Stormcaller.net

Saturday, September 25, 2004 - "Filling the gap"

I've just moved up to Birmingham University - great fun, and great people, but no time for... pretty much anything, actually. Here's a few random things. Luckily, Vitenka posted a load of stuff on Thursday. I might be back to a proper update next week - we'll see.
> Stuff

Will Kalashnikov do for vodka what he did for guerilla fighters and terrorists all over the world? [Details]
Meanwhile, deep within Black Mesa, huge legal rumblings continue unnoticed. [Details]
Let's cut off entire countries - it's the best way to solve many problems. [Details]
Robots get skin. [Details]
Whose responsibility is it if he gets shot by security? [Details]
Clever window shaker flash thingy. Javascript evilness. [Destroy]
Riiiiight... Some odd, dark flash thing. Lots of episodes here if you like it. [Destroy]
A stick animator thing that I haven't looked at but Rich has told me is worth linking. [Destroy]

Posted by Stormcaller at 2:24 PM GMT [Link]

Thursday, September 23, 2004 - "If you're too dumb to know, then I'm too busy to tell you."

> Apologies and Questions

Yeah - sorry about the lateness. My computer died last week, and has descended to a deeper circle of hell - being now infested with XP. It does work though, so you get your links.
Stormy warns that he may not be able to post this weekend, being busy still moving in to Uni and all.
The upshot of this is that you get many many many links now. Yay!
Question: XP Home and Samba. I know that I can't use domain controllers and I don't care. All I want is basic share level security. I need my files back!
Question: XP likes to drop my D drive (fixed HDD) without warning every ten hours or so. The event log shows 'drive removed without disconnecting first' and a few hour previously 'acpi sent protected opcode 0x0b'
Question: XP (when it recognises that the D drive exists) doesn't think it's an XP drive, and therefore won't scandisk it. Anyone have a decent free scandisk tool for FAT32 drives? Or know where the "convert to NTFS without losing all my files - really - I mean it - don't you dare - I can't back them up because you won't talk to my bsd box" option lives?
Did I mention that XP was evil?
> Quotes

When somebody gives you a used black t-shirt, put it on your dog first.
I am become, the anti-cheese!
I wish we had a portable monkey. You know, for in the car.
"Left" is defined as the non-dominant side of the majority of the Homo sapiens sapiens, absent the possibility of a Mathematical definition.
Executed for high tedium
Huge throbbing spotted netherbits.
The real Jewish conspiracy: they've been conspiring for six thousand years (give or take a millennium or so) to be regularly conquered, subjugated, discriminated against and miscellaneously trod upon with depressing regularity by every nation in the world. Then they discovered the Uzi.
"If you can read this, you're SpaceshipTwo"
> Humour

Um, no. That's not a real language. [Details]
Now, I hate to induce squick - but why? Inanimate object, so no foul, surely? [Details]
Well now, this is just wrong. A tip is, by definition, optional. [Details]
Nope, see - those are evil and fake broadband 'products' - which the ISPA quite rightly wants to stamp out. Come on. Stop touting 256k rubbish and get us permanent 4MB/s symmetric links with static multiple IP allocation. [Details]
> Serious

Heh. A flaw in Chip-and-pin that I didn't think of. [Details]
Outsourcing. Wheee. Does anyone want to stop competitions inevitable end? [Details]
So, how's it going in Iraq? [Details] [Details]
> Humour

So, why is a raven? [Details]
Well, it's his own damn fault for having four legs and a tail, red fur, and carrying a torch. [Details]
> Stuff

Music from MC frontalot (Yo! You suck!) [Destroy]
Radio Four [Destroy]
Have some stories. Sample line: "Quantum crap?" Danny grimaced. "You mean, like, you go to the bathroom and it comes out in wavicles?" - Now, if you're still alive after a pun that bad, read on for some sci-fi. [Details] [Details]
Nothing comes from outer space. Or something. Fonts. [Download]
Let's be mercenary about this. We could treat the cacner, and you could have a good expected lifespan of, oh, six years. Or we could leave it undetected and you'll probably die from it in, um, about a decade? [Details]
All the mozilla tools updated. Which, in english, means the second best browser (with the best logo) and the best mail client ever (yes, at least, it lets you merge all your accounts into a single inbox). Grab them. Grab them now. [Download]
If you're stupid enough to still be using internet exploder, then at least make your forum posts legible. I guess I could use this for opera. (I had something similar, but it went demoware on me, so I shot it.) [Download]
Not sure quite what wish is, but here's some fairly nice free music from it. [Destroy]
Pretty pictures. As 'mixing' and photoshop, so soon home movies. Enjoy the early fruits. [Destroy]
> Gaming

Wik. Something to do with souls. [Download]
Second page has all the download links, first page has all the news. Graphical adventure fun. [Download]
Slightly belatedly linked - but have the new version of tribes. Ew. Don't get any on me. [Download]
Blades of Avernum. Spiderweb software. Yes, the friendly spiders. Yes, those. [Download]
Insaniquarium has now been classified as a game. Your brain has permission to melt. [Download]
Retro gaming. Whoo. [Destroy]
Warhammer game, RTS. [Download]
The eternal lands (rpg) [Download]
The doom3 demo. It really does chug along extremely slowly. Pretty though. Surprisingly CPU-limited, turning off shadows etc. didn't help. [Download]
I sue you, you sue me, steam must die in agony... [Details]
An RPG column. [Details]
> Comics

Irregular. Lego webcomic, with painful puns. [Details]
Spamusement. Good spam? [Details]
Casey and Andy. Mad scientist awards. (You did play the evil genius demo, didn't you?) [Display]
Gu Comics. Carmacks retirement. (Hmmm, there's a joke in there - car - mack - daddy - re - tyre... Nah.) [Display]
Way Lay. Some very very screwy modern morals. Some very nice twists. A decent format, and a huge archive. Gets sadly predictably political round about the eleventh of September. [Details]
The day it snowed. Tie dye penguins. [Details]

Posted by Vitenka at 8:28 AM GMT [Link]

Sunday, September 19, 2004 - "Yarr! 'Tis ye Stormnews"

I'm off to Birmingham University on Tuesday (21st) to start my four-year course in "Physics and Space Studies". Not sure what'll be happening about my updates to the site over the next few weeks as I get settled, enjoy Freshers' Week and start lectures, but I'll certainly be keeping the site going in the long term and will try to get some stuff up at the weekends as usual for the time being.
> Science/Tech

Physics is all about burning things. Burn through ANYTHING using a Fresnel lens. [Details] [Details]
Why has it taken this long for someone to think of putting a telescope in an Antarctic base? [Details]
Only the Japanese would invent something that pipes music through flowers, using them as speakers. [Details]
> Geek

Your webcam might be spying on you... [Details]
Hey, another "Farscape" link. farwhat.com is a well-designed site, created by fans, which aims to bring people who don't know anything about the show up to speed. [Details]
They're making a "Doom" movie and have just announced that Karl Urban, who played Eomer in the "Lord of the Rings" films, will play the lead marine character. [Details]
New Windows flaw discovered, allowing exploits. Get your system patched - use WindowsUpdate or read this page. [Details]
A very clever webcam-based system used by some guy to allow his cat entry through its cat flap into the house based on whether it identfies as the cat, rather than some other animal, and whether it has anything in its mouth or not. [Details]
I tried an early version of a similar program called Nouse once, at least a year ago - I assume it's the same one. Nice party trick, but utterly unusable for every day browsing or anything else. Getting your webcam aligned and Nouse calibrated takes ages and lots of trial and error - and even when you do, the cursor will sometimes decide to latch on to another part of your face and follow that for a while. You have to move your nose pretty slowly for the cursor to follow accurately and not just get left behind. The blinking detection is patchy at best, though I think this was an experimental feature when I tried it. Fun, though. Of course, they may have significantly improved all of these things since I tried it. [Details]
> Stuff

Avast! It's International Talk Like A Pirate Day today! Shiver me timbers, etc. [Details]
Finished the excellent "Soldiers: Heroes of World War II" this week. Haven't played such a good strategy-type game since... I don't know, "Warcraft III"? Good review of the game here. [Details]
"Ground Control II" was good too, but I haven't played it since I bought "Soldiers". In fact, I haven't even reinstalled it after my hard disk format a couple of weeks ago.
Video of rapper Fifty Cent getting bottled off stage by the crowd at the Reading Festival last month. Priceless. [Download - 6.58MB]
Real Americans hunt their deer with a howitzer. [Details]
Some brilliant photographer set out to deliberately take pictures of Olympic athletes looking stupid. Or they just came out like that. [Display]
...Better than what the SA Goons dreamed up, though. [Display]
b3ta linked this great video of a "crap ninja". [Download - 1.28MB] [Mirror]
Two hundred pints of 'spasberry' jelly. Oh dear. [Details]
Minimise the flash video and listen to the song. Excellent. [Destroy]

Posted by Stormcaller at 7:23 PM GMT [Link]

Sunday, September 12, 2004 - "Skim, my pretties, skim!"

> Science/Tech

Finally, someone might get to say "my computer found the first extra-terrestrials!". [Details]
Astronomers are queuing up to be the first to "prove" some of the most elusive results predicted by Einstein's General Relativity. [Details]
The world's tiniest atomic clock - coming soon to your mobile phone and anything else portable and electronic. [Details]
In the future, maybe many robots will stink of sewage and excrement. [Details]
Men can't breathe in space. [Details]
Great strides being made in miniature robotics, and yet another dodgy pun from MC. Oh, and hence the post title. [Details]
> Geek

Terrorists download MP3s too, you know. [Details]
Boids! Pretty, artificially flocking bird/fish-type things. [Destroy]
In fact, have some more random pretty things while I'm at it. [Destroy]
> Stuff

Mark Steyn says what the rest of the media is afraid to and, as always, is completely right. [Details]
Ever wondered what happens when you put a whole cucumber down a waste disposal, or cook an egg with a blowtorch? Find out here. [Details]
IRC images: exactly what it says on the tin. Scans thousands of IRC channels and shows pictures that people are linking to, live. Probably not work safe, as you can imagine... [Display]
The unofficial website of Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen's brilliant post-Ali G character. Includes episode guides/pictures and some interviews with people who have been "caught out" by Borat. [Details]
I finished work last Friday, meaning I've been able to sleep in late and do nothing for large portions of the week. Excellent!
This week I have mostly been listening to Soulwax's new album "Any Minute Now". Yes, again. Also happened upon an Oasis documentary on TV that I ended up watching for an hour, which reminded me how brilliant they are. Oh, and the Hives. Sorry, I like their new album, whatever anyone else thinks. It's catchy, and not in a bad way.

Posted by Stormcaller at 7:22 PM GMT [Link]

Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - "Security level: Sigma"

> Serious

Let's see... nine months holiday that could have been avoided if they'd employed a man? Misogynistic, yes - but horribly practical too. [Details]
No, see... what you have to do is eat less and excercise more. Oh sure, it'd be nice if society made it easy for you - but being fat is a personal choice. (For almost everyone, I disclude in this those few people who are legitimately medical cases) [Details]
Ye gods. Why can't we ever backport some of the good bits of America, like... um... well - not these bits, anyway. [Details]
> Quotes

Titles, because everyone is so bad at them.
Gummi Bears -- they hibernate in your colon!
So Goth, I shit bats
The world teeters on the brink of destruction. Time to send out the teenagers!
> Comics

But roads can't read signs. [Display]
Many predictable, yet strangely funny joke, in this StarWars / Judge Judy cross. [Display]
Stuff of legends. Heroes aint all they're cracking up. [Display] [Display]
> Humour

Bad things to walk across, stars. [Details]
Like, it's dead meat. Who cares which lump is in hole one and which is in hole two? How do you know anyway? [Details]
Science good, thinking bad, reading long tracts even worse. [Details]
Everyone knows it, science is, often as not, about documenting common knowledge and making sure it really is true. Anyway, people believe irrational things about their kids and can't think as straight when they have them screaming in their ears. [Details]
> Gaming

Big bunch of free adventure games. Yay. [Download]
Discord times. A not terribly good turn-based strategy game. [Download]
Another natural selection. Doesn't sound too revolutionary. [Download]
Locomotion. It's a railroad tycoon clone, no matter what anyone else says - tattie ducks is a shallow copy. As for graphics - there's kinda an upper limit. [Download]
A lot of people are screaming that this is the most annoying game around. I'm not so sure, I quite like it. But it's certainly a perfect copy of the first four platforms - which should tell you something about the difficulty. [Destroy]
Derelict. Chaos engine style blaster. [Download]
Marathon. Takes a bit of installing (read the faq, and be sure to edit the ini file to set yourmouse sensitivity) but a good classic doom era doom clone. You need both links. [Download] [Download]
Flat-space. An elite clone. [Download]
Game toad - upwords! [Download]
Stab! I ninj you! [Destroy]
Neocron 2, beta. A cyberpunk mmorpg, with a good combat system, but if it's like neocron1, very little else to redeem it. Still, I can't be the only person on the net who enjoys 200meg downloads for their own sake. [Download]
Doom patch. Ye gods, it's been a decade since I've been able to say that. [Download]
> Stuff

It's kinda a permissions based Anti-Virus tool. Catches programs by what they try to do (like, access the net, or format your hard drive) rather than by what they are. Dunno if I'd trust it. [Download]
Free stuff, if you send real world letters. [Details]
Essays suck, he essays. [Details]
Scribus. Layout and publishing software. Like quark, but not quite as fun to say. [Download]
Dianna Wynne Jones. Not the unauthorised autobiography. [Details]

Posted by Vitenka at 7:35 PM GMT [Link]

Saturday, September 4, 2004 - "You are nothing without your robot car!"

Sorry for not posting any links last weekend - I was away all weekend, amongst other things paintballing, and forgot to organise someone to cover. Oh well, you get a bumper update today. Thanks to MC for some of these links - he's been emailing me quite a few interesting things over the last couple of weeks, but I've only just gotten round to looking at the all.
> Science/Tech

A star. In the sky! Who'd have thought of that? New York's latest potential WTC memorial. [Display]
A major new clean, renewable and abundant energy source within seven years? That'd be nice. It's a device using sunlight with titanium catalysts to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. [Details]
"Flying cars coming soon!" Yawn... [Details]
On the edge of Earthiness - rocky "super Earth" discovered. [Details]
Hamster-powered night lights - available in all good electronics stores. [Details]
I'm not sure if I'd actually choose to live in one of these space houses, but they're great in concept and are edging slowly towards being habitable and comfortable enough to be used on a real mission someday. [Details]
If this spectacular picture is the celestial equivalent of a geode, a hollow rock containing crystals in the inside, then how big was the hammer? [Details]
Bose, the audio equipment company, have been developing a revolutionary new vehicle suspension system which is sure to, er, rock the industry. [Details]
Plastic surgery can now make you more attractive. [Details]
Another blow for the space shuttle? [Details]
The above puns are mostly the responsibility of MC. Blame him!
> Geek

You wouldn't think the Internet is 35 years old, but it is. Then again, the World Wide Web is not quite 15 years old yet, and the population at large has only really caught on in the last eight years or so. [Details]
It's their own fault - they should have gotten Samuel L. Jackson to do an advert for them. Or am I thinking of that HSBC one with the British guy eating the Japanese eel soup stuff? Something to do with cultural sensitivity, anyway. [Details]
The trailer for "Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars" is up on Apple.com. [Download]
"Liberated" games, available legally for free to download and play. The list includes classics like "Doom", "Quake II" and "One Must Fall: 2097" as well as some more recent games such as "Tribes 2" and "Grand Theft Auto". [Details]
Personally I'd never buy an Apple computer, but the new iMac G5, with the whole machine contained in the flat LCD monitor, is rather sexy. [Details]
FAST TCP, developed by researchers at Cambridge University, Caltech and others, promises to speed up data transfer over high-bandwidth networks. [Details]
1,300,925,111,156,286,160,896 possible spellings - that's a lot of Viagra in your inbox. [Details]
Bringing the curiosity (and perversion) of the world to your belt buckle. [Details]
They're making official Swiss Army knives with USB drives now. Inevitable, but cool. [Details]
Fragging on the big screen at cinemas - surely the next step for gamers? [Details]
> Stuff

Not sure if I linked this when Weebl put it up a few weeks ago, but I like it. [Destroy]
Clever cloud images. [Details]
Poor panda. [Destroy]
Take that, Hasselhoff! Link from the ever-entertaining Popbitch. [Details]

Posted by Stormcaller at 7:50 PM GMT [Link]

Thursday, September 2, 2004 - "Don't look now, but your luggage just gave birth"

> Serious

I find it odd that two schools got taken hostage on the same day. Strange coinkdink. [Details] [Details]
Can anyone explain to me why this was not already the case? [Details]
> Humour

Mac Guyver ... and the treasure of Atlantis. For real.
... uhhhhhhhhh ... well, why not? [Details]
Revenge of the iLoo [Details]
> Stuff

Caller ID has never been bullet proof, but now it's not even idiot proof. [Details]
Um, didn't I say this a long time ago? I can't be arsed looking through the archives to check, so I'll just assert that I did and rely on you being too lazy to check up on me. (Which would require you using archive.org anyway) [Details]
Collaborative art - sounds stupid and poncy, looks great. Not actualyl a breakfast cereal, no matter how I just made it sound. [Display]
> Gaming

Evil genius. It's dungeon keeper 3 with a james-bond theme. Decent fun - the demo is really short after the tutorial. I found the purple guy qualified as the theif. [Download]
YADM (Yet another damn mmorpg) [Download]
Well now, this is a terrifying concept for the books. [Download]
"Play as a ninja trapped in a world of well-meaning, inadvertantly homicidal robots" [Download]
RTS without unit builds. Soldier of ww2. Shp swears by it in Co-Op mode, and Ram likes it which is a big plus vote. [Download]
Games with source [Download]
Oh those so-so very crappy adverts [Download]
Doom-classic for doom3. Surprisingly quickly, I didn't even know there was a level editor for doom3 functional yet. [Download]
> Comics

Dragon-mango. Where everyone is named for fruit. [Display] [Display]
Face the wrath of one of the lesser quality Bill crosby movies of the nineteen-eighties! [Display]
Skree? [Display]
Captain greyhound. Lack of art, but the plot is quite funny - and the character name "Bagpuss-girl" should go down in history. [Display]

Posted by Vitenka at 4:47 PM GMT [Link]