It was a bad day. A lot of bad stuff happened. And I'd love to forget it all. But I don't. Not ever. Because this is what I do. Every time, every day, every second, this: On five, we're bringing down the government.

Tuesday, February 24

Art

Rats and Gargoyles

So, if Casaubon's mother hadn't been around to summon the birds to catch and eat the soul-moths of all the people dying of the plague magia that Plessiez had created to attack the Decans and their acolytes, and Zaribeth's sister hadn't arrived to guide the Boat of Night to pick up all those birds and their soul-burdens and take them through the Night Between Days (or whatever it was called) to tomorrow and reincarnation, would they (the souls) have then been sucked into the Night Sun and there suffered the True Death? And what would that have done to the structure of the Universe, already weakened by Spagyrus?

Exactly what role did the University of Crime play in the final outcome of events? How essential was it that Plessiez went back and disrupted the plague magia, aside from placating the Night Court? And the model of the Temple of Salomon that Casaubon and his friends built, that was finally made real by the Decan of the Eleventh Hour - did the pattern it embodied really make a difference?

Or did it all come down to Valentine White Crow, scholar-soldier of the Invisible College, saving Theodoret and finally pursuading Spagyrus not to commit suicide?

Heck, I don't know, and I've read the book.

There are two sequels, or at least books containing the same characters... Some of the same characters... Some characters with the same names. Anyway: Left to His Own Devices and The Architect of Desire. I'm reading those now, and I'll see if they shed any light on earlier events.

Probably not.

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Sunday, February 22

Cool

Forget Norway!

Forget Norway, Go to Kenya!

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Geek

Success!

Migrated the whole of MuNu to the new server. It mostly seems to work.

Problems encountered and overcome:

I couldn't get into PostgreSQL to load the databases. Then I could. Either I did something and have forgotten what it was, or it was just being pesky.

PHP was not built with PostgreSQL support. The automatic rebuild through CPanel did not work. A manual rebuild did.

One or two symbolic links pointed to a filesystem that doesn't exist on the new machine. Easy to fix once you find them.

On the old server, I can refer to a CGI script, say login.cgi, just as login and it works. I no longer have any idea how I did that, and I had to get creative to make it (sort of) work on the new server.

Left a couple of essential entries out of httpd.conf. This is understandable, since on the new server it is maintained by CPanel. This blew up Snooze Button Dreams, for example.

Forgot to create an account for Munuviana. Heh.

There were some other things, but I don't remember what. The usual delayed DNS changes taking me to the wrong site, that kind of thing.

Oh yes: Poxy suexec with its 17-stage security checking and wonderfully informative error messages, which completely broke Movable Type. Grr.

Now, I think it's time for a nap.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 03:05 AM | Comments (19) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Saturday, February 21

Geek

I've Got Mine

I was doing an audit of the servers at work last week when I discovered that our backups no longer fit on one tape. Fortunately, we have DDS4 tape drives, but were using DDS3 tapes. So simply by using DDS4 tapes, we can fit 20GB on each tape instead of 12GB.

I went online to find a good price on DDS4 tapes. Last time I checked, they cost about $60 each, so I was pleased to see that they were now down around $30. I could get a box of five for $140, or a box of ten for...

$35.

Naturally, I immediately ordered five boxes of ten. They arrived today, total price $184 including $9 shipping.

The price has now been fixed, and a box of ten sells for $288. But I don't care, because I've got mine.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:04 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Friday, February 20

Anime

Ippatu Diaries

In epsiode 5, we learn what to do if you and your roomate are trapped inside a barrel which is slowly filling with water.

In episode 6, we are taught how to deal with being swallowed by a 7-metre python.

In episode 7, we find out how to make a sturdy rope out of toilet paper. Also, that seasons are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere.

In episode 8, we learn how to use a steam cannon to escape from a raging bushfire.

This is one of the most educational shows I've ever seen!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:54 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Life

Pray For Me

Lately, I haven't been able to sleep at night. And my boss gets annoyed if I sleep during the day.

It could be the weather, which has been disagreeable of late. If could be that I'm a suffering from some fatal disease. Or it could be that I drink too much Coke.

Since I can't do much about the first, and don't want to think about the second, I have decided to forswear the Coca Cola Corporation and all its products. Since I don't drink coffee and rarely drink tea, the only caffeine I consume will be naturally occuring.*

We'll see how that goes. If you note a marked change in the quantity, quality, or style of my postings, well, this is why.

* i.e. chocolate.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 03:37 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Thursday, February 19

Anime

Ippatu Update

Okay, summary of episode one*
Our heroine, Kunyan, must escape from a sauna after dislocating both shoulders and both hips. She only has a limited amount of time to do so before she loses consciousness due to dehydration.

Oh, and in escaping she also manages to dislocate her jaw.

This is accompanied by medical information on joints and dislocation and diagrams showing the distance from the seat to the door of the sauna measured in Kunyan-lengths.

Kids, try this at home!

Episode two:

Kunyan and her flatmate have purchased a live King Crab for dinner. Unfortunately, it has escaped and is now firmly attached to Kunyan's face. They try to remove the crab using centrifugal force:
F (centrifugal force) = mv2 / r
(m = Kunyan + crab, r = radius, v = velocity)
That's direct from the video, by the way. Success!
Well, each episode is only four minutes, so they have a limited opportunity to torture poor Kunyan.

One more:

Trapped in an awkward Yoga position, Kunyan accidentally spills a bottle of liquor and it catches fire from a lit cigarette. Given that Kunyan is unable to stand up, how can she put out the flames?

Solution: Taking her flatmate's box of Valentine's Day condoms, Kunyan walks on her hands into the kitchen, climbs into the sink, and makes an arsenal of water balloons. (The video shows the recommended method for this.) The fire is put out, the apartment is saved!

As Kunyan says: Arigato... condoms.

* After BitTorrent stopped playing sillybuggers and I was able to download the files.

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Anime

Ippatu Kikimusume

There's something about this unusual little anime series. But just what, I don't know.

If I try to open the directory, Windows Explorer crashes.

If I persevere and try to view the video, Winamp crashes.

Ahh. Things are back to normal, it would seem.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Geek

Clone Wars

And in yet another example of life imitating satire, Intel today announced their new chip, an AMD clone. Yes, the good old hill of yams, that Intel have been stridently denying lo these many months, is here.

And it's AMD-compatible.

Details for geeks:
AMD Gloats
Intel Mumbles
Microsoft Goes Where the Money Is
The Inquirer Acts All Surprised
Andew Orlowski Sticks to the Technology and Gets the Story More Right Than Wrong, For a Change

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Cool

Grow

And while I'm busy stealing content* from Ghost of a flea, take a look at GROW. Then drop by Dave Does the Blog for in-depth investigative reporting.

(Via Ghost of a flea.)

* Only (as long as I give attribution) be sure to always call it please, research.

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