Twitter Updates for 22-02-2012
Feb. 23rd, 2012 01:00 am![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sci_starborne- Welp, in the workshop today. New HDD got ordered last night. This time I'm going to try and make an image of it once I have a clean install. 12:14:50, 2012-02-22
- ..Or at least I will if I can make an image without having to make the image of the full 250Gb partition. 12:15:28, 2012-02-22
- For now, grabbing the camera. Can't edit but can upload, and odd things are afoot. 12:15:51, 2012-02-22
- For what happened to get you back in there, watch this video: watch?v=YyRjot212 (@YouTube http://t.co/KcdARMxh) 13:49:15, 2012-02-22
- @JezzKitty Provided they handle it professionally and not "daughter at a distance", sounds like an excellent opportunity! :) in reply to JezzKitty 14:16:16, 2012-02-22
- @dresdencodak His servos make him sound like he's muttering "radnar" as he walks. in reply to dresdencodak 14:41:23, 2012-02-22
- @SleetFury Fuck yeah Anglerfish. in reply to SleetFury 19:15:26, 2012-02-22
- @jackalesque Finally kill another passenger? in reply to jackalesque 20:06:18, 2012-02-22
- I just bought myself a tiny deep-fat-fryer as a gift to myself. Haven't rewarded myself in ages. £13, <1L. Perfect for banana fritters. 20:11:24, 2012-02-22
- I accept that buying a deep-fryer of any size when stress is giving you chest-pains may not be the wisest choice. 20:12:27, 2012-02-22
- @MssZydrate @Sangluna Well if anything can raise spirits.. ;) in reply to MssZydrate 20:44:11, 2012-02-22
- Leg of pork will be done soon. <3 21:05:33, 2012-02-22
- Roasting it. Oiled the surface and sprinkled it with a chicken stock cube, pepper and rosemary. Last half hour without foil to crisp it up. 21:09:23, 2012-02-22
- Update from Scan; new HDD should arrive tomorrow. 21:58:46, 2012-02-22
- Must remember to disconnect other drives when reinstalling tomorrow. Think there's a virus on one from that PCB design software. 22:08:18, 2012-02-22
- Awesome. Note to self: http://t.co/aCzZJcjM Windows imaging using free tools. Will hopefully prevent me having to reinstall again. 23:21:30, 2012-02-22
- If I do it before installing more than basic drivers, should work on new hardware too. Maybe. 23:23:15, 2012-02-22
- Either way, clean backup. Can now go indoors to the warm computerless world. 23:23:45, 2012-02-22
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
Whitby mini-reviews April 2012
Feb. 22nd, 2012 10:11 pmceb* In The Nursery - film music, dull dull dull.
* Ugly Buggs - Slightly indieish goth, slightly March Violets, slightly Suede, not at all bad. Apparently a spin-off of Gene Loves Jezebel, sigh, wish they'd stop doing this thing where they book the same people for both nights. ("Unless they both have Tim from Manuskript in", says David, and he is right.)
* The Spiritual Bat - "'The Spiritual Bat' is a new project, but it is an evolution from 'The Spiritual Bats' project" apparently. (David says one bat fell off.) Post-punk of the sort which seems very popular at the moment, quite like Christ vs. Warhol.
* Last July - \o/
* Dead Eyes Opened - new band, have not yet decided what they want to sound like. Probably OK when they settle on something though. Fuzzy.
* Gene Loves Jezebel - one of those classic famous 80s bands which they probably play at goth clubs all the time but you inexplicably don't know any of the songs from. Ought to be rebranded 'Gene Hates Jezebel' (or is that 'Jezebel Hates Gene'?).
* The Bellwether Syndicate - spurn MySpace in favour of Facebook (*throws up hands in despair*) but are apparently Yet Another Faith And The Muse Spin-Off.
* Die Laughing - reformed, were a delivery system for floaty female vocals 10 years ago.
* Partly Faithful - ex-Banshees we have been trying to see for a while.
* Stills - samey but inoffensive electronicy stuff.
(Hopefully none of these will causedamerell to be violently sick.)
* Ugly Buggs - Slightly indieish goth, slightly March Violets, slightly Suede, not at all bad. Apparently a spin-off of Gene Loves Jezebel, sigh, wish they'd stop doing this thing where they book the same people for both nights. ("Unless they both have Tim from Manuskript in", says David, and he is right.)
* The Spiritual Bat - "'The Spiritual Bat' is a new project, but it is an evolution from 'The Spiritual Bats' project" apparently. (David says one bat fell off.) Post-punk of the sort which seems very popular at the moment, quite like Christ vs. Warhol.
* Last July - \o/
* Dead Eyes Opened - new band, have not yet decided what they want to sound like. Probably OK when they settle on something though. Fuzzy.
* Gene Loves Jezebel - one of those classic famous 80s bands which they probably play at goth clubs all the time but you inexplicably don't know any of the songs from. Ought to be rebranded 'Gene Hates Jezebel' (or is that 'Jezebel Hates Gene'?).
* The Bellwether Syndicate - spurn MySpace in favour of Facebook (*throws up hands in despair*) but are apparently Yet Another Faith And The Muse Spin-Off.
* Die Laughing - reformed, were a delivery system for floaty female vocals 10 years ago.
* Partly Faithful - ex-Banshees we have been trying to see for a while.
* Stills - samey but inoffensive electronicy stuff.
(Hopefully none of these will cause
damerell to be violently sick.)
The Fascist Curate?
Feb. 22nd, 2012 08:50 pmholdtheskyNotes to self, really, because I'm not in the mood to write essays, and I'm sure you're not in the mood to read them :-).
If fascism is, at its seed, a corporatist notion of a nation-state, then Hurdis' Equality: a Sermon (1794) has a passage in it which seems like an excellent expression of it, which is surprising from a viacar, Oxford Professor of Poetry and author of The Village Curate: A poem, though reading it again in that context, it does lead to some surprising thoughts.
If fascism is, at its seed, a corporatist notion of a nation-state, then Hurdis' Equality: a Sermon (1794) has a passage in it which seems like an excellent expression of it, which is surprising from a viacar, Oxford Professor of Poetry and author of The Village Curate: A poem, though reading it again in that context, it does lead to some surprising thoughts.
If we contemplate a Ship of war, as a little kingdom within itself, we shall be sensible, that it can have no force, unless there be unity among its crew. To produce this unity, it must be divided into separate companies, each of which must have an officer to overlook and command it. The several officers must again have other officers presiding over them, to convey to them instruction as orders, tending to the same end, which must be received from the mouth of one single person, who has the command of all. Without these several degrees of subordination, so large a body of men would never act with vigour, nor all direct their efforts towards the same issue. Conceive them to be all equal, and every man to be guided by his own will, and what strength would they retain? Their helm would change course with every hand that was applied to it. [... from ships to navies...] Thus conducted, it will always move as a single body, and direct all its endeavours towards the same enterprise. But conceive it to be deprived of its commander in chief, by mutiny, and it instantly divides, and falls asunder. [...] Apply the same method of reasoning to an army, which is as much a single body as a single man.
Website navigation - expectations, graphic design
Feb. 22nd, 2012 01:59 pmhrafnHello, test subjects.
If you go to a website, and the organization has navigation for things like "Events" and "Wiki," and when you click those links, you wind up on a page that has completely different navigation and appearance from the main site, what is your reaction?
For example, check out NYC Resistor. All of their main navigation is grouped together, it has the same appearance, etc., but Events and Wiki take you to sites with a different look and navigation structure. Events goes to Eventbrite, and Wiki takes you to their wiki.
Do you expect that if Events takes you to an Eventbrite page, instead of a list or calendar within the organization's home page, it should open up in a new tab, or the same one you started in?
Do you find it confusing if it opens in the same tab? Or difficult to get back to the page you started from?
Do you think that a link that takes you to a page with a different appearance and nav structure should be separated on the main page in some way, either with an icon that suggests "This link is different from these others," or by being physically segregated from the rest of the navigation, or by having a different color or background?
Ditto all of the above for wiki pages: should it open in a new tab? Should it be colored differently or put in another grouping of navigation, separated from navigation within the main site?
Also, once you are on an organization's wiki, what sort of navigation back to the other site do you expect or want? Is a link in the sidebar that says "Main website" or something enough? Are you confused without seeing the same navigation (options, colors, etc.) that was on the main site?
Thank you. You will find your reward at the end of the maze.
(Why am I asking? I am part of the group that is working on redesigning the Asylum's web site, and the group is evenly split on how navigation that goes "outside" of the main site should look, whether it should be grouped with other primary navigation, whether it should open in a new tab "so people aren't confused," etc. Half the group says "treat it like other primary nav" and the other half says "No, it is different, it must look and act different." I have seen no sites that DO treat those links differently, but if you have examples, let me know.)
If you go to a website, and the organization has navigation for things like "Events" and "Wiki," and when you click those links, you wind up on a page that has completely different navigation and appearance from the main site, what is your reaction?
For example, check out NYC Resistor. All of their main navigation is grouped together, it has the same appearance, etc., but Events and Wiki take you to sites with a different look and navigation structure. Events goes to Eventbrite, and Wiki takes you to their wiki.
Do you expect that if Events takes you to an Eventbrite page, instead of a list or calendar within the organization's home page, it should open up in a new tab, or the same one you started in?
Do you find it confusing if it opens in the same tab? Or difficult to get back to the page you started from?
Do you think that a link that takes you to a page with a different appearance and nav structure should be separated on the main page in some way, either with an icon that suggests "This link is different from these others," or by being physically segregated from the rest of the navigation, or by having a different color or background?
Ditto all of the above for wiki pages: should it open in a new tab? Should it be colored differently or put in another grouping of navigation, separated from navigation within the main site?
Also, once you are on an organization's wiki, what sort of navigation back to the other site do you expect or want? Is a link in the sidebar that says "Main website" or something enough? Are you confused without seeing the same navigation (options, colors, etc.) that was on the main site?
Thank you. You will find your reward at the end of the maze.
(Why am I asking? I am part of the group that is working on redesigning the Asylum's web site, and the group is evenly split on how navigation that goes "outside" of the main site should look, whether it should be grouped with other primary navigation, whether it should open in a new tab "so people aren't confused," etc. Half the group says "treat it like other primary nav" and the other half says "No, it is different, it must look and act different." I have seen no sites that DO treat those links differently, but if you have examples, let me know.)
Celebrating other people's religious festivals for fun a profit?
Feb. 22nd, 2012 04:36 pmnaathI celebrate Christian festivals such as Christmas and Easter even though I'm not Christian; I've decided to extend this practice to more *useful* features of religious observance than scoffing too much turkey and chocolate. In this vein I am
*giving up all alcohol for Lent
*going to clean the house top-to-toe in preparation for Passover, although I have no intention of actually celebrating Passover (nor of throwing out all the bread etc.)
I have mad a fabulous start to this plan ahahahaha by developing sinusitis which makes me feel like some fucker punched me in the eye. Sudafed seems to be working.
*giving up all alcohol for Lent
*going to clean the house top-to-toe in preparation for Passover, although I have no intention of actually celebrating Passover (nor of throwing out all the bread etc.)
I have mad a fabulous start to this plan ahahahaha by developing sinusitis which makes me feel like some fucker punched me in the eye. Sudafed seems to be working.
Pull-ups!
Feb. 22nd, 2012 04:16 pmdennyI finally figured out how to fake up a pull-up bar in my flat. This is excellent news for my lats - although they may not currently agree with that diagnosis, aching as they do :)
( two pics and a video )
( two pics and a video )
A week of picking on trans people
Feb. 22nd, 2012 12:12 pmmarnanelIt's hardly unusual for trans people to be picked on by the rest of society, but this week has been egregious.
Firstly, there was the news story of the five-year-old child who was born male but wants to be a girl. Several national newspapers saw fit to publish not only this child's name but also the name of her school, some of them on the front page.
Secondly, the bookmaker Paddy Power ran a campaign which invited people at a racing meet to judge whether women were transgendered or cisgendered (the bookmaker asked people to "spot the stallions from the mares").
Thirdly, after a transsexual man reportedly recently gave birth in the UK, the Sun set up a hotline for its readers to tell its reporters where he lives. Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton, is to be commended for tabling an early day motion in the Commons condemning this behaviour.
And fourthly, the charity Plan UK decided to make a bus shelter advert that was visible only to female observers. This worked by using facial analysis software, and was apparently 90% accurate. It seems that nobody thought of the dangers inherent in having a machine declare a person's observed gender to the rest of the bus queue. (If the machine had a 10% false positive rate, can you imagine what a gift it would be to a bully waiting for the school bus?) Sarah Brown gave this device the wonderful name "Out-o-tron". Plan UK are not apologising and have permanently lost my support.
Firstly, there was the news story of the five-year-old child who was born male but wants to be a girl. Several national newspapers saw fit to publish not only this child's name but also the name of her school, some of them on the front page.
Secondly, the bookmaker Paddy Power ran a campaign which invited people at a racing meet to judge whether women were transgendered or cisgendered (the bookmaker asked people to "spot the stallions from the mares").
Thirdly, after a transsexual man reportedly recently gave birth in the UK, the Sun set up a hotline for its readers to tell its reporters where he lives. Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton, is to be commended for tabling an early day motion in the Commons condemning this behaviour.
And fourthly, the charity Plan UK decided to make a bus shelter advert that was visible only to female observers. This worked by using facial analysis software, and was apparently 90% accurate. It seems that nobody thought of the dangers inherent in having a machine declare a person's observed gender to the rest of the bus queue. (If the machine had a 10% false positive rate, can you imagine what a gift it would be to a bully waiting for the school bus?) Sarah Brown gave this device the wonderful name "Out-o-tron". Plan UK are not apologising and have permanently lost my support.
code push shortly
Feb. 22nd, 2012 01:47 am![[staff profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
denise posting in ![[site community profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_maintenanceWe'll be beginning a code push in about 15-20 minutes. Please put up your seat backs and return your tray tables to the full and upright locked position. We'll update this entry when we're done!
(2:40AM EST: As always, the prep turns out to be more involved than we predicted. We'll hopefully be starting soon.)
3:10AM EST: And, we're done! Please report any issues here or to Support.
(2:40AM EST: As always, the prep turns out to be more involved than we predicted. We'll hopefully be starting soon.)
3:10AM EST: And, we're done! Please report any issues here or to Support.
The Ballad of The Once & Future Gin Palace (abridged)
Feb. 21st, 2012 11:38 pmthe_axelthe_siobhan has made a few posts showing our progress so far.In case you didn't see them on her journal, and because I'm too lazy to write my own post, here they are:
Stage I: The Origins of the Once and Future Gin Palace
Stage II: The Rise of the Once and Future Gin Palace
Stage III: The Fellowship of the Once and Future Gin Palace
Stage IV: The Once and Future Gin Palace Rides Again
Twitter Updates for 21-02-2012
Feb. 22nd, 2012 01:00 amsci_starborne- Thunderbird backups have created a bunch of "sbd" subdirectories that are breaking inbox displays now. 12:41:54, 2012-02-21
- Ffffff.. clean up the files and Thunderbird recreates all the redundant directories again. 12:57:16, 2012-02-21
- Some legacy setting keeps messing things up. Uninstalling & reinstalling Thunderbird.. 13:44:04, 2012-02-21
- Help. I am now having really huge problems with these email files. 14:36:30, 2012-02-21
- This is like pulling teeth… 15:15:04, 2012-02-21
- Right.. so deleting the new empty folder deletes the entire contents of the actual mail folder. WTF Thunderbird? 15:17:36, 2012-02-21
- My sanity is now in the hands of the Mozilla support forums. 15:50:44, 2012-02-21
- Upside to all this is I haven't actually lost any email yet, as reinstall went to IMAP not POP. 16:02:15, 2012-02-21
- I liked a @YouTube video from @reidgower http://t.co/pX99bk5P NASA TV spot (unofficial) 17:56:24, 2012-02-21
- Master hard-drive has failed. That's £70 down the pan to replace. Shouldn't have lost much. Rest of PC still seems sound. 21:15:17, 2012-02-21
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
Hobnobbing
Feb. 21st, 2012 10:54 pmcebThis evening I have been out at formal hall with my boss, sitting at high table with the fellows and talking to the president and other things which might be construed as networking. All a bit alarming really...
(We had very nice pancakes for afters.)
(We had very nice pancakes for afters.)
"No, there is too much."
Feb. 21st, 2012 04:38 pmrosefoxAt the moment there is a constant running background process in my head that's screaming, "For the love of cats would you all please just SHUT UP FOR JUST FIVE MINUTES." If I inadvertently express that or something similar to it in my outside voice, please accept my apologies in advance. It's not you, it's you and also everyone else.
Weight-off-my-back milestones coming up:
Today: Resigning from the CD*NY board. I just... I can't. I realized how much I was looking forward to the end of my term and decided there was no point to waiting that long; it certainly wasn't fair to the board to have a position but not occupy it. There is too much other stuff on my plate. Maybe someday, but not right now.
Feb. 23: twenty-four happens. Did I even post about this? Maybe not! I'm joining a group of amazing brilliant crazy people in putting a magazine together in 24 hours from start to finish. You can read more about this here (and fund our Kickstarter if you feel so moved--we need less than $400 to make our goal!). I agreed to do it mostly because it required no advance planning and also because I'm just a sucker for things like this. But how nice is it to know that on February 22 I won't be frantically prepping and on February 24 I'll already be done? Really nice. Really really nice.
Feb. 24-26: The contractors come back to our apartment and finish doing all the things they should have done before we moved in, and we finally get to paint. Also we get a NEW STOVE. Also, I hope, we visit a lumberyard and get wood cut to replace the backs of our bookcases, many of which fell apart or mysteriously vanished in the move. After this we will be able to really start turning the house into a home.
Sometime fairly soon I hope: being sufficiently diligent with ice and Celebrex and rest (ha ha ha) and eventually with stretches and exercises that my inflamed bicep tendons get better and stay better. Yes, this is different from the forearm tendinitis (which is fortuitously quiet at the moment) and can be traced directly to my marathon couch-sitting novel-editing session of a couple of months ago. And of course typing aggravates it. Typing aggravates everything.
Mid-March: Readercon program sign-up begins. This is a precious oasis of time between "ack ack ack get the program item descriptions ready" and "ack ack ack put the schedule together".
April 14: CD*NY's Playford Ball happens. I'm running it this year, which is the problem with agreeing to do something a year and a half before it happens: you never know what circumstances will change in the meantime. The major change I'm dealing with is that the person who was supposed to be my right-hand woman fell very ill recently; she's doing better now, which is wonderful, but she won't be able to do much, if anything, to help, so I am scrambling. Fortunately many lovely people are being very supportive and encouraging me to delegate delegate delegate. Unfortunately I'm short on people I know I can trust to take things on. So... yeah. Anyway, one way or another, it will happen and be pretty great and I'm really not too worried about that; it's just a lot of work.
May sometime: We have a housewarming party, which means that by then we will have our house in good enough shape for a housewarming party. At least that's the plan.
June sometime: We finish this year's round of upgrades on the Readercon scheduling software. Xtina and Danielle have been total rock stars for taking this project on, and they're being as autonomous as they possibly can given that neither of them has been to Readercon or used the software before, but there are still many hours of "oh, that's not what this feature request means at all--it actually means this completely other thing, sorry that wasn't clear" in my future.
July 12-15: Readercon happens. I fall more in love with this convention every year. I've just officially volunteered to be program chair again next year (pending concom approval). Right now I'm collating proposals that are making me squeal and jump up and down in excitement. But gods above and below, it is a lot of work, and I will be really glad to take a break for that sweet precious month of August before we start the ball rolling again for 2013.
October: We put together the PW year's best books list. Yes, I'm already thinking about this, because I need to start reading candidates now if I'm going to have a hope of choosing the best from among them. Woe is me, needing to read 80 amazing books... but the problem is finding 80 books' worth of reading time between now and October, since at the moment I'm only managing to read two or three books a month. I might need to steal![[livejournal.com profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
coalescent's notion of a "reading holiday" and go somewhere picturesque for a week with a suitcase full of books.
My primary goal, beyond getting all these things done, is to not see these milestones as creating gaps in my schedule that I could fill by volunteering for more things. Go ahead, laugh.
Weight-off-my-back milestones coming up:
Today: Resigning from the CD*NY board. I just... I can't. I realized how much I was looking forward to the end of my term and decided there was no point to waiting that long; it certainly wasn't fair to the board to have a position but not occupy it. There is too much other stuff on my plate. Maybe someday, but not right now.
Feb. 23: twenty-four happens. Did I even post about this? Maybe not! I'm joining a group of amazing brilliant crazy people in putting a magazine together in 24 hours from start to finish. You can read more about this here (and fund our Kickstarter if you feel so moved--we need less than $400 to make our goal!). I agreed to do it mostly because it required no advance planning and also because I'm just a sucker for things like this. But how nice is it to know that on February 22 I won't be frantically prepping and on February 24 I'll already be done? Really nice. Really really nice.
Feb. 24-26: The contractors come back to our apartment and finish doing all the things they should have done before we moved in, and we finally get to paint. Also we get a NEW STOVE. Also, I hope, we visit a lumberyard and get wood cut to replace the backs of our bookcases, many of which fell apart or mysteriously vanished in the move. After this we will be able to really start turning the house into a home.
Sometime fairly soon I hope: being sufficiently diligent with ice and Celebrex and rest (ha ha ha) and eventually with stretches and exercises that my inflamed bicep tendons get better and stay better. Yes, this is different from the forearm tendinitis (which is fortuitously quiet at the moment) and can be traced directly to my marathon couch-sitting novel-editing session of a couple of months ago. And of course typing aggravates it. Typing aggravates everything.
Mid-March: Readercon program sign-up begins. This is a precious oasis of time between "ack ack ack get the program item descriptions ready" and "ack ack ack put the schedule together".
April 14: CD*NY's Playford Ball happens. I'm running it this year, which is the problem with agreeing to do something a year and a half before it happens: you never know what circumstances will change in the meantime. The major change I'm dealing with is that the person who was supposed to be my right-hand woman fell very ill recently; she's doing better now, which is wonderful, but she won't be able to do much, if anything, to help, so I am scrambling. Fortunately many lovely people are being very supportive and encouraging me to delegate delegate delegate. Unfortunately I'm short on people I know I can trust to take things on. So... yeah. Anyway, one way or another, it will happen and be pretty great and I'm really not too worried about that; it's just a lot of work.
May sometime: We have a housewarming party, which means that by then we will have our house in good enough shape for a housewarming party. At least that's the plan.
June sometime: We finish this year's round of upgrades on the Readercon scheduling software. Xtina and Danielle have been total rock stars for taking this project on, and they're being as autonomous as they possibly can given that neither of them has been to Readercon or used the software before, but there are still many hours of "oh, that's not what this feature request means at all--it actually means this completely other thing, sorry that wasn't clear" in my future.
July 12-15: Readercon happens. I fall more in love with this convention every year. I've just officially volunteered to be program chair again next year (pending concom approval). Right now I'm collating proposals that are making me squeal and jump up and down in excitement. But gods above and below, it is a lot of work, and I will be really glad to take a break for that sweet precious month of August before we start the ball rolling again for 2013.
October: We put together the PW year's best books list. Yes, I'm already thinking about this, because I need to start reading candidates now if I'm going to have a hope of choosing the best from among them. Woe is me, needing to read 80 amazing books... but the problem is finding 80 books' worth of reading time between now and October, since at the moment I'm only managing to read two or three books a month. I might need to steal
coalescent's notion of a "reading holiday" and go somewhere picturesque for a week with a suitcase full of books.My primary goal, beyond getting all these things done, is to not see these milestones as creating gaps in my schedule that I could fill by volunteering for more things. Go ahead, laugh.