Posted by: Tommy at Thursday, November 01 2007 08:50 AM (6Z+3t)
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It looks to be a real Dalek-acy, thanks folks I'll be here all week. On a more serious note my sibebar is dropping below the comments on posts when you view or add comments or when you view them individually through internal links, and I can't figure out why.
Posted by: Raging Tachikoma at Friday, November 02 2007 03:49 PM (LxPvi)
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I'm working on that one. Something I did recently has caused an old CSS bug to reappear. Should be fixed tomorrow.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Friday, November 02 2007 11:12 PM (PiXy!)
Pixy, you OK? (Taking some time off? You certainly deserve it.)
You've got a couple of spams to stomp on...
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Thursday, November 15 2007 01:11 PM (+rSRq)
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I got a new job to help support mee.nu while I grow it into a viable business, so I've been busy for the past couple of weeks. Back on track now, though.
Manwhile, die spammers, die!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Friday, November 16 2007 12:08 PM (PiXy!)
I was taking a nap just now, and I had this dream where I was meeting the Secretary for Somethingorother of a small European country. I don't remember the name of the country (if it ever came up in the dream), but I do know the name of its two principalities: Frooinzetland and Nuinjipoland.
Because, you see, the Secretary brought his four Undersecretaries - the Political and Social Undersecretaries (for Somethingorother) for Frooinzetland and Nuinjipoland - to the meeting. And when he introduced them, and then every time after that when he referred to them, he got them mixed up. I'd ask him a question, and he'd direct it to one of the Undersecretaries, so that if a question involved the social impact of something on the elderly men of Frooinzetland, he'd refer it to the (young, female) Political Undersecretary of Nuinjipoland.
The Undersecretaries never batted an eye; they simply corrected the Secretary as he spoke and handled the questions with perfect aplomb, no matter the topic:
Secretary: Well, I think I can best refer that question to the Social PUN: Political Secretary: Undersecretary for Frooinzetland PUN: Nuinjipoland Secretary: Who is after all an elderly PUN: Young Secretary: Man PUN: Woman Secretary: Himself. PUN: Herself. We've recently completed a study of that very question, and the statistics show a clear improvement across a broad array of indicators...
When refreshments were served, not only did the Secretary confuse tea and coffee (with and without milk), but directed policy questions to the waitress, who also handled them with perfect aplomb.
Things started to deteriorate as the Undersecretaries (and everyone else present) were tricked into revealing that they were variously gay, transgendered, drug addicts, adulterers, and so on.
Secretary: Well, seeing that the Political SUF: Social Secretary: Undersecretary for Nuinjipoland SUF: Frooinzetland Secretary: Is a straight SUF: Gay [strange looks from other Undersecretaries] Secretary: Woman SUF: Man [very strange looks - SUF is wearing a dress]
It had all the makings of a classic Monty Python sketch.
I had a dream I was at a conference-type-thing with Glenn Reynolds. I was wearing these ridiculous fuzzy pajama things, which Glenn assured me were appropriate for bloggers. I was still very embarassed though because I was also wearing a nice button down shirt with them and while I felt I could have pulled off the pjs alone, with the shirt it was just ridiculous.
Then it was a class and they handed out the scantrons for a test. I was a half-hour late and unprepared and tried to fake my way through. Glenn was joking with the teacher, which seemed natural since he was a professor too.
I blame the melatonin.
Posted by: TallDave at Friday, November 09 2007 11:17 AM (r1Ip+)
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Pixy, I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm getting deluged with commentspam, and I can't figure out how to do anything to stop it... or slow it down. Help!
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sunday, October 28 2007 02:22 AM (AW3EJ)
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The robot is there to keep the driver happy at all times?
I would think that might be distracting depending on just how happy it wants to make you!
Posted by: Stephen Macklin at Sunday, October 28 2007 03:51 AM (Z3kjO)
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Wonderduck, I suspect the real reason you get lots of spam and I don't get any is that I require all commenters to be registered. It's not that onerous a requirement, and I suspect that most of your regular commenters are already registered because of me. (A lot of overlap in our readership.) It's a single change in your blog configuration in the control frames, and it should shut the flow of spam off completely.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Sunday, October 28 2007 07:11 AM (+rSRq)
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I have an updated spam filter in place now, which catches this particular spambot and auto-bans the IPs. (It's using at least three different IP ranges, and multiple IPs from each.) That should slow it down a bit.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, October 28 2007 10:44 AM (PiXy!)
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The whole wheel rotating thing is cool, but man that thing is just, UGLY. As for the in dash robot, I don't think it would last more than about five miles or so before I destroyed it, because that would make me a happy driver.
Posted by: Raging Tachikoma at Monday, October 29 2007 08:30 AM (pdXt8)
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My reaction to it was that it would be a deathtrap in a car wreck.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Monday, October 29 2007 12:30 PM (+rSRq)
So I watch the opening scene of this, and I think to myself, meh, not another Mushishi.
And then the credits roll, and I discover that I am quite correct: This is not another Mushishi. This is something... different. The story makes little sense, the artwork is merely adequate, the animation so-so, the voice acting unobjectionable, the music unremarkable. But it cranks the weirdness up to eleven without becoming either incoherent or merely frenetic, and I have to give it points for that. I'll be waiting for the next episode, and while you may not feel the same after watching the first, I still recommend that you do.
Things You Learn From Anime And Then Wish You Hadn't
Kiviak is a gastronomical Christmas treat from Greenland which,
for some reason, hasn't been adopted by many other nations. It's made
from the raw flesh of an auk which has been buried under a stone in sealskin
for several months until it's achieved an advanced stage of decomposition.
Apparently, it smells like old blue cheese and tastes very pungent.
Sourced here; I'll talk about the anime shortly, after I've had some time to... digest.
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Shion No Ou
This is the story of Shion, a young girl who lost the ability to speak when her parents were brutally murdered. I looked that up on Wikipedia, because I gave up watching it after seven minutes; the blandness of the voice performance being matched only by the blandness of the characters themselves.
The fact that the show seems to have a total animation budget of 85 cents doesn't help either.
Zero amoebas.
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Thursday, October 18
Cutie Honey - The Live
Yes, it's another outing for our robotic quick-change superheroine, and as the name suggests, it's a live-action version.
It is, of course, terrible. But it has its attractions...
Mikie Hara mightn't be another Eriko Sato, but she still has the essentials. Cutie Honey is supposed to be a tall busty redhead, and two of those properties being somewhat scarce in Japan, they make damn sure of the other.
And the costume design is less worse than the film:
What's more, there are two other costumed cuties fighting either alongside or against Honey-san (I haven't seen either one yet, so I don't know which):
Rating: Two amoebas for Honey / tokusatsu fans. One amoeba otherwise.
Just got home and fired up my email. Shortly, I expect, I'll have a couple of hundred new messages to read.
I set up webmail before I left so that I could keep tabs on things; unfortunately, it didn't actually work. So sorry if you've been waiting a couple of days for me to get back to you. And if it's not urgent, you might be waiting a few more hours yet, as it's nearly bedtime.
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Saturday, October 13
And Do My Shopping At The 7-Thirteen
I don't know how common this is, but it's the pattern I fall into whenever outside factors are removed. I am not naturally diurnal.
It's almost as if the spammers noticed that you were going on vacation and decided to nail you.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tuesday, October 16 2007 01:46 PM (+rSRq)
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Yep. I need better admin tools for the spam filter. I could have changed it to block the new spam, but I didn't have access to the test environment and didn't want to make untested changes to the live.
But now I'm back! Die, spammers, die!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, October 16 2007 10:26 PM (PiXy!)
I am a novice computer user. I have recently been given control of our not for profit organisations weblog. I noticed that your weblog is in the same format (MT). I haven't had anything to do with webloging but have been researching it. I was wondering if you had any useful links or hints to help to be able to update the weblog. I have installed a FTP onto my computer and was wondering what other software I would require to update? Any help would be appreciated. I am almost st the stage at paying for advice, but wanted a bit of background before doing this.
Thank you in advance.
Posted by: Troy at Thursday, October 11 2007 09:28 PM (n3M94)
Blogs here are created and updated online, using only a web browser. FTP isn't supported and isn't necessary.
Mee.Nu doesn't run Movable Type. It runs a package called Minx which Pixy himself is developing commercially. It's quite mature and reliable now, but development is ongoing. Minx differs from Movable Type in a number of critical ways.
Minx is going to be competing with Movable Type in the marketplace. Asking Pixy for advice on how to use MT is like going to a Ford design engineer and asking advice on what Toyota you should buy and how you should take care of it. He might know, but it's not very polite.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Thursday, October 11 2007 10:48 PM (+rSRq)
Hi Troy. As Steven mentioned, I don't use Movable Type any more and have little experience with the latest versions.
You don't actually need FTP to maintain a Movable Type site, though it is convenient if you want to upload a large number of images. If you do a lot of editing on your posts, there are applications like W.Bloggar which give you a desktop editor that connects to MT for you.
But if MT is installed and working, there isn't anything you have to have on your own computer to use it - other than a browser, of course!
The best place to ask questions would be at Six Apart's own forums. (Six Apart is the company that makes Movable Type.) Lots of experienced and helpful people there.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, October 11 2007 11:41 PM (PiXy!)
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"Maybe I'll pack a long-sleeved shirt after all."
Good idea. That's the kind of thing that always happens to me when I travel. The 2 times I've been to Florida - the temps were cold the entire time I was there, but had been beautifully warm on the weeks before and after my trips.
Travel is a no win situation when it comes to weather. *grin*
Posted by: Teresa at Friday, October 12 2007 03:36 AM (rVIv9)
My favorite headline: 'Brain-eating amoeba' unlikely here, experts say.
And as if the assault of brain-eating amoebas wasn't depressing enough, this morning I hear from Insty that Dr. Bussard's passed away. Oh well, the Polywell fusion power project goes on. At least he got it re-funded and under way again (with Congressional backing, according to rumor) before he passed away.
Posted by: TallDave at Wednesday, October 10 2007 10:42 AM (r1Ip+)
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I did hear about the brain-eating amoebas in the US; the concept is funny but the results are tragic.
Shame about Dr Bussard. I've read about his recentwork on fusion power. I don't think it will work; the scaling factors he quoted looked out of whack to me. But for the relatively small amount of money involved, worth pursuing.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, October 10 2007 11:02 AM (PiXy!)
I give Polywell a 1 in 3 chance. Of course, if it works the way Bussard claimed, it changes the world considerably, not least because the mass-thrust ratio makes interplanetary travel a reality almost overnight. Then there's the small matter of reducing energy costs by an order of magnitude. Seems too good to be true, doesn't it?
According to Bussard, the scaling B^4*R^3 with R^2 losses. It does seem extraordinary that the gain can increase at the 5th power of the radius. If you haven't read his Valencia paper, I highly recommend it.
It is important to emphasize that there is nothing significantly new to be gained by further tests at sub-scale sizes (i.e. less than that needed for net power). This is an inherent consequence of the way in which the fusion power output (Pf) and system gain (Qf. ratio of fusion power to drive power) scale with the machine size (R) and electron-confining magnetic field (B). Fusion power scales as the fourth power of the B field and the cube of the size, thus Pf = (k1)B
4R3, while the unavoidable electron injection drive power loss scales as the surface area of the machine, thus is proportional to R
2. Assuming the use of super-conductors for the magnetic field drive coils, the electron losses are the only major system losses. Then, the ratio of these two power parameters is the gain (Qf), which is thus seen to scale as Qf = (k2) B 4R3/R2 = (k2) B4R. Because of this B4R3 scaling of fusion output, which makes fusion power scale as the 7th power of size, and the corollary 5th power scaling of system gain, it is obvious that little can be gained short of building the next system at full-scale.
We'll know more when the WB-7 is built and tested. That's happening now; I would imagine results are done in no more than a year, no less than a few months. Then, I am told, if those results pan out, they will attempt to build a 100MW full-scale device, for about $200M, and then we'll find out for sure about scaling.
I've seen some character art for Clannad, and I found it disturbing. The faces were off; the eyes were too large and placed too low and wide.
Almost all anime characters have unrealistically large eyes; it's part of the style. But Clannad and a few other series like it take that to extremes that I find a bit repulsive. (Kanon did, too.)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Wednesday, October 10 2007 02:17 PM (+rSRq)
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I was thinking the same. On the one hand, not so good for binocular vision. On the other hand, they must get a 240 degree field of view with their eyes on the sides of their head like that.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, October 11 2007 10:00 AM (PiXy!)
This is the succubus one. Not total rubbish, but not a lot of surprises either.
Two big bouncy amoebas.
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Rental Magica
This is the first of the new season that gives the impression that some real talent went into the animation (though Mokke is nice enough). The opening action sequence is definitely cool, particularly the rocket broom. And the obligatory cute meganeko witch.
The story, unfortunately, is stupid.
Maybe that will improve. But for now, just two amoebas.
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Kimikiss Pure Rouge
High school romance. Childhood friends separated and reunited. Fortunately uninfiltrated by the squeaky voice brigade - better production qualities all round, in fact.
Not amazing, but a solid two amoebas.
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Night Wizard
The girls with guns genre needs a little livening up, Tanaka-san. What can you give us for the fall season?
Anno... Hotties with howitzers? Cuties with crossbows?
Tanaka?
Hai?
You're fired.
Failed Shana-wannabe. One amoeba.
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Myself Yourself
I was going to give this no amoebas based on the first minute, then bumped that up to one amoeba after the second minute, then two amoebas during the opening credits... Then back down to one amoeba. And a small, sickly one at that.
High school romance. Childhood friends separated and reunited. Indifferently animated; while digital animation ensures that everything is clear and colourful, I don't get the impression that anyone particularly cared about this show.
Oh, and wait for the dub. Trust me on this.
Rating: One amoeba. With a wooden leg.
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Blue Drop
Who gave the UN space planes? This can't end well.
And just how many exclusive Swiss finishing schools are there in Japan?
We have: One (1) mystery girl who has
lost her memory, one (1) mystery girl whose
eyes light up like blue LEDs, one (1) shy meganeko, one (1) cute teacher, twelve (12) incidental characters who may or may not play roles in the unfolding story, and two (2) apparently unconnected subplots.
Worth watching a second episode. Could be good if the story is handled well. Artwork, character designs, animation and music are all okay, but unremarkable. We'll see.
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"Worth watching a second episode" is just about what I decided, too. My main problems were the angsty-as-hell lead and the intensely random bit of physical comedy (which fell flat, mind you) partway through. It's like the show doesn't know what to make of itself.
If you're interested, we have a few "first episode impressions" going on over at AEIOU as well.
Posted by: GreyDuck at Wednesday, October 10 2007 12:00 AM (2Yvi7)
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I sent it to the wastebastet sight unseen to make company for Simoun. Maybe I was wrong. It would be hilariously ironic if Blue Drop floundered upon being crap rather than a snakepit of raging lesbians.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Wednesday, October 10 2007 04:24 AM (9imyF)
Not sure exactly what this show is about - the first episode features giant mystical brain-eating amoebas - but I like the artwork, background music, and characters well enough.
Two sisters with minor spiritual powers have moved from the city to live with their grandfather, who is apparently a Shinto priest. Slice of life with monsters unfolds.
The younger sister looks and acts like a nine-year-old Megumi from Ah My Goddess, which is a plus in my book. Good enough to make me want to watch the second episode.
Score: Three amoebas out of four.
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A Game That Most Of My Readers Will Be Ineligible To Play
Now with video!
The rules are simple: Just bold the places you've actually been to.
I've been everywhere...
Well, I was humpin' my bluey on the dusty Oodnadatta road, When along came a semi with a high and canvas-covered load. (Spoken) "If you're goin' to Oodnadatta, mate, um, with me you can ride." So I climbed in the cabin and I settled down inside. He asked me if I'd seen a road with so much dust and sand, I said "Listen, mate, I've travelled ev'ry road in this here land."
Chorus: Cos "I've been everywhere, man, I've been everywhere, man. 'Cross the deserts bare, man; I've breathed the mountain air, man. Of travel I've had my share, man. I've been ev'rywhere.
Been to: Tullamore, Seymour, Lismore, Mooloolaba, Nambour, Maroochydore, Kilmore, Murwillumbah, Birdsville, Emmaville, Wallaville, Cunnamulla, Condamine, Strathpine, Proserpine, Ulladulla, Darwin, Gin Gin, Deniliquin, Muckadilla, Wallumbilla, Boggabilla, Kumbarilla, I'm a killer.
Chorus (Spoken) "Yeah but listen here, mate, have you been to..."
I've been to Moree, Taree, Jerilderie, Bambaroo, Toowoomba, Gunnedah, Caringbah, Woolloomooloo, Dalveen, Tamborine, Engadine, Jindabyne, Lithgow, Casino, Brigalow and Narromine, Megalong, Wyong, Tuggerawong, Wanganella, Morella, Augathella, Brindabella, I'm the feller.
Chorus (Spoken) "Yeah, I know that, but have you been to..."
The Seekers did take the melody for The Carnival Is Over from the Russian folk song Stenka Razin.
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Space Pirate Mito
This is the original show that spawned Aoi & Mutsuki as a sequel. And based on the first episode, it's one of the best examples of late 70's anime I've seen.
Of course, it was made in 1999...
Silly but fun if you don't expect too much from it.
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Flash Gordon
Even on a limited budget, modern computer graphics can produce some amazing-looking spaceships and planetscapes. Add a solid sense of 1930's retro-future design, lavish and imaginative costumes, a smartly written and slyly subversive script, and a talented cast who are in on the joke but play everything absolutely deadpan, and you have everything that's missing from this miserable pile of krep.
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I was considering giving Flash Gordon a whirl, but I wasn't considering it often or very seriously. Thanks for the word of warning; I think I'll immerse myself in Ai Yori Aoishi instead.
Posted by: GreyDuck at Tuesday, October 09 2007 02:18 AM (3q5Q5)
I'm assuming you're refering to the SciFi version of Flash Gordon, and not some anime version?
Yeah, no campy fun at all. Ming controls a single planet by providing access to clean water. Flash and company travel between Earth and Ming by using a Sliders like device, so very few space ships appear. Zarkov's a clueless, cowardly nerd younger than Flash. Flash has the sex appeal of a wet, leprous goat.
I've seen a few episodes, and keep hoping it'll be good, or amusing, or exciting, at least. Still hoping.
Posted by: owlish at Friday, October 12 2007 03:34 AM (pabzc)
Minx doesn't email you when new comments or private messages arrive. It could - it would be easy to do - but I don't want to be sending out thousands (and eventually millions) of emails a day. There are all sorts of problems with being a high-volume email source, and I'd rather simply not go there.
But it's very useful to be alerted to incoming comments (and private messages!) without having to visit your site every ten minutes. So how else can this be achieved?
Well, there's RSS. Minx already supports automatic RSS 2.0 and Atom feeds (and you can customise it to support other formats). Why not add an RSS feed of comments?
Comments are public, so an RSS feed of them isn't an issue. (Not true of private messages, but we'll get to that.) But maybe you don't want everyone to see spam or unapproved comments. Well, you can set up a hidden feed. Or the system can do that automatically for you. If your public comment feed is at http://mysite.mee.nu/feed/comments, and your private comment feed is at, say, http://mysite.mee.nu/feed/comments/aj69c0, you'd have to try an average of a billion combinations before getting access to someone's private comment feed.
There would be a link in the editing interface so you could subscribe with one click, and easy-peasy, comment notification.
I could certainly do the same with private messages. If you're sensitive about those and worried about that 1 in a billion chance, I can have an option where the RSS feed only shows the arrival of a new message, and not the sender or contents.
I could also do secured feeds, but that's more fiddly and many popular readers don't support them.
Yet more proof that the Pixy is great and wise....
One technical observation....fiddly=bad...easy-peasy=good.
Posted by: Ken Talton at Monday, October 08 2007 10:47 PM (49e9y)
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Works for me. So far I've been doing okay with going to my site and looking at the comment list on my page... but I don't get many comments (hell let's face it - I don't get many readers!). So RSS would be a nice thing - even though I don't particularly need it. *grin*
Posted by: Teresa at Tuesday, October 09 2007 01:12 AM (rVIv9)
5Pixy, is Fantastico gone for good? I went into cPanel to upgrade my WP install and noticed it missing...
Posted by: pam at Tuesday, October 09 2007 04:11 AM (l6NIn)
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Oops. I think I just need to install it on the new server.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, October 09 2007 10:50 AM (PiXy!)
