Kind: Articles
Traditional long form content: a post with an explicit title and body.
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Flash MX 2004 Data Integration/XML Features
Geeky post.
I've just been playing with the data integration and XML-parsing features offered by the new version of Macromedia Flash (traditionally used for animation on the web, but nowadays used for all kinds of things, like those silly games at Shockwave.com). They're actually quite impressive - here's the result of my fiddling this evening (requires … -
Geek Night: Diplomacy
After last Sunday's Geek Night, I've observed that there are a fair number of us (well: Claire, JTA, Ruth and I, at least) who would be interested in an online, one-day-per-turn game of Diplomacy, an entirely skill-based strategy game made in 1959 and based on World War 1. It's a really, really simple game, but …
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Freedom Sport And Surf
There's a lesson here for any business with a web site:
I'm sure that you may be familiar with Freedom Sport & Surf, the sports goods shop on Alexandra Road (opposite the carpet shop formerly known as Rumbletums Cafe). Well; they had a website - FreedomSportAndSurf.com. But they let the domain name expire, and it's been … -
Urgent Message For Paul!
This is an urgent message for Paul M:
Some of us in Aber are concerned that your original travel plans had you returning to Aberystwyth on Monday 17th January. It is our understanding that you have an exam on the morning of Monday 17th January, and we're not sure you're aware of this. We have tried … -
War Of The Chrononauts
This post is almost entirely about board games. If you're not interested, stop here.
As some of you will no doubt realise already, I have at long last gotten Chrononauts and War Of The Ring, two board games I've been trying to get my hands on for some time. Not being ones to want to wait … -
Bryn’s Challenge - Update
Here's the update on Claire and my progress with Bryn's Challenge - his happy little Un-Supersize-Me goal of avoiding fast food for a month:
All's good. We're also taking advantage of the opportunity to explore with cooking things we wouldn't normally, and I'll be sharing, here, some of the things we've tried. Starting with last night's … -
More Old Blogposts Recovered
I achieved another success this morning in my effort to recover as much as possible of my personal life online into one place - I've managed to rediscover five 'lost' (and previously unread) weblog posts from April 2003. Folks who really want to might care to go back and read:
April Fools Day (1st April … -
Wet And Wild
There's a notice out today not to park on Marine Terrace... and with good reason. From the superior viewpoint offered from my office, it's crazy to watch the sea coming over the harbour bar in a way I've never seen before: I'm familiar with stormy days where the waves are crashing over the wall, but …
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Bryn’s “Un-Supersize-Me” Challenge
Claire and I have decided to take on Bryn's Fast-Food Challenge, in order to try to reduce the amount of fast food and other excessively unhealthy and pre-processed foods we eat (and in order to save a little money). I've no lack of confidence about this - until I was living with Claire, I was …
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Build Your Own Tin Foil Hat
StopAbductions.com has a guide to building your own "Thought Screen Helmet". From the website:
The thought screen helmet blocks telepathic communication between aliens and humans. Aliens cannot immobilize people wearing thought screens nor can they control their minds or communicate with them using their telepathy. When aliens can't communicate or control humans, they do not … -
Happy Birthday To Me
Thanks to everybody who came to Troma Night to celebrate my birthday on Saturday: that was fab. And special thanks to Hayley for baking a cake, and Jon for suggesting the decoration.
Troma Night was fun, and so was Geek Night (despite being just Andy, Claire and I) - a three-player game of Munchkin is actually … -
More Geeky Fun - Hack Security Cameras
This was one of my most-popular articles in 2005. If you enjoyed it, you might also enjoy:
The Ten Weirdest Sex Toys I've ever seen (2009)!
A dirty-looking calendar I found at work (2011).
My beliefs about why it's wrong to lie to children about Santa (2009), complete with pictures of naughty elves. … -
First Look At Microsoft Ani-Spyware
Microsoft have released a beta-test version of their new Anti-Spyware program (based on technology they gained during their recent acquisition of Giant Company Software). As a happy little curious bunny, I decided to download it and give it a go on one of the computers laying about at work.
Installation of Anti-Spyware is the typical InstallShield-driven … -
Internet Explorer Inferiority… Again
I've had a major gripe with Microsoft Internet Explorer for some years now, in it's inability to handle PNG files correctly. Being able to use PNG files gives web developers some serious benefits in being able to make overlaid, semitransparent (non-binary transparency) images, compress files smaller, etc.
So, yeh - pretty much every web browser on … -
LiveJournal Sells
Following up yesterday's rumours, it can now be seen that, officially, LiveJournal has been sold to SixApart. The details look pretty good - the service will remain much as-it-is, nobody will be 'migrated' to TypePad or MoveableType, and - better yet - LiveJournal might actually (finally) get some much-needed new features, such as trackback (which …
