Mmmm. The Greys is definitely a place to go to enjoy a casual, fun atmosphere, no loud music (so anyone wanting to hold a conversation can do so =:), and very good food. ^_^ Saturday, I began with trotter & tail rissoles with home made apple sauce and a herb salad, which was much as you might expect - pork, but doubly so. Very richly flavored, going very well with the middlingly tart sauce and the spicy leaves. Then, one of the best rib eye steaks I've had the pleasure of enjoying, properly cooked rare, with a peppercorn sauce that actually complemented the meat, rather than masking or disguising it, plus a tasty coleslaw, and ye olde chips. =:) Then, finally, the coup de grace - home made chocolate chip and mint ice cream. Real mint, from their garden. Fantastic. ^_^ A few great beers along the way, too, of course, notably including Kasteel Trippel, a hearty blonde with apple and banana overtones, and Satan Red, an old favorite. (Ooh, and the menu rolled over on Thursday..)

Good little interview with BT, on his new iPhone app, Sonifi; and it's actually his app, not merely endorsed by him, which surprised me somewhat. But, as he says, "My background is classical music and programming. I used to tutor my father's students in computers and programming." Hopefully he'll follow through with his plans for making more tracks available for use within Sonifi - I'm very keen on the concept. Why, after all, should music be such a passive experience, when you can be making your own mix, on the spot? (And having a pile of fun doing so!) And not just in the old notion of balancing the tracks as you wish, but choosing between different versions of the bassline or percussion, adding various stutter effects and filters, all on the fly, with outright fun visualisations throughout. Cool stuff! Anyway, if you want to have a peek at what it's like, here's one example.

Crystal ".. is a semi-modular software synthesizer featuring both subtractive synthesis and frequency modulation (FM) synthesis. It offers abundant modulation control with over 90 parameters which may be modulated, multi-stage envelopes with graphical editors, extensive tempo sync of envelopes/lforates/delay times, built-in effects for chorus/flanging/comb filtering/echoes, and a band splitter for effects processing by frequency band. Not only that, Crystal has wave sequencing, granular synthesis, program morphing, MIDI learn, and imports soundfonts." And it's free. ^_^ UB AU/VST.

I found out about that while searching for any competition on price for Native Instrument's price slash on Komplete 5, their Get It All bundle, usually around $1000, down to $400 for July. Still a chunk of change, certainly, but that gives you 11 very good synths, including the abstract Reaktor, the slightly more conventional Absynth, the Hammond-style B4, the retro Pro-53, Akoustik Piano, Guitar Rig for amps, and more. Hefty! Seriously tempting.


Dinner on Thursday (which I'd taken off, to try keeping myself from melting down due to stress at the salt mine) - chicken in a hot black bean sauce, on bulgar wheat. =:9 Tossed the chopped up chicken breast into the pan with a bit of oil, then added some garlic powder, a dose of unknown Greek peppercorns, a little chopped ginger, the last teaspoon of a former coworker's chili paste, smoked paprika, and a good dollop of black bean sauce. A little further along, some halved chestnut mushrooms, baby corn, and green beans. I was quite pleased with the outcome. ^_^

Huh! That was a pleasant surprise.. I figured I needed more storage space, but with Ocelot only having USB 1.1, Firewire 400 was the only option. A lovely interface standard, but external drives always work out noticeably more expensive for anything but USB2 only. So, I picked up a no-name Cardbus card with two USB2 and two FW400 interfaces, and Leopard seems perfectly fine with both. ^_^ (But not the iPhone, presumably due to its proprietary link to iTunes. Wonder if a known-compatible card would have the same issue..) I may well just copy over everything from the old to the new drive, and leave the new one - a Buffalo DriveStation - in its place, given the Maxtor OneTouch IV's been on server duty for about a year now, almost permanently in use.

Your Guide to Transformers 2.

I found it a little curious that the iPhone 3GS sold quite so strongly on its launch - certainly, internally, it's considerably faster, with a higher clock speed, improved core architecture, and improved GPU, but I hadn't thought that would translate to especially strong demand. Still, a larger customer base isn't a bad thing - a million sold in the opening weekend apparently set new AT&T sales records.

A Map of the Web (click on the map for full size), overlaid onto the Tokyo subway system. Notice how familiar all those names are? It doesn't even matter where you are in the world - you'd be completely at home on a system like that. The physical world is only one of the worlds in which we live; and here we are, the first to be able to think that way. [Edit: the original Flickr link's been not-so-subtly altered to point here]

Ponyo: a definite hit. It's got the magic of Totoro and Spirited Away, and animation well up to Studio Ghibli's best standards. If you want proof that traditional animation can remain a beautiful force in the age of CGI, this is where to come. ^_^

On the other paw, Knowing, from Alex Proyas, was a terrible disappointment. An interesting idea or two might have made for a good short, but stretched into full feature length belabored the plotline well past credibility, before jettisoning the main plot point's necessity entirely, to say nothing of disappointingly flat writing, or the irksomeness factor felt at many points, where a writer puts someone else's words into the wrong character's mouth. Wedge in a good dose of End Times thinking, and it winds up feeling a bit like a Scientology advert. Not an absymal film, true, just ludicrous - a real dog's dinner of awkward writing and acting. One to watch if you're just having friends for a cheesy movie night - plenty of good riff opportunities. ^_^; (It does, however, have a couple very cute buns, briefly =:)

Here's a train starting up (a Keikyuu 2100 series) with a particularly distinctive set of discrete rising tones as it sets off; and, in uniquely Japanese style, here's Super Bellz' "Motor Man Keikyu VVVF", a track based around that locomotive family. =:D

Well, that's definitely not such a bad way to begin a week: finding a few pints of Dark Star Brewing's Hophead on my desk, from the boss. =:D

So, the weather warmed up somewhat for the week - thankfully, still very pleasant a temperature, although most of the local rabbits have flown north for the summer as a result. It's back down again now, for the weekend, to which I offer no objections. 26C in a wetsuit leaves one moist.

One of the more unusual and inventive TF tales I've had the good fortune to enjoy: Davey & Mif, by Azimuth.

I can think of a few folks on my flist who might want to visit this: The Great Internet Migratory Box Of Electronics Junk. ".. a progressive lending library of electronic components. An internet meme in physical form halfway between P2P zip-archive sharing and a flea market. It arrives full of wonderful (and possibly useless) components, but you will surely find some treasures to keep. You will be inspired look through your own piles, such as they are, and find more mysterious components that clearly need to be donated to the box before it is passed on again."

The Burma VJ Movie, premiering on July 14th around the UK:

Armed with small handycams the Burma VJs stop at nothing to make their reportages from the streets of Rangoon. Their material is smuggled out of the country and broadcast back into Burma via satellite and offered as free usage for international media. The whole world has witnessed single event clips made by the VJs, but for the very first time, their individual images have been carefully put together and at once, they tell a much bigger story. The film offers a unique insight into high-risk journalism and dissidence in a police state, while at the same time providing a thorough documentation of the historical and dramatic days of September 2007, when the Buddhist monks started marching.
”Joshua”, age 27, is one of the young video journalists, who works undercover to counter the propaganda of the military regime. Joshua is suddenly thrown into the role as tactical leader of his group of reporters, when the monks lead a massive but peaceful uprising against the military regime. After decades of oblivion - Burma returns to the world stage, but at the same time foreign TV crews are banned from entering the country, so it is left to Joshua and his crew to document the events and establish a lifeline to the surrounding world. It is their footage that keeps the revolution alive on TV screens all over.

Does anyone have experience with either - or, ideally, both - Aperture and Lightroom? My top consideration is filing, rather than manipulation - I'd like rapid previewing of multiple images, and easy, fast tagging. When I'm going through anything up to a few hundred images a day, it's frustrating not really being able to add such metadata as I go, at least, with the kind of speed required for that volume.

A Nebraska Tornado (click for more photos)

Caution: this photo is dangerously cute. Baby bun being fed.

Gack. I was just reading Cory Doctorow's "I, Robot" on the iPhone, and had the urge to get a better look at one of the lead characters by turning it over to look at the cover..

Little Wheel is a superbly stylish Flash game, set in a city "Full of Living Robots".. until an accident kills the central generator, sending the entire city into a long slumber. Accidentally awoken by a lightning strike, 10,000 years later, your task is to restart the generator, and bring the city back to life. Egad! I'm really out of the anime loop.. Gake no ue no Ponyo (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Totoro, et al) is/was the latest Studio Ghibli release, coming to the US in August. And yes, this is a genuine Miyazaki work, written and directed by the master himself.

A fun superhero-ish tale that doesn't take itself too seriously: Abyss issue 1 of 4, first issue free.

Via Pharyngula, an in-depth report into Scientology, from the Tampa Bay Times.

On the professional front, not much new to be said - just slogging it through, with a view to picking up one or two toys I've been promising myself for a while now. Lately, it's mostly been the radio bootloader - building on the original USB-only program, as currently present in the first production run, but extending it internally quite considerably, for a good deal more flexibility. Using this will mean customers will be able to update larger deployments (perhaps a few hundred devices, maybe a couple thousand) in far less time than individually over USB. Of course, it brings in a whole slew of new issues, but it's also giving me the opportunity to tidy up some of the original code in the process, which is a welcome matter, given that was designed (even moreso =:) on the fly, at a point where I was still completely new to the project. ^_^

If you don't follow Cake Wrecks, you're missing out on some quite wonderful culinary failures - like this Space Shuttle, which wouldn't actually be so bad, were it not for the way the main fuel tank is colored rather oddly, has a slight curve to it, and even has rather more prominent a gasket ring around the top than I recall. It's safe for work, but not by too much.. =:)

Coffee for today: the Yemeni Haraazi. Definitely a personal favorite now. ^_^ Very robust flavor, almost smoky (but much less so than the Yemeni Bura'e, which was outright tobacco), quite acidic.

How was Michael Jackson's death received? Well, one indicator of just how many people's lives he added magic to is that Google suspected a malware attack on them initially, when the surge of traffic hit. Twitter and AIM went down. No big surprise LJ was hit! Ye gods.. to have touched so many people's lives - that's surely the greatest achievement of them all.

I'm not given to reporting on celebrity deaths, but, that's what TMZ is saying: "Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back." Other sites haven't yet confirmed his demise, only that he was found not breathing - and that's not a survivable condition for more than a few minutes at best.

*sigh* A great talent, and responsible for some truly classic music videos, notably Thriller, and one of the first, and still amongst the best, uses of morphing, in Black Or White.

Edit: confirmation now appears to be in progress, eg: MSNBC, USA Today, CBS.

Every time I go out on a photography mission in SL, I wind up loving every minute of it. ^_^ There's just something about the challenge of finding just the right places, the angles, the lighting.. so many possibilities, a few of which will strike me just the right way, once I've zoomed in a little, around a bit, focus on a different part of the scene, adjusted the lighting.. so many possibilities, so many ways to mess up, and so much wonder to be found. As in life in general, ne?

And if you've got a couple minutes spare for a good SL music video, try this out: I Will Find You. Broodily romantic, befitting the Clannad soundtrack, with cloudy skies and sheep over the hillside, it's a simple tale, elegantly portrayed.

My latest coffee order just arrived. So many wonderful beans. ^_^ (Well, pre-ground to "home espresso" size - but it'll all get used up within around four to six weeks)

Snowshoe hare, for the caffeination of.

Last week, Montazeri backed the protests; a significant step, as this article notes, outlining the system of power in Iran. "As Supreme Leader, Khamenei represents the ultimate authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), above the office of the President. The only check on his near-absolute power is the Assembly of Experts, a conservative body of 86 clerics, currently headed by Rafsanjani. That body, which represents just one of the IRI's awkward hybrids of theocracy and democracy, is responsible for electing, supervising and dismissing the Supreme Leader. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Assembly has elected only one new Supreme Leader (Khamenei), it has barely "supervised" his affairs, and there has never been any question of dismissal, until now."

He, in turn, has come out in public to denounce the demonstrations, and asserted that the election was honest; so, his cards are on the table. For his part, with the demonstrations continuing even after Khamenei's proclamation, despite retaliation in the ways beloved of threatened authority (tear gas, water cannons, etc), Mousavi says, essentially, that he's ready to die for this. This is not, I feel, a situation that will merely dissipate because one side wishes their power to be unquestioned. But if Mousavi comes to power, will he have to live within the confines of the current theocratic democracy, or will there be a return to a more secular democracy, as in the days of Mohammad Mossadegh, prior to his British/American overthrow?

An additional perspective, from someone whose parents fled Tehran in 1979, and who have just returned from a two week visit to the city.

Since then, there's been violence in the streets of the cities, not only Tehran. One wretched, hideous example is included here, where we see one woman, Nedâ Sâlehi Âghâ Soltân, shot by a Basiji (paramilitary) on a motorbike, and dies beside her father. I haven't been able to bring myself to watch.

There would seem to be no turning back, for either side.


"A fox has been unmasked as the mystery thief of more than 100 shoes in the small western German town of Foehren, authorities said Friday." Well, there you go. Far too many pointy teeth to be trustworthy. =:)

Quite a nerdily fascinating look at the modular locomotive in Europe - projects over the past forty years, aiming towards standardising body and engine design, taking into account the amazing patchwork of rail electricity supplies in place across the continent, to say nothing of the various gauges. Picked up Pragmatic Programmers' screencast series on iPhone programming, and their new pre-release version of their book (as a PDF, natch, though they do offer the option of getting the paper version as well) on the iPhone OS 3.0 SDK, which should make for some fun reading. Yes, really. =:D FA recommendation for the day: Red Panda Boi, by Kwik. Quite safe, and very, very cute. Via shatterstripes, a comic to try: Hero. Very nicely drawn, and all dialogue is delivered via tooltips - so you only see the box relating to what you're looking at, or none at all, if you'd rather contemplate the scene.

At some point, I can see becoming very tempted by a Cintiq. Does anyone have any words of advice or caution with them?

Let's squat!

If you're in the UK, and have audio aspirations, here's a drawing to enter, from Source Distribution, offering a £10k studio setup, installation, and a day's training to a lucky winner. Entries close on July 31 2009. (The T&Cs look quite sane, though you do get added to their e-zine mailing list) The kit includes a 15" MacBook Pro, Logic Studio, a PreSonus StudioLive mixing console, a Universal Audio 710 tube preamp, a Røde NT2000, an M1, and two NT55 mikes, and more. =:9

Dinner on Saturday started off as a cheap half-can of chicken tikka masala.. before I got hold of it. =:) A chicken breast beefed it up, so to speak, accompanied by a few elderly bird's eye peppers (what kind of heat levels do you enjoy in a hot curry? Did you inherit that from your upbringing/local culture?), baby corn, thin green beans, herbes fines, Himalayan Garlic sauce, balsamic vinegar, and a dash of Madras curry powder - really quite good, I thought. ^_^ A healthy vibrance to it, but only alongside the rich body of the curry. Hardly Vindaloo strength, let alone Phaal, but pleasantly warm.

Well, this might be one platformer I'll have to get: Plushed, from Blacksmith Games. "You can help the main character (surprise: a bunny, turning into a bunny knight later) during his journey." "The game's design has a distinct visual style that merges the happy world of childhood fairytales with a somewhat macabre twist and dark humor."

arakinuk notes a New Scientist competition, marking the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on July 20/21 1969, to win a fragment of moon rock: suggest something else Neil Armstrong could or should have said, on stepping onto the moon. =:) Entries close on June 29 2009.

On the way back to the warren last week, I saw some cloud gaps that looked like Africa and a stunted India, and took the camera out to take a couple snaps, then slipping it into my pocket. A short way ahead, this forest representative showed herself, briefly:


SLARF's review of Nadi's jerboa av suggests it's rather a good piece of work, with several fun customisation options included as standard. In appearance, it's somewhat toony, along Luskwood lines.

Via ionotter, the superb realisation by the Grauniad that whilst there's a huge volume of MPs' expenses documents to wade through, there are also quite a few people who might be inclined to assist in sifting through them.. so here you go! "Some pages will be covering letters, or claim forms for office stationery. But somewhere in here is the receipt for a duck island. And who knows what else may turn up. If you find something which you think needs further attention, simply hit the button marked “investigate this!” and we’ll take a closer look. We have 457153 pages of documents, of which 349971 are unreviewed."

Hee! Someone prepared a time-lapse clip showing the front of the Palo Alto Apple Store, when they're closed - and lo, you can see the way the logo gently pulsates in the same way a MacBook's sleep indicator does when asleep, just quite a lot more slowly. ^_^

nedroidcomics wants your Cosbies. Draw Bill Cosby, and post it to that entry, which is screened, so no-one else will see it until the Great Cosby Experiment 09 is over, on June 26 2009.

Via momentrabbit, a fantastically accurate half-scale TARDIS wardrobe, for anyone within reach of Sydney. It looks as if it could be the real thing - absolutely perfect.

A brief clip from the BBC, showing a builder and his squirrel companion, rescued as an orphan.

A girl, dying of vascular cancer, dearly wanted to see Up, but was too ill to leave the house. Her mother tried calling Pixar, to see if there was anything they could do. They flew an employee down with a DVD, for a private screening.

On the way back into the salt mine a few days ago, I saw a bun in the goats' paddock - he slipped beneath the wire mesh fence separating that from the sheep's spot, so I took a step back, and caught a few images of him framed by the thicket between us. But even then, he could clearly see me just as well as I could observe him - but didn't seem to be making any steps to depart. I wondered, then, if I might be able to get a little closer, without the "cover" in the way, and took a few more steps back up the path.. and not only had he chosen not to move, but he'd settled down, almost waiting for me. Perhaps only ten feet away from me by then, although with a wooden fence between us.. so close. A magical moment.

We were warned with great seriousness not get in involved with any form of protest today. We were told that various forms of security would be there to greet us and be very heavy handed, maybe using live ammunition again. We were told that a rally had been organised gathering pro-Ahmadinejad supporters who would protest the destructive rioting by the Mousavi supporters. We were told to stay calm and wait by Mousavi. But still we came out and in great numbers.

My frustration was that if we wait for the time to be right, it will never come and be less likely to be able to come.

From Valiasr to Vanak, to Parkway and on to Tajrish the roads were filled with people showing peace signs and marching in silence. "Your hands are your slogan", said those with fingers on their lips, occasionally hushing the crowd. This is a method by which to avoid the description of a protest and yesterday at Azadi (Freedom) Square, this proved very successful - bar the 7-deaths among what is reported to be a million or so people.

It was an incredible feeling seeing a sea of people and hearing only a quiet hum of voices. The understanding and cooperation among the people was unusual from my experience of this place, but things went very smoothly and the little security seen was out of the way and only observing.

I myself wanted to make my way to IRIB, also known as Sedaye Sima, a place on route. This is the national broadcasting house where the results were announced to the nation. I've heard they have their own private security, which worried me at first, but upon arrival they we not visibly present. Outside this location we sat down; we kind of had no choice as the entire remaining road to Tajrish was filled. Occasional cheers and whistle came but most of the participant hushed things down again.

Upon arriving back to Vanak where I hoped to get a taxi out of town, the rally against the supposed rioting, those supporting Ahmadinejad, arrived. The took the Square and started chanting religious slogans. Those whom I was following were quick to reroute the crowd out of the way, yet as I left the Square I feared that with sunset the attacks would begin.

From what I can gather, the authorities are trying to clamp down on communications, and aren't overly keen on news spreading around, including curtailing foreign journalists' activities, let alone Iranians with cameras.

Another source of good quality photos from the recent days: the Boston Globe.

'According to the Cyrus News Agency, Tuesday morning 16 senior members of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps were arrested. "These commanders have been in contact with members of the Iranian army to join the people's movement," CNA reports. "Three of the commanders are veterans of Iran-Iraq war. They have been moved to an undisclosed location in East Tehran."'

The Guardian Council has agreed to a recount, but: "IranElection09BBC says there will be a recount www.bbcnews.com recount of what? ballot boxes were BURNED!!! #iranelection" Mousavi rejects the notion, calling instead for a fresh election.

Sega of America president and CEO quits, and joins Ng:moco: '"I've been in the video game business for a very long 22 years, and I've pretty much worked in big, established companies that whole time since the beginning," Jeffery tells Gamasutra. And he says he's excited to see a "polarization" in the industry, an alternative to the hit-driven blockbuster model. "People have stopped talking about the $25 million games, and we're talking about the $25,000 games," he says. "That shift in gaming has happened remarkably quickly, and I really want to be part of that. In a very, very short period of time, [Ngmoco has] built a nascent organization into something that's emerging as a potential leader in the gaming space on the iPhone.' A rather spiffy new stamp issue from the Royal Mail: Fantasy Creatures, by Dave McKean. (Pity he didn't slip the Monty Python illo of God in as well =:)

And I should like to note that mashing anchovies into even the lousiest Caesar dressing positively transforms it. =:9 (I never could stand the things, until I tried the Cappricciosa pizza from a pizza joint in Milson's Point, in the north of Sydney: strong pepperoni, anchovies, and capers, with a good, tart tomato sauce. (If you're in the area, and need good beer, try the Lord Nelson, over in The Rocks. Very good house-brewed ales, though - as is compulsory in the country - served near freezing point. Nitrogen's, that is)

More photos from Monday:

So.. is it worth shelling out for a copy of the Watership Down TV series? There seems to be a dearth of previews available, and they've not deigned fit to offer it via the iTunes Store, leaving just that clumsy physical medium, which isn't something I prefer. (Why would I want to pay for the manufacture of DVDs, and their evironmental impact, when all I'll do is rip them and stuff the discs away, just as I'd do with a CD?)

Iran, Monday: banned rally with "hundreds of thousands" of protestors, riot police standing down; however, the BBC reports some gunfire. Khamanei is apparently requesting (or permitting?) an inquiry into the results. And Sunday's events. Juan Cole on possible evidence of electoral fraud. More photos here, here, and here.

Quite a good little tour of the Doctor Who Experience in Second Life, including recreations of key settings, like the Torchwood and the Millennium Stadium, and a museum including all the various Tardis consoles - impressively complete! - from over the years. You can find it all in the Katrina sim, with seasonal gatherings arranged for Aug 1 2009, Nov 21 2009, Feb 27 2010, and May 15 2010.

Via Kyootfox, Buster's Journey, the weblog of a leveret, discovered abandoned, and unsuitable for release back into the wild. Much adorableness to see. ^_^

This event in Chestnut's Choices caught my eye:

Tuesday June 16

3:30PM - Thinkers: The 5th Revolution

Occasionally, scientific discoveries shake up our worldview. Examples include the Copernican revolution that radically changed conceptions of our place in the universe, and Darwin's theory which upset beliefs regarding how we stand in relation to the animal kingdom. Now, some scientists believe a 5th such revolution is approaching, and the trigger for this change is neuroscience. Are we on the verge of another upset to our worldview? Come and discuss with Extropia. All welcome.

The Bunny is Back. =:D

Reports are probably unreliable, but indicate that telephone communications have been cut, Mousavi is under house arrest, Ayatollahs call for the results to be voided, and Rafsanjani has resigned.

These and other photos

dKos links to various sources

A furry strip to try: Skin Horse; one of the creators may be familiar to veterans of the Transformations Stories Archive list, once responsible for the memorably surreal masterpiece, Mundementia One. (It's got an RSS feed on the site, of course, and an LJ syndication thereof over yonder: skinhorsecomic)


I will admit to being unduly amused by the splash screen for BioBrick Studio, a bioengineering utility. And the "Services" icon, down in the bottom right, seems perhaps noteworthy as well.. =:D ("BioBrick Studio Mobile is an experimental integrated development environment (IDE) that facilitates review, annotation, design, and implementation of standard biological parts from non-standard DNA, RNA, and protein sequences. Our core goals are to develop programming languages, information models, and communication/computational architectures that support the development and responsible use of standard biological parts.")

TF story for today: The Police Toy Incident, by sockscatt.

Cadbury's Flake ice cream plus Standard vodka: dashed good. =:9

Ariel Press' new comic, "Harker", debuts with a free issue 0, the remaining four issues going for £1.95 each on paper, or £1 as PDF downloads. ("Please note that we're providing high resolution PDFs so that you can print it out if you like, so they're big files!") Forboding Prices writes: "The genre trappings are all there. The police procedural investigation, the crime scene investigation, the autopsy, the legwork, the finding of the clues; it’s all there, exactly where it should be. Add to that the mysterious supernatural goings on to get one really great comic book series. But on top of a really lovely idea, really well executed the thing reads incredibly well; the dialogue’s cracking; quickfire buddy chat with Harker as the mysterious straight man to Critchley’s rapid fire, slightly unhinged funny man."

So, I saw that movie. ^_^ A pleasant not-really-surprise, despite the rollercoaster feel to the plot, firmly on rails and never stopping until the end, not to mention a glyph of a villain with a taste for Super Mario ship interiors, and overuse of hyperkinetic camera angles and lens flares. But - it was fun. Overall, I'm looking forward to seeing more of them. Needs more alien bunnies, though. And on that note, you might try the Good Ship Chronicles, something like a cross between Star Trek and The Office. =:) High quality artwork, and consistently good writing, in the latter's downbeat style.

And then, Pixar's newest release, Up. Yes, you'll cry.

Another strip I'd recommend, of distinctly high quality (though only once a week, as with the superlative Abominable Charles Christopher): One Swoop Fell. This is the work of someone who really understands their art.


Wow.. I'm going to have to try the FurNation Alpha mall again with the main client, to compare, but that little expedition seemed to go much more fluidly than I ever remember the SkyMall being. Everything loading quickly, sometimes before you even chose to look at a particular item for sale, and taking very little time if you zoomed in on something specific. Even FurNation Prime's pyramid and beach - no problem. 'Course, having a minimal draw distance helps, but gods, it's nice to be able to just walk around and not have to constantly take account of laggy responsivity. (Flying around was more like that, though)

A kind denizen of linguaphiles, cath_hanner_nos, came through with photos of her quite wonderful Taiwanese example of almost (and later, unabashed random typing =:) "English" on a t-shirt. It's a little bit of delicately mangled poetry, in its own way.

The co-worker pointed out a beautiful slideshow of his girlfriend's Greek home island.

Some beautiful surreal avs by Alpha Auer (one of the maintainers of Not Possible In Real Life) - whether or not you're in-world, these are worth admiring. (mussawyr might want to have a peek, maybe otter3 and circuit_four too) According to a rather confused report on TVsquad, Futurama is back in production, courtesy of Comedy Central, with a new 13-episode season underway. ^_^

O2 have, apparently, confirmed their early termination fee for iPhone 3G users: the entire remaining value of your contract, not some portion that might reasonably be considered repayment of the initial subsidy, somehow believing that being paid for service they won't be providing is right. Well, they are a cellco, and they universally try to suck as mightily as possible. (AT&T and Rogers subscribers are invited to disagree)

For a brief technical overview of the iPhone 3GS, peek here. No gigantic leaps, of course, just nice increments - the iPhone 3G has a 412MHz ARM11 core, the iPod touch 2G 532MHz, and the GS runs a Cortex family ARM at 600MHz, doubling the memory to 256MB, with a PowerVR SGX supporting OpenGL ES 2.0. Ah, the joys of SIMD on an iPhone! I told them they should've hired me. ^_^ (Almost happened, save for being a couple weeks too late for the legal department)

Anyone unfamiliar with the Bay might like to download Lonely Planet's San Francisco Guide for iDevices, briefly available for free.

I do like Bandcamp's approach, as outlined in one of their FAQs:

Q: I know, I just KNOW, that people are using leeching sites to STEAL the streams of my tracks that are up on Bandcamp. Surely the solution to this grave problem is for you guys to offer 30-second snippets, as an alternative to full streams. Are you working on that?

A: [takes a few deep hits from oxygen tank] No. Implicit in the question is the false assumption that the people currently downloading the music for free would pay for it, if only you restricted it in this one tiny corner of the web. In reality, those people will move right on to eMule, Gnutella, or some other P2P network where your music is freely available. Furthermore, you will have just squandered the opportunity to make your own site the premier destination for those (seemingly cheap, but enthusiastic and potentially concert-going and merchandise-buying) fans. Further furthermore, you will have pissed off all the honest fans that are happy to support you, but for whom a 30-second snippet is simply not long enough to make a purchasing decision.

They're one of the many digital music download providers, and a good one - they'll give you a good choice of formats, from MP3 to Apple Lossless and FLAC, and unrestrictred previews. (huepow00's latest album is offered through them, as is Kurrel the Raven's "Furry Album")

Dessert, possibly tonight, or some other time: a Belgian waffle, real custard (cream, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla), and a little Canadian maple syrup. Seems like it could work. =:9

Tactical corsets.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about? (I mean specifically here =:) I saw an icon a few months back, and of course, failed to save it, so bohor's left wondering what I'm referring to: a cat watching TV, who then turns his head around almost 180 degrees, staring directly into your soul. YouTube finds loads of matches for likely keywords, but not the one I'm looking for. [Edit: found it! I'd still like to re-locate the LJ icon version, though, which stops at the height of that gaze]

Want pinball? Monster Pinball, $3.99/£2.39. Best personal pinball - excellent framerate, plenty of good sound effects, and the occasional table behavior not possible with a physical machine. They've really caught the essence. ^_^ You can see their promo video here.

athelind brings word of the Casting of the Century, although not officially confirmed as yet: Brian Blessed as Odin, in Kenneth Branagh's production of Thor.


So, Thursday's county and European (for some countries, at least - many EU members are only polling at the weekend) went ahead in good spirits locally, with turnout in the range of 40-50% in most parishes. Two genuinely good Independents elected here - father and son, the latter moving up from a position on the town council. (And considering they're of Chinese heritage, I think we can take that as a hearty FU to the BNP =:)

Two shirt.woot! designs you might vote for (alas, only if you've bought something from them in the past): a lapine Cabbage Roast and a draconic Mongolian BBQ. Uchi Desmoulins' rather spiffy Felis av is now available directly from a vendor, but still for free: just wander over to Curious, and you'll see a freebie box waiting for your click. Betty Bowers explains traditional marriage. "America's Best Christian takes time to explain to less informed Christians the curious details of the Lord's concept of marriage."

As part of their occasional Meet the Author series, the Regent Street Apple Store will be hosting Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy, and a forthcoming two-parter of The Hobbit) on Tuesday, June 9, 7-8pm. No tickets or charge involved. relee pointed out a show I'd like to see some of as well - so, does anyone have any/all Nightmare Ned? It seems to be one of those shows buried in a deep pit by its original broadcaster, so there's no official release anywhere. =:P Fun bit of chillout: Expialidocious. "The track is composed of a sine wave bass, custom drum sequences, and sounds recorded from the Disney film 'Mary Poppins'." The same guy's Alice is equally cool - sort of Groove Armada meets Osymyso.

I can think of a few vixens who might enjoy this 'suit pic. So, digital components, like the computers they form, only do what you tell them to. The same cannot, regrettably, be said of marketers and technical writers. A week ago, by following the datasheet for a particular device, I wasted two days trying to coax life out of this chip, only to find the actual chip behavior was opposite to that described, regarding SPI bus configuration. Then, it worked.. with a catch - it worked, but only on one device. All the other units - same board revision, chips, and so forth - just gave me nothing. Having spent another day or two fruitlessly exploring many options, I stumbled upon the solution: do the opposite of what I had been doing. Quite whether I happened to find a lucky chip that was different to all the others, or if the actual behavior is a matter of chance, I've yet to determine - easy enough to deal with if it does need to be worked out on the fly, but that sort of random behavior is a little off-putting. Or so we thought. =:D As it turns out, Murphy is alive, well, and laughing his ass off. The first unit had a very delicate soldering problem, it seems; once that was dealt with, it behaved in the same way as all the others, which is the way I'd thought things were meant to work in the first place. Argle!

The week in the salt mine ended on a positive tone, after I knocked up a quick utility to convert an image into a format suitable for the OLED's controller, permitting us to display a much spiffier splash screen on powerup than the previous plain text. Even at just 1bpp, it's far nicer rendered in a real, large font; next comes the fade in & out transitions. ^_^

Lapine Mona Lisa

Are you a East Asian/Caucasian mix? You may want to register your bone marrow, to help save a life. Time is, as one might expect, not unlimited.

This might be the game that convinces me to shell out for a PS3 this year.. just savor the trailer for Trico, from Team ICO. Absolutely gorgeous. And furry! Well, feathery. In a most welcome development, the BBC has announced that David Tennant and Patrick Stewart will again perform Hamlet, alongside all the other key members of the company, for broadcasting on BBC Two later in 2009. =:D "Confirmation of the Hamlet film comes after months of speculation and campaigning by fans. One online petition, set up by RSC patron Margret Best, collected nearly 8,000 signatures. The BBC is creating a dedicated website to support the new film, including behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the actors and creative team."

Micro-review of The Hungry Monk: starter of spinach & Gruyère soufflé with beetroot salad. Absolutely excellent soufflé, lovely flavor throughout, with the cheese lending a light crust on the outside - gorgeous. Nice variety of salad leaves, fairly ordinary pickled beetroot. Local ribeye with tomato tatin - very good steak, offset against the tart tomato. Flaw: meat was medium, not rare as requested. Should probably have chosen something more intricate, but not a disappointing dish. Finally, their signature Banoffi pie - where the dessert originated, apparently, and a very good choice, with just the right level of caramel against a good thickness of lengthways-halved banana, plenty of cream, and a delicately thin pastry base. Would I go again? Certainly, although it wouldn't be at the top of the list, simply because of the elevated prices - somewhere like the Montague Inn offers food of similar quality, more regular pricing, and a better ale selection to boot. ^_^ But for a special occasion (such as a treat for a parent =:), it makes for a superb evening.

Monday, went along to see Carol Cleveland (probably known best to anyone I know from her time with Monty Python's Flying Circus, and in subsequent movie roles, such as Zoot in MPatHG) in a funny retrospective of her life, "Pom-Poms Up!" (Referring to her high school years in Pasadena, where she was a cheerleader; born in London and back in the UK for a good while now, she and her mother left for SoCal early in her life, when visa restrictions weren't in their currently hilariously restrictive levels, as the trend's sadly been over the past few decades) That was over at The Greys, a particularly good pub, with a worthy line in food as well, though only on Tue-Thu & Sat. When they have it, their slow-roasted pork shoulder is excellent, and I'd also recommend the spinach & pan-fried chorizo watercress salad with quail's eggs as a starter - all at perfectly normal prices, too.

A (NSFW) glimpse of a forthcoming pony av, by Muram. Need a custom plush or puppet? canadian_beast is taking commissions! mycroftb might consider this dice roller.. =:) A fascinating account of a very functional - and current - matriarchal society: the Mosuo of southern China.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What astonished you the most?

Coler: That there is no violence in a matriarchal society. I know that quickly slips into idealization -- every human society has its problems. But it simply doesn't make sense to the Mosuo women to solve conflicts with violence. Because they are in charge, nobody fights. They don't know feelings of guilt or vengeance -- it is simply shameful to fight. They are ashamed if they do and it even can threaten their social standing.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: And when there's no solution to a problem?

Coler: Either way, there won't be an altercation. The women decide what happens. Some of them do it more strictly and others in a friendlier way. They are strong women who give clear orders. When a man hasn't finished a task he's been given, he is expected to admit it. He is not scolded or punished, but instead he is treated like a little boy who was not up to the task.

Hrm. 500MB free on the server's 1TB external. Time for some DVD-R writing, perhaps, or another drive..

I think I need to check what the filenames of the TZ5's first photos were. I know I take quite a few, but with the latest being "P1270264.JPG", I'm a little reluctant to believe I've taken 270,264 pics in the past ten months or so. ^_^; (It will be a few, though - I can usually manage at least 100 a day, sometimes around 200-300. I am a little selective in which ones I post here, or on FA, honest =:) Do digital cameras have expected lifetimes?

I'm stuck between two choices tonight. Cheap frying steak cut into ribbons, egg noodles, coarsely cut red pepper, loads of shiitake, broccoli, oyster sauce, and some bird's eye peppers for a sort of Chinese-ish stir-fry; or, some good local bacon, cubed Jersey Gold new potatoes, eggs, onion, and garlic. Tricky. I suppose this is where having a roomie would help - they could help tip the balance. ^_^ (The beef won out, though with plain button mushrooms, as the shiitake were already playing host to a neighboring species. Also added some julienned carrots, and some delightfully hot garlic sauce - Holy Cow's "Himalayan Garlic". I'd bought it as a garlic sauce, and was quite pleasantly surprised to discover it had some real kick to it. Oh, and some snippings of cilantro and lemon thyme, because they were in the fridge =:)

The Supreme Court of California will issue its opinion on Prop. 8 at 10am PDT on Tuesday, May 26 2009. DayOfDecision, amongst others, is coordinating gatherings for the day. Personally, I don't mind one way or the other - the forces opposing equality have seen their support consistently eroded over the past decades, to the extent where the absolute best they could manage, even with the Mormons throwing in some 35-40% of total funding, was 52:48. Their path leads nowhere.

In a fantastic video vaguely reminiscent of Chris Cunningham's for Autechre's Second Bad Vilbel, discopanda found Mistabishi's Printer Jam. Superb bit of Squarepusher-style breakbeat/IDM. bob_basset has/have posted some beautiful work in the past, but as schnee noticed, this horse mask is extraordinary. Bacon chocolate chip cookies. I don't link to movie trailers often, as they can usually fend for themselves well enough, but the first one for Sherlock Holmes has me quite interested. ^_^ Be warned, it does feature every trailer editing cliché from the past decade, but Holmes intrigues me - perhaps not terribly faithful to the original, but if the script can carry the film, the actors' performances could work wonders with it, on this first glance. Just don't expect any semblance of canon. =:)

Forty-six Somali words for camels.

A positive gem of an entry in metaquotes: Partisan-Man. Yes, sung to that tune. =:D

The Weasel Patrol is getting reprinted! And then there's one I've not heard of before, but perhaps should have, Stewart the Rat: "a graphic novel written by Steve Gerber and pencilled by Gene Colan in the wake of their ground-breaking work on Howard The Duck, returns in December in a value-priced edition. 'Gerber took the same cynical, frustrated sense of humor that made his work on Howard a classic and applied it to this tale of a walking, talking rat who faces the craziness of the Southern California lifestyle.'" shatterstripes came upon the world's coolest USB flash drive: a black panther Transformer. Expensive, out of stock, modest capacity, and unbelievably nifty. Want to be in an Apollo craft thrust up by a Saturn V? Try this simulation in the Space Frontier sim. Looks quite cunningly designed, and certainly good for some captivating photography, as you'd expect.

San Francisco's due to get 5MW of solar power, by plastering the Sunset Reservoir with 25,000 panels, in a deal with Recurrent Energy.

Kurrel the Raven's Furry Album is now available for download, from 320k MP3 to ALAC. $8, or whatever more you feel like paying; and it's distributed under a Creative Commons 3.0 BY-NC-ND (attribution, no commercial, no derivatives) license, yay!

Some rather less common Japanese furry mythological hybrids available from Bakemonoya. Daimler takes a 10% stake in Tesla, as part of an active cooperation agreement: "Tesla will supply battery packs for Daimler's Smart electric vehicle – scheduled for worldwide availability in 2012. Under the terms of the partnership, Daimler and Tesla will also work together on battery management, cooling issues and the development of electric vehicle drive trains. Daimler will provide Tesla with vehicle testing and component support." Interesting camera: the new Casio Exilim EX-FC100. It's quite normal in many regards - 9MP, 5x zoom, HD video - but in addition to the usual feature set for an upper-end point-and-shoot, you can get 21fps at best quality, or 30fps at normal quality, of full resolution stills, by asking for 1, 2, or 3 seconds at a nominal 30, 15, or 10fps. Video is also given a boost, with high frame rates of 480x360 at 210fps, 224x168 at 420fps, or a weirdly sized 224x64 (!) at 1000fps.

So, I've got this chip, and it speaks SPI. Groovy. Except, in Bosch's infinite wisdom, it comes on in 3-wire mode.. very useful. =:P But, you can throw it into a more usual 4-wire mode by setting a register bit. Well.. theoretically, anyway. Friday's seen me try many ways of convincing it to give 4-wire a try, just to see how it likes it, including all the CPOL/NCPHA combinations, but no dice - a multiple register read just remains steadfastly linking MISO & MOSI, and ne'er the twain be parted. Glar. At least the bus arbitrator addition's working perfectly, performing the initialisation quite late in the device's bringup, not using it until afterwards, and coexisting with the other devices' 100µs slots quite peacefully. And the new analyser/scope works beautifully well, replacing the one belonging to a contractor whose primary involvement has concluded; it's the predecessor to his, so the UI's mostly similar, and the deep buffer's as fantastically useful as ever - 400Msamples/s, so you can observe a set of bus transactions at, say, 1ms/div, and still zoom in to read off each byte at 500ns/div. (I did notice the scope - used, and at a remarkably good price - came with, as one might expect, an existing set of labels, including one I hadn't expected =:)

Pull, bunny, pull!

I'll update this with later thoughts, for better or worse. ^_^; These are just very quick notes - don't expect creative writing. Or coherency. =:) Ones I'll consider voting for, I've listed in italics.

1. Lithuania
Gentle piano opening, reminiscent of Freddy Mercury, but segued into a fairly routine ballad. Inoffensive.

2. Israel
Quite upbeat duet - mostly poppy, little bit of an edge. Not inspiring, but enjoyable.

3. France
Broody, moody, flat. Cute dress.

4. Sweden
Promising opening, not bad song - disco opera affair. Pretty fun, and whilst the song could be better, a lovely voice.

5. Croatia
Nicely soulful, somewhat melancholic, but didn't catch me.

6. Portugal
Traditionally inspired, lively - good stuff!

7. Iceland
Quite routine chart stuff.

8. Greece
Neat dancefloor number. Cute guy.

9. Armenia
Another with ethnic roots, beautiful costumes. Pretty good.

10. Russia
Good upbeat stuff, neat background video of the singer aging.

11. Azerbaijan
Tedious Top 40 stuff with a club beat.

12. Bosnia & Herzegovina
Downtempo sequel to Azerbaijan. Fair enough.

13. Moldova
Traditional, modernised. Fun, but not really a winner.

14. Malta
Power ballad of tedium. Pleasant enough, but oddly unexciting.

15. Estonia
Sextet akin to Bond, with a nicely moody, engaging piece of faux classical-club. Maybe not my favorite, but I'd be happy to see them win. +1 shiny.

16. Denmark
Ronan Keating ballad. Decent enough, but about as homogenised as it comes.

17. Germany
Sassy, with a burlesque edge. Definitely fun; maybe not revolutionary, but I'd consider buying it. +1 shiny.

18. Turkey
Another with an ethnic edge, but completely failed to grab me. Pleasant enough.

19. Albania
Decent bit of mainstream pop for a club market. Enjoyable. But teal was never meant to be the color of zentai.

20. Norway
This is what to play if you really despise your neighbors.

21. Ukraine
Interestingly Barbarella-like stage show. Enjoyable clubstuff - fairly OTT, but I'd happily listen to it again. Nice bassline, bit Saintly.

22. Romania
Distilled unoriginality. Perfectly competently performed, and devoid of any soul.

23. United Kingdom
Exceptionally professional, soporific ballad. Nauseatingly tired composition. Only one I've had to mute.

24. Finland
Power hair of the 80s, represent! Generic club reject song.

25. Spain
Yet another attempt at a club track, this time string-backed. Good enough background music.

Well, there we go - vote early and often. In my case, Portugal, Germany, and Ukraine. ^_^

Just a little video clip, for your edification, from Tuesday evening's wandering back to the warren, along the trail near the office. First, I saw a rabbit not too far away - and then noticed the tiny bun nearby. If you thought adult rabbits could move quickly, just watch this microbun. =:D It's unedited and without any motion stabilisation processing, but I felt I had to share this. ^_^ [Edit: added smaller version, for low bandwidth connections, iPhones, etc. And corrected it for iPhone use - no B-frames]

2m49s, 1280x720 MPEG-4 MP4, no audio: 95MB 640x368 H.264 MP4: 22MB

There've been piano and drum apps for the iPhone for a while now, but iSyn caught my eye - it actually looks quite usable and flexible. Intriguingly, it's from VirSyn, known for their pro music plugins, such as Cube and Tera. If you recall a certain bodypainted doberman from a while back, here's the guy again as an oryx. Devanagari: the language and the script. An interesting article on New Jersey's River LINE rail link, which got off to a very poor start, but has since vindicated its advocates. There are occasionally, some gems on metaquotes.. and I think this to be one of them. =:D It begins simply enough, with a rather awkward typo in an email to a coworker; but it's the reply which must be savored. A new bunny! AnthroXtacy's due to release theirs soon; and the Bunny Rabbit Alliance will be holding a promo prom on the day, 3pm on May 8th, with some to give away. ^_^

Madcow's Madhouse of Building - wherein you can enjoy mechanical faces, creatures that use smaller creatures as missiles propelled from betwixt their horns, and an array of symbiotic relationships. Cheerfully cracked work - genuinely inspired.

So, Red Dwarf finally reached its conclusion - as nonsensical as most of the original stories, and certainly as much fun. I'll admit, whatever the storyline, I'd have enjoyed simply seeing the crew back together - not that Cat's catsuit hurt at all. =:9 Some rather spiffy (and brief, at only fifteen seconds each) Canon camera TV spots, of a very furry nature: wolf, lion, and penguin. (c/o Audie over on FA) Well, that was an interesting outcome.. the recent Linden Lab "resident choice awards" winners were announced, and "favorite place for intellectual conversation" was Luskwood, pretty much the original furry realm in SL. ^_^ A comic: The Man Who Used to Know Everything. If you're in the UK, and stuck with relatively slow broadband, Eutelsat may have an answer - for (from?) around £30/mo, they'll be offering 10Mbit service, though usage limits remain vague; ISP Review notes that refers to the basic offering, with a fairly useless 1.2GB/mo cap, or, as they put it, Fair Access Policy, or FAP. =:) Equipment may be extra, at around £400, with a 68cm dish for the new Ka band service.

I finally managed to spend a vaguely significant amount of time in-world recently, getting the terraforming of my spot in Wolf Valley mostly complete. ^_^ It's not a huge space (for now - eventually, it'd be nice to expand into a full sim, but I couldn't really justify that kind of cost. Maybe split two ways, though..), but enough to give a little snowy platform, upon which I can either build something original, or maybe see if the old homestead can be brought back into the world. Even as is, it's nice having a wintry nook to myself. Now, though, comes the tricky part - actually designing and building. =:D

So, people have taste: the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue - the iconic glass cube - is apparently the fifth most photographed building in New York City. (The top slots belong to the Empire State Building, Times Square, the Rockefeller Center, and Grand Central Station; followed by Columbus Circle and Liberty Island) Indeed, SL has something for just about everyone, including free rubber Mexican teddybears. ^_^ Available from Winter Ventura's main store, over in Healy. I wonder what that was.. on my way back on Tuesday evening, having looked on adoringly at a few young rabbits happily feasting away by the side of the path, I saw what wasn't quite a cat - too lithe, but quite a similar tail, like a linear squirrel. Maybe around 2' in total, but I could be quite off, as the evening sun was nearby. Some sort of mustelid?

And then there was this suspicious looking character the other day, clearly of a nefarious nature - just look how accustomed he is to posing for custodial photographs, offering up perfect frontal and profile stances. (The camera's concept of the prevailing light, unfortunately, made for less than perfect resolution and rather washed out shots, but I felt them worth sharing all the same) I'm pleased to note that within minutes, life for the local rabbits was back to normal, no harm done. ^_^



Elsewhere, right by the trail, a sliver of unfenced land has recently seen much more lapine activity than before, presumably thanks to the Springtime growth of the wild foliage, affording some privacy, nosy camerahares notwithstanding. ^_^

Seeing them but a few feet away from me, knowing full well I'm right there, and still having the time to look upon them calmly.. howsoever trying a day may be, such moments make it all worthwhile.

I'll be sparing in my replies to everyone for a little while yet, unfortunately - such are the joys of tonsillitis.

It began unpleasantly last Wednesday; woke up, and realised the night had left me with a body enhancement of an undesirable nature. Took the day off, things didn't improve, bought some reasonable lozenges and ibuprofen to deal with the earache it had also given me. Thursday - almost fine! Went in, had a normal day. Friday - started feeling very slightly flu-ish, but other than that, still good.

Saturday, less so, but still nothing compared to the first day. Still, as a precaution, I dropped by the pharmacy and picked up some antiseptic suitable for gargling, and soluble aspirin for the same purpose. Saturday night.. back to as it had been, Sunday worse.

Cue a quick phone call to one of the local practices, and managed to get an appointment. (One of the benefits of living in a small town with a relatively old population - two practices in the main street, and another down the road) I couldn't oblige opening my mouth very wide, which didn't help the guy, but he agreed it was clearly a tonsil attack - "almost looks like an abscess". At least it wasn't (or so we hope =:) anything more than that, so bringing Hyzenthlay with me on the off-chance of a need to be admitted to a hospital forthwith was as unnecessary as I'd thought.

Strolled down to the nearby pharmacy, and picked up the prescription - a week's worth of liquid penicillin. (Just look what you've won!) Four times a day, 2 x 5ml doses, doubled for the first day.

So, still far from perfect - food is still soup, or the ice cream the doctor all but ordered I buy - but I haven't had to pop any painkillers since Monday night, so something's obviously working. With all this broad-spectrum antibiotic sloshing around inside, I could probably heal people just by touching them. =:)

Once this is all well and truly over, I am so going to attack a big pizza order.

Galabbit, of the Japanese ski resort Gala Yuzawa, thanks to some detective work by rabitguy. And here's his weblog. ^_^ And the video clips are dangerously adorable, though I may be biased.


While ambling through WikiTravel the other day, I noticed the name of one outfit that offers North Korea tours: Lupine Travel. ^_^

Does anyone have a spare Intuos3 pen they'd like to sell? Or know of somewhere offering them at not quite eye-watering prices? I still can't find mine, so I suppose I've got to count it as lost, but the tablet itself is perfect.

If you're looking for a feline av, here's a video to consider (YouTube), showing Curious Avatars' forthcoming Felis, designed by Uchi Desmoulins, creator of the Kani. Damn cool promo vid, whatever your species. (And if you're lucky, you might be given one if you visit Uchi's Curious sim - depends if you see a prism anywhere nearby =:) (Photo by Aki Shichiroji) Apple's offering some nice goodies to the person downloading the billionth application from the App Store; a free entry form option is also available. The winner gets a $10k iTunes gift card, an iPod Touch, a Time Capsule, and a MacBook Pro. (As of Good Friday, they were nearly at 930m) Entry's open to residents of most Western European countries, the US, Canada (but not Quebec), and Australia & New Zealand.

Zii noted the existence of S.L.A.R.F! - Second Life Avatar Review Files, with full 360 views of many avs, and considerations about their scripting and realism, from different creators. Very handy for discovering new avs and designers you might well not otherwise have encountered! Perhaps needless to say, they're eager to receive more reviews from other contributors. If you recall Royksopp's "Remind Me" video, themed around informational graphics throughout, you'll appreciate this parody all the better, as kindly pointed out by Torley: Slagsmålsklubben, by Tomas Nilsson - wherein Little Red Riding Hood is presented in the same style. =:D (And, as I just noticed, you can download high quality versions of Vimeo files, if the creator's enabled that, but only if you've registered for a free account with them. In this instance, that gives access to a 102MB 1280x720 MPEG-4, which seems like a fair deal =:) Speaking of Royksopp, I can happily recommend their new release, "Junior", whence comes this fun video for the first track: Happy Up Here. They've really hit their groove with this album, and HUH's video is just pure retro-gaming fun, with supreme style. (And, the first album I've bought from the iTunes Store - well worth shelling out for. Not a duff track in the lot - great for a quiet night, if you need something to remind you just how much fun life can be. At least, that's what it does for me) Behold the wonder that is the Cressi Swim Glaros suit. ^_^ Curiously, Cressi Swim appears to be almost unknown, with Amazon US not knowing about them at all, and Amazon UK only selling them via a reseller. It's a much thinner, unusually flexible suit, much moreso than the Aquasphere Mako, and completely coated, unlike the Orca S2. The fit with the Glaros is noticeably better than either, being neither too long, short, or narrow anywhere, unlike with the Mako's leg length, or the S2's back length. The highly flexible fabric leaves it feeling more like a heavyweight lycra diveskin than a wetsuit - extraordinarily comfortable, with the flexibility also making it a cinch to get on and off.

iPhone OS 3.0 isn't anything shockingly radical, though it's very nice to see the Bluetooth and USB interfaces opened up for controlling peripherals, as well as data tethering. (A year ago, I'd've ranked tethering as highly desirable, but with the iPhone, I don't have much need to carry Hyzenthlay around. A native SL client would be fun, though =:) The search on the frontmost page can be quite handy, though I'm a bit surprised not to find any hierarchical storage yet, for easy arranging of apps into categories. At least now once you exceed the limit (16 per page; 9 on the current OS, 11 in 3.0), you can still reach the "unseen" apps using said search, but a hierarchical approach would be much more elegant, given the large number of apps many users tend to have on their iPotches. (Or do they? If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, do you have plenty of icon space spare, or do you find yourself having to remove apps to make way for newcomers?)

As for iPhone gaming lately: I admit, I've latched onto LD50 as my primary title lately. It's "just" an artillery game, simply very nicely done. (Sadly, it doesn't play nicely with OS 3.0b2 - plenty of abrupt quitting) Namco's Galaga Remix, including both the original and an updating, is some superb nostalgia. Rasta Monkey's another great indie physics platformer, Glyder's a very nice semi on-rails flyer, Freeballin' is a good multi-table pinball title, though I think I still prefer the feel of Zen Pinball, and X-Plane's recent helicopter and fighter racing variants live up to the quality of the original. Zero Grav Racer will have some serious competition in the forthcoming racer from Handmark, but they're all cheap enough to enjoy. ^_^ One of my favorite logic puzzles now has a free version, Marple Lite; and Zen Bound remains an absolute masterpiece.

If you haven't seen a bunny binky before, have a look at this clip. ^_^ (30MB, 2m19, 960x544; or here for a 15MB 640x360 iPhone-friendly version) It'd been a bit of a trying day, so seeing this young bun and his mother on the way back was just what I needed that evening - there's just something absolutely wonderful in seeing that simple, unabashed joie de vivre expressed in sudden SPROING! =:D

A happy bunny.

Here's a fascinating look into the frustrations experienced by one paranormal scientist, facing accusations throughout her career of being closed-minded: "This is something that many critics of skepticism just don’t see. I am often accosted by people who seem to think that I think as follows:- (Note - I don’t!) “I am a scientist. I know the truth about the universe from reading my science books. I know that telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis and life after death are impossible. I don't want to see any evidence that they exist. I am terrified that I might be wrong.” The way I really think is more like this “I am a scientist. I think the way to the truth is by investigation. I suspect that telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis and life after death do not exist because I have been looking in vain for them for 25 years. I have been wrong lots of times before and am not afraid of it”. Indeed I might add that finding out that you are wrong, and throwing out your previous theories, can be the best way to new knowledge and a deeper understanding."

BT's This Binary Universe was, perhaps, his finest album yet. If you'd like more of that, but - for my money - much better, try Trifonic - Emergence. You can download the 192kbps MP3 entirely free, or pay any amount you like for a version including commentary, in any format, including Apple Lossless and FLAC.

I thoroughly approve of this company's logo. ^_^

Charlie Brooker recently took a look at Fox News, and enjoyed what he saw. =:) The "Inside Edition" clip included has, of course, since been fodder for audio manipulators, such as this this dance remix (NSFW, except in New York and Chicago).


So, SGI is now, finally, history - sold to Rackable Systems, a colo company, for $25m. It's a sad moment, even if not terribly unexpected, given the company's recent years - without their original graphics mission, they were left fighting for server customers, with few distinguishing features, and lacking the scale of Sun, themselves not finding an easy ride either. I visited the campus a few times, given the number of furs that worked there, including one time deep into the bowels of the server rooms, where FurToonia was being transferred, in its handover from Trilobyte to SGI.

From the Onion News Network: Study: Children Exposed to Pornography May Expect Sex To Be Enjoyable.

Sunday felt like a good day for fake Indian, so I whipped up something entirely unauthentic and quite delicious. ^_^ Tiger prawns in a sauce midway between korma and jalfrezi, rice, tandoori style chicken, and a daal of sorts. No pre-prepared sauce here, although you might be surprised by some of the things that did go into it. =:) Doctor Who "Planet of the Dead" - a load of fun. ^_^ Not a top tier ep, maybe, but easily in the upper ranks. Shades of "Midnight", with perhaps a soupçon of The Last Starfighter and Alien? Lovely soundtrack, too - very cinematic. I'll happily enjoy it again, when the occasion arises, ideally in full HD - great to see the other specials will also be produced in HD, which quite strongly hints at the show's routine production shifting that way. And then there was the return of Fullmetal Alchemist last weekend, too. ^_^

Sorry about such a large post, but, well, I've got a few things to talk about, if you're interested in conversation. ^_^ As for me.. oy. Well, it's been a hideously busy, high-pressure time, and the future's got considerable potential for serious screwiness, given the development team on the project has numbered two core members, plus one responsible for the UI, and a newcomer who's been helping around generally. And one of those core members just quit. =:/ Entirely understandable, as he's been on the project since its beginning, and before, and is responsible for the core feature set. He'll still be helping out remotely on a casual contractor basis, but obviously, that's quite a different matter to being around full-time, whether in the office or remotely. And, as such, it's also the loss of a good friend - he'll still be around, but not in person. Still, with what time he's able to contribute, maybe we can get this thing finally wrapped up.

I doubt I'll have much time to catch up with LJ from the past few weeks, I'm afraid - if there's anything I ought to know about, please let me know. ^_^ (What happened to purplecat?)

Hm! No subtitles, but I might have a peek at that.. a version of Mark Twain's work I hadn't realised existed, from Ukrainfilm in 1936, "Том Сойер". Hee!

Blossom bunny.

Rather a nifty find over yonder in lagomorphic: a carving from a 12th Century church in Herefordshire, depicting a remarkably cute hare and hound. ^_^ The ultimate in geekery: the Doctor Who theme, performed on twin Tesla coils, at a sci-fi con. Brilliant. And a rather spiffy ad from Shell, with a very simple concept - just driving. Plenty of it, around the world, in an old school Ferrari racer, on ordinary roads. Coming soon to the iPhone: The Oregon Trail. =:D Beware, though - it looks as if they may have attempted to jazz up the gameplay beyond the original storyline. For FPS lovers, though, the forthcoming version of Prey looks highly promising - assuming they keep to usual iPhone app prices, I may well give it a go, even though I'm not much of one for the genre. (I'd sooner see Viva Piñata or a livelier Animal Crossing =:)

Yay, more iPhone furry comics! The Skunk and the Ocelot: "What happens if you've got a killer hangover, the luck of a dead groundhog, and the entire galaxy after you? Why, you become the most wanted space pirate in the Universe (though not by choice)! The skunk Sen Tavr and the ocelot PJ Bloodwaters find themselves once again facing a crisis of cosmic proportions." You can also find the Russian version online here. "Snow-crazed stoat 'goes berserk'", reads the page title, a little enthusiastically - but the brief video clip is really quite something to behold. O.o (Imagine a weasel with fireworks going off inside every few seconds)

Handy for the roving fontographer: WhatTheFont, a lightweight app that simply sends a photo you've just taken of a font sample over to Bitstream's font identifier engine. Bunny Family Anomalies, a spiffy shirt from Threadless. Don't suppose someone knows of a way to throw money at people in exchange for HD copies of music videos? Such a beast doesn't seem to exist, so far - the only way appears to be to rip the DVB-T (or similar) stream of MTV HD et al. In particular, I'd love a high quality copy of Pendulum's "The Other Side", or indeed, a full collection of their videos, even at SD - best option so far seems to be one of the In Silico offerings including two of the videos, and then add The Other Side separately.

Via savant_da_rat, This is Why You're Fat, a pictorial guide to artery-clogging culinary "wonders", such as the turbaconucken, seven-pound breakfast burrito, and corn-dog pizza.

And a shot from today's wanderings, down one of the unpaved trailways - following a few wet days, these three are taking advantage of the clear skies to catch up on some good munching and frolicking, in a spot that's quite clearly their space, even if they have to share it with humans.