Sitsofe's diary for January 2002
31 January, 2002 
I finally got round to trying out the department's new Macs and I must say that I'm impressed. Apple seem to have almost come up with the goods on those computers - they really ooze style out of every possible pore. So it is a crying shame that they are not more reliable (I guess I have been spoiled by Linux eh?). I really dread seeing the colour-wheel spinning round since it inevitably means something has gone wrong and locked up and these lockups seem to interfere with the whole OS (killing off the task or logging out just doesn't seem to help).
The other frustrating thing is the way that windows will not avoid the dock - why did Apple do this? I do not want to auto-hide the dock but windows seem to keep ending up behind it. However, the pulsing power lights when the computer is put to sleep shows an exemplary flair for design that simply isn't visible on PCs. Unfortunately, I had extreme trouble working out how to burn a Mandrake ISO. Oh yeah, and I'd like to be able to add a logout button to the dock, an X server would be cool, better compatibility with the GNU tools would be good (du -h doesn't work :) and did I say I love the flat screens? The case is "pretty nifty" (tm) and the pouring effect is lovely, and...
Forced DaveB and Sonic to watch the latest Xiaoxiao back at home.
30 January, 2002
Jan 30 06:57:38 roo sshd[25911]: input_userauth_request: illegal user jasonb
Jan 30 06:57:38 roo sshd[25911]: Failed none for illegal user jasonb from 137.44.10.1 port 51418 ssh2
Jan 30 06:57:50 roo sshd[25911]: Connection closed by 137.44.10.1
Jan 30 06:58:09 roo sshd[32290]: input_userauth_request: illegal user daveb
Jan 30 06:58:09 roo sshd[32290]: Failed none for illegal user daveb from 137.44.10.1 port 51419 ssh2
Jan 30 06:58:15 roo sshd[32290]: Failed password for illegal user daveb from 137.44.10.1 port 51419 ssh2
One can only wonder what state of intoxication DaveB and Jase were in to be down the SUCS room at 7 in the morning... :)
29 January, 2002
So very tired. To make matters worse, I have had a cough that makes me feel like I'm going to suffocate for the past few weeks.
On the website front, I've started creating Perl scripts to convert my old hsc pages into nice friendly XML.
Internet Computing looks fun whereas Algebraic Specification of Software and Hardware/Functional Programming do not.
Jason - as if we would really forget your birthday!
24 January, 2002
I've been really suffering trying to revise for Abstract Data Types and I think I can put it down to my fear/hate of maths. Ever since I sat my GCSEs (in fact even in the run up to them) I haven't enjoyed the mathematical material in my subject. I know for a fact that it's not down to poor lecturers/teachers because they really know their stuff and it seems to be just me who is suffering. I'm not so bad if I've covered all of the material before but I'm still not great...
Sadly my inability looks set to sink yet my most promising run of results in years - I'll be lucky to get a 2:2 at the rate I'm currently going (which means I may never drink again). The thing is that I've got even more maths material this term so things look set to get worse. Hello dead end job, here I come.
On a more positive point I've been streaming the new Chemical Brothers album off the net. I'm pleased to report that it seems to be mostly good stuff (there's the typical Beth Orton track but hey it still sounds nice). Probably the best song on it is Hoops with lyrics which seem to sounds like "You lot go round again again again / Think that I will never come down again again again". I also managed to get winamp to visualise the Realplayer stream by using the location linein:// which means I can use Milkdrop to see the music :).
Ah it turns out that the lyrics are "Here I go round again / Think that I will never come down again" from Round Again by The Association. Isn't Google great eh?
23 January, 2002
Downloaded another Jet Set Radio Future video from Gamespot. This was is the demo play video and seems to have a complete version of the music track Understand (the Concept of Love) by Tears of Technology. I've scoured the net high and low and I have yet to find out any more about the band or the track (I can't even find an MP3 of it). The thing is, I think I'd like to buy this band's stuff but I can't even confirm if both the tracks I've heard are really by them (although this looks likely).
Ah I've found the site for Tears of Technology. It appears that it is hosted on a computer that's not always online...
...After mailing the person behind Tears of Technology congratulating them on upcoming worldwide exposure, I received a reply telling me that they were not the ones behind it. Back to the drawing board.
22 January, 2002
Woke up late and missed most of the Abstract Datatypes revision lecture (*sigh* not been my fortnight). Replayed Tempest 2000 and worked a lot more on the scripts for my diary. Hopefully all the SQL I'm building will help in my project too.
21 January, 2002
Had my graphics 2 exam which went even more disastrously wrong than the first one. However, got to play lots of Death Tank late into the night. Death Tank rocks, it really does.
19 January, 2002
Rediscovered one of the first websites I ever made - Moo!. I think there is a more complete version of that site kicking about on my Amiga somewhere.
18 January, 2002
Spent the day revising for High Performance Microprocessors. Managed to get the router to reboot itself while getting Bind to dump its list of known dnses. Oh and played a little bit more Death Tank.
17 January, 2002
Bumped into doug whilst was at uni and he told me about how Jeff Minter had lost his job (3rd January 2002) and was restarting Llamasoft. Anyhow Jeff's started a llamatron blog so we can see his latest creations.
DaveB fixed his Saturn and after pointing out what a shoddy conversion Street Fighter Collection was we sat down and played the mighty best-hidden-secret-but-really-should-be-a-PC-shareware-game that is Death Tank (Death tank! Butt spank! Your tank, is a dead tank!). Lobotomy I salute you - you created a multiplayer masterpiece that most of the world will never know about...
16 January, 2002
1,21,31 - st
2, 22 - nd
3, 23 - rd
4-20,24-30 - th
(working on a simple algorithm to add sound endings to numbers)