Kind: Articles
Traditional long form content: a post with an explicit title and body.
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eBay Context Advertising
You've probably seen eBay's context-sensitive advertising on Google: you search for, say, "children's toys", and one of the Google ads on the right-hand side of the page tells you how you can buy and sell children's toys on eBay. I've always thought that this system was probably just waiting to be abused, so I had …
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E-Mail Server Configuration For Dummies
Well; I feel like a wally.
SmartData's taking on a new client for a content-managed web site, web and e-mail hosting. In anticipation of the domain transfer going through without a hitch, I reconfigured our web and e-mail servers to already be ready to accept connections to their "new" web site and for e-mails to come … -
This Weekend’s Events
Just so those of you in Aber know, here's some of this weekend's highlights:
Geek Night tonight is cancelled, as JTA and I are building his new PC (possibly with the help of Paul and certainly while being hand-fed peeled grapes by Ruth). A number of us are discussing seeing the 2:30pm matinee showing of … -
Dan’s Dingbats Challenge III - Results
Thanks to everybody who played Dan's Dingbats Challenge III; it was great to see some of your answers. Almost everybody did really well on points this time around, but many were let down by their times.
Here's the final scoreboard and answers:
Position Player Time Taken Right Answers Total Time 1 Faye (Aber)Very quick; every one … -
Dan’s Dingbats Challenge III
It's back! Dan's Dingbat Challenge III!
If you've not played Dan's Dingbat Challenge before, you'd better go back and look at the first and second ones, and Andy's one. Or just go look at the answers to my first and second ones. Or just give it a go.
I've made a few changes since last time:
There's … -
3 Brazilian Soldiers
Donald Rumsfeld was giving the president his daily briefing.
He concluded by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed."
"OH NO!" the President yells. "That's terrible....just terrible!"
His staff watches as he buries his head in his hands and saying, "This is bad; bad for the coalition."
His staff sits stunned at this display since he had never shown … -
The Way Lunch Should Be
There's a right way to go for lunch during your break at work, and, if you're in Aberystwyth, this is it.
Starter
I started in Scholars, where Matt (in the Hat) is spending the entire day as a birthday celebration. I treated Matt to a pint of Guinness, and had a half myself, thereby giving … -
Abbey National’s Rebranding
Is is just me who sees Abbey National's new logo - the result, inevitabley, of thousands of pounds worth of rebranding as part of their "new appeal", as looking like some kind of symbolic steaming turd?
Perhaps it's just me, but when I first saw it in Aber high street the other day, that's the first … -
Writing A Calendar App In Rails Vs. PHP
Some time ago, I wrote a web-based calendar application in PHP, one of my favourite programming languages. This tool would produce a HTML tabular calendar for a four week period, Monday to Sunday, in which the current date (or a user-specified date) fell in the second week (so you're looking at this week, last week, …
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The Flat Is Tidy
Thanks to JTA for his help. Huge thanks to Matt (temporarily minus his hat) for his help: feed the guy oatcakes and rum and he'll mop your floor! Winnage!
This is, of course, a result of the anticipated sale of the building we live in. The owners of MG's cafe, below us, and - in fact … -
A Jolly Good Fundraiser
Just got back from three days of fundraising for Aberystwyth Nightline, selling hot dogs, burgers, and fries at a stall at the University "Fresher's Fair". That was pretty successful.
In other news, a large padded A4 envelope arrived at The Flat today, addressed to Paul. The stamps, letter header etc. all seem to imply that the … -
The Aber Effect
Last night really works as a great example of the 'Aber Effect'. Claire and I went along to Sundeep's housewarming party, where she was feeding curry to her housemates and those of us who came along to welcome her back into Aberystwyth. I'd also promised to help sort her computer out with an internet connection, …
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Foreshadowing?
This photo was shared here retroactively, on 26 May 2019. It could possibly be seen, in hindsight, as foreshadowing the four of us pictured in bed together here ending up in a set of polyamorous relationships together a few years later.
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Interview With Hayoa Miyazaki
The Guardian ran an interview with Hayao Miyazaki, director of such films as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Tonari no Totoro. My favourite bit of the interview:
Miyazaki taps a cigarette from a silver case. The Disney deal suits him, he explains, because he has stuck to his guns. His refusal to grant merchandising rights … -
Magic Story
Inspired by Andy's PassThePageGame on the RockMonkey wiki - a collaborative storytelling game based on that silly game you used to play at school, I've written my own tool:
MagicStory is a collaborative wiki storytelling tool designed to be harder to "run away" with than normal wikifiction. Having read the story, participants can write a suggested …