1

Hi 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.

2

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.

3

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.

4 "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*

1

Heh, my gf tried to wash our Burmese kittens a few times, when they were about 6 months old.  (I laughed and said I wanted no part of it.)

She gave up after the second trip to emergency room.

1

Sure, easy for you to laugh about brain-eating amoebas, safely down in Australia. We're under attack by them up here in America.

No, really:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=brain-eating+amoeba&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn

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.

2 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.

3

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.

http://www.askmar.com/ConferenceNotes/2006-9%20IAC%20Paper.pdf

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.

Bussard also mentions the gain scaling in his video. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1996321846673788606

4

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.)

5 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.

1 "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.

2 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.