Monthly Archives: May 2005

Ironing Juice

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(re the IMAP post below, I’ve gone with Calypso for now. Ugly as hell but it works).

Anyway…. I’m debating whether to start a blog about Juice, or Ironing. I’ve a domain which could be used for either (listed in the sidebar), and although I like juice I dislike ironing and so there is more mileage in that I feel. So there is the possible cathartic effect of blogging about what is to come, what is proving annoying and then how pleased I feel until it rolls around again. Then of course I aim for #1 in the search engines, get some ads, tout for free gear to review, gather hints and tips from others, have guest bloggers ….. or not. I can’t decide. Run with it for a year ? (Mind, I once watched someone drink a large glass of broccoli juice.)

Another project I’m involved closely with should see the light of day very soon so I’ll be asking really nicely for linkage to that site when it does go live. Right now we are setting up various admin aspects and some fine print but looking damn good it is.

IMAP ?

2

Any recommendations for a stable Windows IMAP client ?

I use Thunderbird normally but for what I want, I need to keep mail completely separate and TB isn’t so hot at that when it comes to the SMTP server. Though there are workrounds, another client is an option I want to look at first. Anything spring to mind ?

Windows Tip: Removing TCP/IP from your install hinders the ability of the computer to use the network. A lot :)

On a Sunday.

18

I’ve cleaned the machine of that infection. Combination of following advice in other posts on the spyware forums and my own clutzing about with various things. But a full cleanup, reg clean/compact and defrag later and it’s purring nicely here.

European GP .. gets right in the way of the gym session at my normal time.

Okay ….. remember a few days ago I mention that D spends far too much time chatting to this lad called Gary who – I was pleased to note at the time – lives 270 miles away ? Turns out that he’s popping back to Leicester for a day or two. His uncle has business in Derby (another city north of here) but uncle has said he will drop Gary off in Leicester and pick him up on the way back. The next day. So Gary needs somewhere to stay. D comes downstairs last night and tells me of this. I ask her what she is asking me, whether she wants him to stay over (have I mentioned Gary is 17 ? D is 14). She wants to see him. She knows that unless he has somewhere to stay, he probably will not come down. She wants to meet this guy she chats to every night. So yes, of course she wants me to say he can stay here. But …… this is my little girl …. and a guy I have not set eyes on let alone ever met.
I said to D that I could just say “No” but that I’d be doing so for absolutely no good reason. I’d be doing that to have no problem, because I could, because it was the easy thing to do. I told her I didn’t want to say that word. Equally though, just saying “Yea, sure” would be daft – I have not met him, he is 17 and she is not over 16 (this made her blush and she protested that nothing would happen) and maybe he would want to do things she would not, that she might just say yes for reasons that seemed right at that moment but she would regret very quickly, that he would be bigger and able to force himself on her. I said that I could tell him to sleep downstairs or that D sleep in her sister’s room while Gary had her room but that wouldn’t work because they’d creep around to be with each other (I did that !) so that’s no option. One option would be say that he if stayed elsewhere she could see him there, but then I’m actually doing 2 things: putting her into another place where she may not feel as safe, and doing the “out of sight out of mind” thing. So that’s not on. I can hardly say that I’ll vet him and decide on the day / evening due to distance so I need to make the decision and then stick to it. D is sitting across from me as we discuss this and I know that she’ll respect what we decide – I saw ‘we’ because she’d agree, probably reluctantly so maybe I ought to say “what I dictate” but I’m uncomfortable with that. This is a real decision and she has to be party to risks and emotions involved. Risks ? maybe I’m overdramatising it …. nope, my little girl. RISKS. Anyway..
I want her to be safe. I want her to feel safe. Right now I’m not hugely bothered about how Gary will feel – harsh maybe but my priorities are in one direction only. So D being safe means she stays here and that means that he does too. So yes, he can come down and stop – I’ve just realised I don’t know exactly when – for a night. (Mental note: find all the pointy steel jewellery for me to wear) but that still leaves my daughter and this guy alone in a room. I can’t be in there playing guardian angel but I can do better than that – I can put a few in there. D can invite some friends over for the night. That way she feels safe and comfortable, they act as both friends and chaperones and he gets to see a few more girls than maybe he was bargaining for. I can’t wrap my girls in cotton wool and protect them from guys forever, but I think I’m close to getting this one right. I hope I am…

Spyware

2

Adaware has been updated, and just after that I tried something I really should not have so I have an as yet unknown chunk of spyware running rampant through here. Adaware / Spybot / CWS / MS all can’t remove / see it so I’m waiting for some help ….. it’s been ages since I got something like this.

And there is a Bridgestone Tyre advert on TV which I’m finding fantastically annoying – maybe it’s the voiceover which (as I have ranted about before) indicates that while they may think they’ve got a premium high-class product, they are just cheap spivs when it comes to creating content that is ‘per country’ and instead use a generic voiceover. It sounds crap guys .. get a grip.

Update:: Still no help coming through where I’ve posted, but I’m following similar threads. This VX2 / Aurora stuff is serious crap. Look like a minimum of 3 additional programs are needed to what I’ve got, and Safe Mode is involved. I have tried some of it but with zero success. Careful where you play there !

Slow Loading

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In a post below, Cameron and Craig both mention a slow initial loading of this site – something I had noticed too. If this happens, could you do a tracert for me ? ASO have had a look and I’ve supplied a couple but it looks like an intermittent problem and if 3 of us from 3 countries have the same problem….. If you aren’t sure how to do it, on XP, get the command prompt then type
tracert www.tamba2.org.uk
Click in the window once it’s done, right-click, Select All then paste it here. Thanks :)

And in the meantime I’ll have a look at some code here too.

BB6

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Initial Impressions:

Derek – the ‘reasoner’. Minces. Too overt. Win ? No
Lesley – Chav Dog. Makes Jade look clever. Win ? Hell No.
Sam – Big headed. Nothing there really. Win ? No
Maxwell – Chav Lad. Is Lesley his missus ? Nooooo
Vanessa – Redefines ‘vacuous’. No.
Anthony – Could be amusing. Possible.
Roberto – Likes himself. A lot. Late finisher ?
Makosi – Hidden strangeness there. Damn odd. No.
Craig – “Swearing. It’s Big but I ain’t clevur”. Not a frigging chance.
Mary – Odd. Finds doors confusing. Late finisher ?
Science – Underneath that front ? Probably a nice guy. Possible.
Saskia – Could be fun. Late finisher.
Kemal – Errm….. err…… NO idea !

Well ….. we’ll see how wrong I’ve been :)

#irc tonight

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AJ and myself will be in #bodyart and also in #ajpodztvnightmare on irc.freenode.net from around 7pm so do drop in :)

I forgot to add – though some of you will have figured it out – that the ‘Subscribe to Comments’ is now checked by default. I did check that out before I made the change but if you have any problems let me know and I’ll sort that out. Of course, if a bounce is setup you won’t get the mail – I do :) (/me stares at the alchemist).

I’ve forgotten the name of the Nigerian email scam, but I switched on this morning to find 3 people who I would suspect of this trying to add me to their Skype list. I think not eh ? Guess that’ll be a regular thing – I really ought to look into what this thing does / how it works. Or maybe not – cannot be that complex.

Just wittering….

1

So … what have I been up to then ? I’ve bought a new domain which may or may not get a public airing at some point in the next week. It’ll be a sandbox like my other one at http://www.tamba2.net, and right now there is one sub-domain for a friend http://ted-crane.tamba2.net which if you know how to hide links it would be cool that you linked to, and another there which is protected. It’s there for another friend to develop his site away from certain eyes until the grand unveiling toward summer’s end – if you’ve been with WP for a long time you’ll recognise the name when he pops up.

And here are some snippets from a couple of text files I just found while clearing a folder. I have NO clue what I was thinking that caused me to write:

1. Years ago on my AmstradCPC6128, I had the Brunword Word Processor. I later migrated to Protext on ROM but at the time, all the essays I did were done using Brunword. Then one day, as I was about finishing a 5000 word essay the majority of which I had just typed in one go, I clipped the wrong key. Everything was deleted. All gone. I rang the developer and he said that the words were still in the machine somewhere but they were irretrieveable. I learned that day to save and save regularly.

2. I write a lot here, and like it says somewhere around here, I write about whatever I want, when I want. I am (I suppose) fairly lucky in that I am not constrained by anything – I have no employer snooping around. I am also perfectly happy to write what may be considered by others to be inflammatory material – not in an effort to provoke for the sake of it, but because it is how I feel at that point in time. I do not selectively re-edit posts to justify what I have done, I do not practice revisionism at all. My blog, my thoughts.
That said, I am aware that some readers have views which run directly away from mine, and I try at times to ameliorate what I am typing because although I do wish to express my views, I do not wish to upset people unduly. You can be assured that if I want to offend you, my words and actions will leave you in no doubt whatsoever about my feelings. Really – there will be no grey area.

Lawbreakers

4

It would seem that a certain Pro-hunting campaigner has been found guilty of violating the Public Order Act. I wouldn’t want to give publicity to the cossetted fool with the famous father, so instead I shall present some anagrams of his name:
RIFE STORY
FIRE STORY
SIRE FORTY
IRES FORTY
and in the spirit of Private Eye, I offer some more anagrams of his name. Be warned that if you have not read the above story, this could give the game away…
“I’m a stupid upper class wannabe”
“I’m a fuckwit with a famous father and I can get away with this crap”
“I support tearing wild animals to bits”
“I’m so hopeless this was my only way to fame”
and finally
“I knew that being part of the ‘hunting class’ we’d get off lightly”

Managing Music

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How do you do yours ? I don’t mean on your computer, I’m talking about an mp3 player.

With storage space hardly being at a premium, it’s tempting to just upload everything but then is space being wasted by those tracks you either always skip or just forget ?

  1. Upload whole albums and listen religiously to every track, in the right order, every time
  2. Upload whole albums but pick and choose, inevitably ending with skipped tracks which you never get round to deleting ?
  3. Upload only the tracks you actually like ?
  4. Use Random or Playlists ?

There isn’t a best way I know, but right now I’m veering toward (3) and Playlists for things like the gym.