbird and Outlook and being generally lazy, I did not try Clamwin with Thunderbird. So now I've changed over to Grisoft's AVG Free Advisor. Though not opensource, it's free and I haven't had any problems yet.

Back Online

2006-11-01T09:17:00.000+02:00

Yes, my cap wasn't enough. Sad face.

Maybe a meme

2006-10-16T22:13:00.000+02:00

Needing a break from legitimate work, I decided to see what happened on the 2nd of May (my birthday) through the ages. And so I found a list of other interesting May 2nd babies:

Engelbert Humperdinck (1936)
Lorenzo Music (1937)
Donatella Versace (1955)
Brian Lara (1969)
The Rock (1972)
David Beckham (1975)

Yes, this was a great waste of my time.

What I didn't see on t3hinternets

2006-10-15T17:39:00.000+02:00

You've probably heard of Peer-to-Peer software before. Remember Napster? That was probably one of the most infamous accounts of P2P software. Well, despite being partially addicted to the internet, I actually missed another great P2P file sharing program.

Limewire (and Limewire for developers) is an opensource project. It began in 2000 (and it took me 6 years to come across it). Limewire doesn't officially condone the sharing of copyrighted materials, but there are no active blocks against the practise.. Limewire, however, does allow special search options, which includes searching for materials licensed through Creative Commons. You can go read more about Limewire at their Wikipedia entry.

Now I just have to hope that my 4GB/month cap will be enough for Lexi's download habit.

Directionless

2006-10-11T12:18:00.000+02:00

Sometimes I feel that I should focus my blog on a particular topic. Or at least start multiple blogs to deal with different topics. Then sometimes I find a picture like this one. This is the puppy purse. It can be worn around the hip, over the shoulder or be carried by hand. Dogs: Legs optional.

Dealing with the EPO and opensource clam

2006-10-11T09:31:00.000+02:00

In order to safeguard the campus computer network, IT over here installs McAfee antivirus software onto every computer registered for network access. Every computer. Even the privately owned - like mine. This isn't so bad. You get to use the McAfee software under Stellenbosch University's licence and it also minimizes the chance of a less skilled user screwing up the network up for rest of us. This may seem ideal at first, but, unfortunately, the package comes with a bit of a drawback: the EPO.

The Electronic Policy Orchestrator is a chunk of software that makes sure that your computer behaves according to university policy (well, at least the McAfee part of it). Thus, you can't edit your McAfee settings and sometimes you don't want the computer slowdown or want to update your definitions while off campus (the EPO won't let you). The EPO is great for the LCD user, but really frustrating to the more skilled users. It's also quite... taxing to remove, or so I thought. Thanks to Evan (if he still kept a blog, I would link to it) for this link: How to remove the EPO.

Since removing the EPO from my machine, I've since installed Clam Antivirus. Clam is an opensource project and I'm a big fan of opensource. Currently, Clam does not allow on-access scanning, but I think that I have enough PC smarts to recognise a dodgy looking file. Clam for Windows can be found here.

Posting in Beta

2006-10-09T10:59:00.000+02:00

Opening post. Blog created.