I managed to find a name for my little machine. The criteria was that it had to be a female character that I liked in a TV programme or film, and - Chris suggested - it had to be something that showed that it was small. There's also the requirement that I be able to spell it and can face using it regularly. So, I've decided to call it 'Boo', after the little girl in 'Monsters Inc.' because... well, it's pretty obvious.

It's a little sad (only a little though) that when I saw a window earlier with the trailing name 'c.whoami' I immediately think 'I'm Jean Valjean'.

Aside from being repeatedly distracted from code that needs to be fixed to work instead on other code that needs to be fixed, today's been pretty nice. A little frustration at breaking some things but otherwise, not a bad day all in all.

Mum and Dad are back now, as well, which is a little strange. Also, it's been really cold this evening, for the first time in ages - it's been pretty warm at night all week - and it's been raining. The only sort of downer today has been the fact that it's now May. Bother.

Tidying up a little today, I've found that I've got 3 spare PS2 mice, 5 spare quadrature mouse (one of which definately works - the others are probably temperametal) and a PS2/serial scratch pad. And 3 PS2 keyboards, one of which is wireless. It's amazing what you find under all the junk on your desk.

And in the cupboard we have a miscellany of HDs - a SCSI disc of indeterminate size, and a number of IDE discs of various sizes (40G - marked as faulty -, 200M, 540M, 545M, 80M, and one that my USB-IDE interface or Windows won't even recognise).

There's two beebs here that I should probably get rid of, one's even got a Watford ROM/RAM board in. Oh, and there's a Watford speech synthesiser, too. Quite a cute little thing really. The nice thing about the synthesiser was that you could use either the simple interpreter or give it phonemes to say stuff. By today's standards it might be a bit simple, but it was much fun to play with back then. I think one (or possibly both - I didn't check) of the beebs has Econet too, 'cos I've got a clock box and cable here. I vaguely remember using the Econet in the past for it. Although actually I've got stronger memories of using the Econet with the A5000 to play Doom across the network.

Things are tidier in here, although having a desk completely empty of anything but a computer makes it look kind of sad. It's a desk. In a room that's got computers in. It should be covered with bits of paper, DVDs, books, cables and especially bits of hardware that are not identifiable even on examination. Without them it's not fulfilling it's whole purpose. Feel sorry for the desk. Donate to its cause. You can make the desk happy again.

So, I've got a new machine. Only, I don't know what to call it. Probably said this before, but what the hell.... I've got Zeus, which is the main RiscPC, from back when machines were named after gods. Buttercup ( "Princess Bride (1987)Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, RomanceA kindly grandfather sits down with his grandson and reads him a bedtime story. The story is one that has been passed down through from father to son for generations. As the grandfather reads the story, the action comes alive. The story is a classic tale of love and adventure as the beautiful Buttercup is kidnapped and held against her will in order to marry the odious Prince Humperdinck, and Westley (her childhood beau, now returned as the Dread Pirate Roberts) attempts to save her. On the way he meets an accomplished swordsman and a huge, super strong giant, both of whom become his companions in his quest. They meet a few bad guys along the way to rescue Buttercup.Princess Bride" ) is the linux server. Lynda ( Press Gang (1989, ITV1)Children/Comedy/DramaPress Gang was a teen programme that followed the trials and tribulations of a group of teens setting up and running a young people's newspaper "The Junior Gazette". Ego's clash, professional and personal feelings collide and lots of one-liners and "crazy" situations made this every teenage-plus person's top of the list viewing. Shown as a prime time children's programme it was actually ahead of it's time socially. With mature and occasionally controversial storylines it shaped a lot of it's viewers minds those few precious years.Press Gang) is the Windows desktop machine. Virginia ( 10th Kingdom (2000, Halmark)Action and Adventure/Comedy/Mini-Series/FantasyTwo centuries after Snow White and Cinderella had their adventures, the Nine Kingdoms ready themselves for the coronation of Prince Wendel, Snow White's grandson, to the throne of the Fourth Kingdom. But an evil once-queen has freed herself from prison, and turns the prince into a golden retriever. Wendel, by means of a magic mirror, escapes into a hitherto-unknown Tenth Kingdom (modern day New York City) and meets Virginia and her father Tony. Pursued by trolls, cops, and a wolf in man's form, the three blunder back into the Nine Kingdoms and begin their adventures to restore Wendel to his human form and throne, and find the magic mirror that will take Tony and Virginia back home, all the while unknowing that Virginia already has a connection to the Nine Kingdoms that may prove deadly before we reach Happily Ever After. 10th Kingdom) is the build/test machine. Jaye ( Wonderfalls (2004, FOX)Comedy/DramaSet against the backdrop of Niagara Falls, Wonderfalls is a quirky one-hour family dramedy about an underachieving twenty-something souvenir shop worker named Jaye Tyler. Her life is forever changed when inanimate figures including toys, cartoons and anything in the form of an animal, begin to talk to her. In each episode, the creatures' cryptic messages set into motion a chain of unpredictable events that invariably lead Jaye into the lives of others in need. Throughout the series' bizarre situations and madcap adventures, Jaye seeks advice from her best buddy Mahandra and befriends Eric, a local bartender who tries to help answer her unrequited questions. Is the universe conspiring against her? Is this real or just her imagination? Should she struggle with fate or surrender to destiny? Whatever the outcome one thing is for certain - Jaye will discover that the world around her is a magical place and that the seemingly random event.Wonderfalls) is the laptop. So what exactly do I call this machine. The pattern is that they're cute female characters from programmes. The problem is that I've just not watched enough television recently to have another name to hand.

Of the series I've watched recently or am watching, we've got Enterprise (2001, UPN)Action and Adventure/Drama/Science-Fiction"It's Good to be Home." Enterprise is the latest entry in the Star Trek saga and takes place during the mid-22nd century. Under the command of Captain Jonathan Archer, the crew of the first warp five starship (the Enterprise NX-01) begin to explore the galaxy. As their mission progresses, the crew encounter familiar races like the Klingons and Andorians as well as some new ones.Enterprise (no, nobody cute there), Scrubs (2001, ABC)ComedyScrubs focuses on the lives of several people working at Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced dialogue, slapstick, and surreal vignettes presented mostly as the daydreams of the central character, Dr. John Michael "J.D." Dorian.Scrubs (I'm not sure I could call a machine Elliot, partly because it reminds me more of "E.T. (1982)Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Sci-FiElliot is your normal boy, until one day, when he meets a little lost alien. Elliot decides to keep the alien, in which he gives the name E.T. Elliot works with E.T. in trying to find him a way to get back home. Elliot must make the difficult sacrifice. Whether to help his new friend or to lose him? Whatever the decision is, Elliot must keep him hidden, as someone else is out to look for him.E.T." , Life On Mars (1999, NBC)DramaThe West Wing provides a glimpse into presidential politics in the nation's capital as it tells the stories of the members of a fictional presidential administration. These interesting characters have humor and dedication that touches the heart while the politics that they discuss touch on everyday life.Life On Mars (no, sorry), Hustle (2004, BBC One)Comedy/DramaFrom the makers of Spooks and acclaimed writer Tony Jordan comes a slick and stylish new drama. An action-packed blend of humour and intrigue, following the fortunes of a gang of expert cons on the loose in London. They are specialists in the way of the grifter and all are keen to liberate cash from the amoral and undeserving. From faking film sets and expensive paintings to double-crossing the duplicitous head of a bank's security system... THE CON IS ON.Hustle (again, nope, sorry), Doctor Who (2005, BBC One)Action and Adventure/Science-FictionThe Doctor looks and seems human. He's handsome, witty, and could be mistaken for just another man in the street. But the Doctor is a Time Lord: a 900 year old alien with 2 hearts, part of a gifted civilization who mastered time travel. The Doctor saves planets for a living - more of a hobby actually, and he's very, very good at it. He's saved us from alien menaces and evil from before time began - but just who is he?Doctor Who (Rose ? No. Not really cute to me)... and then we go back to earlier things, like Coupling (2000, BBC Two)ComedyOn average, men and women think about sex every six seconds. Shorten that to every second, and you've got Coupling. This series centers around Susan and Steve (who are a couple), and Sally and Patrick join the gang as friends of Susan (and then Steve), while Steve pulls in his best friend Jeff and his crazy ex Jane.Coupling (Susan maybe, but... no), Cold Feet (1997, ITV1)Comedy/DramaCold Feet is about three couples. Adam Williams (Systems Analyst; James Nesbit) and Rachel Bradley (Helen Baxendale) start the series about a year and six or so weeks into their relationship. The pilot shows this couple coming together. Jenny (Fay Ripley) and Pete Gifford (John Thomson) are a married couple that start the series with the birth of their first child. Karen (Hermione Norris) and David Marsden (Robert Bathurst) are another married couple, and when the series starts they already have a child, and are thinking of having another. The three couples end up friends after going through the "friends of friends" process. Jenny, Pete and Adam are friends, and Adam's relationship with Rachel pulls Karen (Rachel's friend) and David (Karen's husband) into the friends relationship.Cold Feet (ah, Rachel... but I don't think so), Spaced (1999, Channel 4)ComedySpaced is a sitcom like no other. The premise is simple enough: Daisy (Jessica Stevenson) and Tim (Simon Pegg) are out of luck and love, so pretend to be a couple in order to rent a flat together. Downstairs neighbour and eccentric painter Brian suspects someone's fibbing, and almost blows their cover with their lecherous lush of a landlady, Marsha. Fortunately he soon falls for Daisy's health-freak friend Twist, while Daisy herself goes ga-ga for pet dog Colin. Tim remains happily platonic with lifemate Mike; a sweet-at-heart guns 'n' ammo obsessive. The series is chock-full of pop culture references. In fact, each episode is themed after at least one movie, with nods to The Shining and Close Encounters of the Third Kind proving especially hilarious. Hardly five minutes goes by without a Star Wars reference, and every second of screen time from Bill Bailey as owner of the comic shop where Tim works is comedic gold. The look of the series is its other outstanding element, with slam-zooSpaced (Diasy ? Really not), Friends (1994, NBC)ComedySix young people, on their own and struggling to survive in the real world, find the companionship, comfort and support they get from each other to be the perfect antidote to the pressures of life.Friends (sadly the names are all taken for other things, and in any case Phoebe's not that cute to me now). I'd think about books, but it's really been too long since I read anything . And on to films I've watched recently there's "The Fifth Element (1997)Action, Adventure, Romance, Sci-Fi, ThrillerTwo hundred and fifty years in the future, life as we know it is threatened by the arrival of Evil. Only the fifth element can stop the Evil from extinguishing life, as it tries to do every five thousand years. She is helped by ex-soldier, current-cab-driver, Korben Dallas, who is, in turn, helped by Prince/Arsenio clone, Ruby Rhod. Unfortunately, Evil is being assisted by Mr. Zorg, who seeks to profit from the chaos that Evil will bring, and his alien mercenaries.The Fifth Element" (which I'm working through now, but Claire and Justin have a machine called Leeloo I believe), "The Mummy (1999)Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Horror, ThrillerAn English librarian called Evelyn Carnahan becomes interested in starting an archaeological dig at the ancient city of Hamunaptra. He gains the help of Rick O'Connell, after saving him from his death. What Evelyn, her brother Jonathan and Rick is unaware of if that another group of explorers are interested in the same dig. Unfortunatly for everyone, this group ends up unveiling a curse which has risen the dead High Priest Imhotep. Now 'The Mummy' is awake and it's going to take a lot more than guns to send him back from where he came from.The Mummy" (Evelyn... no, I don't think I could face that name), "Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)Action, AdventureThe year is 1936. A professor who studies archeology named Indiana Jones is venturing in the jungles in South America searching for a golden statue. Unfortunately, he sets off a deadly trap doing so, miraculously, he escapes. Then, Jones hears from a museum curator named Marcus Brody about a biblical artifact called The Ark of the Covenant, which can hold the key to humanly existence. Jones has to venture to vast places such as Nepal and Egypt to find this artifact. However, he will have to fight his enemy Renee Belloq and a band of Nazis in order to reach it.Raiders Of The Lost Ark" (honestly can't think of the girls names in there), and "House Sitter (1992)Comedy, RomanceDavis builds his dream house and presents it to Becky with a proposal of marriage. She turns him down. He leaves the house, still with a ribbon running around it and returns to the city, terribly smitten with Becky. He meets Gwen who has an interesting relationship with the truth. He spends the night with her, but leaves while she is sleeping. She takes his description of the house, searches it out, and moves in. The residents of Davis' home town become curious and she invents a marriage, a courtship, and and an entire history. Davis' parents meet Gwen and are immediately taken with her. By the time Davis finds out what has happened, 2 things have happened, the whole town thinks he's married, and Becky tells him that Gwen has made her see him in a whole new light. Gwen and Davis agree that she can pretend to be his wife and get free rent while Davis works on Becky until they can announce a divorce. The trouble is that no one in the town wants them to separate and keep trying to help them reconcile.House Sitter" (Gwen... no, not quite right), "Back To The Future (1985)Adventure, Comedy, Family, Sci-FiMarty McFly, a typical American teenager of the Eighties, is accidentally sent back to 1955 in a plutonium-powered DeLorean "time machine" invented by slightly mad scientist. During his often hysterical, always amazing trip back in time, Marty must make certain his teenage parents-to-be meet and fall in love - so he can get back to the future.Back To The Future" (now this is difficult, 'cos there's Marty's girlfriend Jennifer and Marty's mum Lorraine, who are the girls in the film and whilst Lorraine is cute, I'm not sure that naming something after the protaganists mother is something I want to do right now!), "Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)Comedy, Crime, Romance, ThrillerMartin Blank is a freelance hitman who starts to develop a conscience, which causes him to muff a couple of routine assignments. On the advice of his secretary and his psychiatrist, he attends his 10th year High School reunion in Grosse Pointe, Michigan (a Detroit suburb where he's also contracted to kill someone). Hot on his tail are a couple of over-enthusiastic federal agents, another assassin who wants to kill him, and Grocer, an assassin who wants him to join an "Assassin's Union."Grosse Pointe Blank" (Debi... hmm, that's a possibility)... Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Trillian... no) but then I'm stumped.

So, given that this is going to be an experiment and we'll see how it goes, I'll call it Dory, after the ditzy fish in "Finding Nemo (2003)Animation, Adventure, Comedy, FamilyA clown fish named Marlin living in the Great Barrier Reef loses his son, Nemo, after he ventures into the open sea, despite his father's constant warnings about many of the ocean's dangers. Nemo is abducted by a boat and netted up and sent to a dentist's office in Sydney. So, while Marlin ventures off to try to retrieve Nemo, Marlin meets a fish named Dory, a blue tang suffering from short-term memory loss. The companions travel a great distance, encountering various dangerous sea creatures such as sharks, anglerfish and jellyfish, in order to rescue Nemo from the dentist's office, which is situated by Sydney Harbor. While the two are doing this, Nemo and the other sea animals in the dentist's fish tank plot a way to return to Sydney Harbor to live their lives free again.Finding Nemo" . And I really need to find a better name.

Justin: I've dialed this number so many times that I've now managed to memorise it. Ian: 999 ? [ Procrastination; Ian and I; Talker ]

Chatting to a friend today, there's a few things I've realised. One is that I'm a little bit frivolous with how I act. Um. No, that's not quite what I mean, but something like that. In fact I'm not sure I can really express that the way that I mean, but... oh well, it doesn't matter.

It was nice to catch up with them, but a little strange. I could have just talked for hours - and would have enjoyed that in any case - but my mind kinda goes blank on things to say. Maybe because the things I would usually chat to people about are not things I feel right talking about with them. I dunno. I don't know a lot really.

As usual, it makes me wonder what exactly is important.

I'm not a huge fan of tattoos, mainly because they don't always look that great and people are stuck with them. But I have seen some that look pretty neat and on other people it's not so bad. Oh and there's the fact that I like to avoid needles which kinda puts me off. But someone showed me one that was truly cool. The first one - it's a skeleton arm which is invisible under regular light, but under UV light it glows. Yeah, it's a novelty but it is cool.

For some reason, listening to The Who's "Baba O'Riley" made me think of Bruce Springsteen, I think of "Born In The USA". Listening to the two, I'm not entirely sure what triggered the thought.

I should really do something like what Julian and Simon have done with collecting cover tracks together. It could make a very interesting little experiment. I think I did something similar last year, but it would be nice to be more organised about it. Which sort of implies something like the way that other online updated things have categories that they can stick entries under - I could have just said that the item was about 'covers' and I'd be able to find it. That's the advantage of an online management system, over my offline, raw text file, system. Yeah, I could probably update things, but I do rather like my simple (!) system that I developed.

I watched "Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)Comedy, Crime, DramaLouis Mazzini's mother belongs to the aristocratic family D'Ascoyne, but she ran away with an opera singer. Therefore, she and Louis were rejected by the D'Ascoynes. Once adult, Louis decides to avenges his mother and him, by becoming the next Duke of the family. Murdering every potential successor is clearly the safest way to achieve his goal...Kind Hearts and Coronets" which Dad had picked up with the Mail 'cos I'd said I wanted a copy. It was still as fun as I remember it being. Easily sits alongside "Arsenic And Old Lace (1944)Comedy, ThrillerMortimer Bruster is a newspaperman and author known for his diatribes against marriage. We watch him being married at city hall in the opening scene. Now all that is required is a quick trip home to tell Mortimer's two maiden aunts. While trying to break the news, he finds out his aunts' hobby; killing lonely old men and burying them in the cellar. It gets worse.Arsenic And Old Lace" as just classic fun films.

Nothing ever grows in this rotting old hole, And everything is stunted and lost. And nothing really rocks, and nothing really rolls, And nothing's ever worth the cost. [ Bat Out Of Hell, from Bat Out Of Hell, by Meat Loaf ]

A little different a song quote for a change, picking a bit that's not the chorus.

How can two elephants jump on a polo at the same time ? One on top of the other ? [ Pimping a Polo; Pimp My Snack forum ]

I frame colours of passion, against a fading sky. [ Shades Of Michaelangelo, from Runaway Horses, by Belinda Carlisle ]

So that is what that line is. Although possibly the more memorable bit of the track (which I really like actually - I like quite a bit of her stuff) - is "I hear songs of children hecho in the sky". There's definately a 'h' in there .

Well, I tried watching Sports Night (1998, ABC)ComedySports Night ran nearly two full seasons on the ABC network in the US during the '98-99 and '99-00 seasons. Smart, fast-paced, witty and featuring a fine ensemble cast, Sports Night struggled in the ratings from the start, particularly during its second season, when it was routinely pre-empted and moved from night to night. Art imitated life imitating art, as the show took on a consultant, was hired to "tweak" the ratings. The show within a show continued to falter, amidst rumors of the imminent sale of its network and the subsequent gutting of its staff, until it, like its parent Sports Night, simply disappeared from the schedule.Sports Night, which Julian had suggested a little while back. It's interesting - I had expected it to have a little of The West Wing (1999, NBC)DramaThe West Wing provides a glimpse into presidential politics in the nation's capital as it tells the stories of the members of a fictional presidential administration. These interesting characters have humor and dedication that touches the heart while the politics that they discuss touch on everyday life.The West Wing about it, and it didn't disappoint. It wasn't just the same which is obviously a good thing. It's quite fun, and I think worth watching. I'll see how it goes.

We went to 'War Of The Worlds' down at the Albert Hall on Tuesday. I was a little bit nervous of how they were going to get by with different people doing the parts, but it turned out I needn't have been. Having Justin Hayward doing his part was great - although I was very surprised at how white he looked when he came on. But more surprising than that was having Richard Burton doing the narration. I'd wondered how well it would work without him, but... well, there he was, narrating away . In fact, all the people that were there were very good.

If I want to complain, I'll mention that the sound was a little off in places, with Burton's lines not quite being loud enough over the orchestra at times and - worst of all - some of Nathaniel's lines were lost completely.

The animated tripods were actually quite scary, which was surprising - maybe just because I'm used to seeing them very stationary in the pictures that come with the album. They take on a whole new life when they're walking around and shooting at people (well, I guess that's obvious).

Things that were amusing... well, the orchestra and the main band being all dressed up and looking very smart... and then Jeff Wayne runs on to the stage in a light shirt with the sleeves rolled up, to conduct... "That's very laid back" . At the back, during the beginning, there was a girl playing the tambourine and I said to Mum and Simon "I wonder how much training you need to be a concert tambourinist". Which was a little unfair, but amusing. I felt a little bad for saying it just to be a little funny and then felt a lot worse when I saw that she was also playing one of the large cymbals (ok, still not so much training, I was thinking), a large drum (ok... again)... and a harp (I'm sorry, I take it all back, and I'll crawl away into a hole... so very sorry). But it amused me that I was so wrong. And of course felt guilty .

Another thing that I couldn't help laughing at was right at the end. The NASA epilogue was just fine (together with small snippits of the mars lander and other video), but they spoilt it when they showed the other tracking station images. Smack in the middle of the Canberra image is a little "[+] Canberra" marker, just like you'd get if you'd entered 'Canberra' into Google earth and zoomed in a bit. I couldn't help but laugh - 'cos they could have at least removed the marker .

All in all, a very good night.

So I've been investigating ID3v2 again today to see how well it's supported. The answer is "oh my god nothing's changed". Support for ID3v2.4 is pretty limited as far as I can tell. Support for ID3v2.4 footers is (in the very limited testing I've done) non-existant. Windows Media Player only understands ID3v2.3 tags it seems.

Anybody want to suggest a non-shit ID3v2 editor ? The best thing I've found so far is ID3-TagIT which can do most of the things that I need of it. If you've got a suggestion, here's the things I need :

• Editing of many of the frame types, especially the picture ones and lyrics.
• Support for ID3v2.4.
• Support for ID3v2.4 footers.
• Proper support for unsynchronisation.
• Support for compressed frames.

And the things I'd like but aren't absolutely necessary :

• Support for ID3v1 and ID3v1.1.
• Ability to convert from ID3v2.3 to ID3v2.4.
• Ability to convert ID3v2.4 headers to footers.
• Support for update frames.
• Support for ID3v2.3.
• Support for ID3v2.2.
• Support for grouped frames.
• Support for discard options (discard frame on tag and frame alteration).
• Support for unicode.

The main things that ID3-TagIT doesn't do are :

• Support for ID3v2.4 footers.
• Support for compressed frames.

From all of this I've found a couple of minor bugs in the AMPlayer ID3v2 processor. Nothing too significant and mostly affecting ID3v2.4 processing which obviously differs slightly from ID3v2.3 but hadn't always been handled correctly.

Of the above things AMPlayer doesn't support the footers, or any editing and conversion (obviously), but then it also doesn't support any of the features above which require interpretation of the frames because it purely passes them around to the service. Not supporting the footers, though, is one of those things at the time I thought was an important oversight but with the uptake of clients generating them I didn't feel it was necessary to pursue. It doesn't look like it's hard to handle properly - the bulk of the code is already there but just needs to be tweaked to do the right things.

The other frustration is that the MP3 library used by the Slimserver (MP3::Info) doesn't support ID3v2.4 footers either. So once I've implemented my ID3v2.4 processor in AMPlayer, and then written myself an ID3v2.4 editor, I also have to update the MP3::Info library so that it can understand them.

For the first time in ages, I've actually remembered what I was dreaming about. Not completely, but in part. I remember going somewhere and meeting Caroline and her giving me a lift to where I was going. I remember finding the she was seeing Dave and being quite angry. But more than those, I remember that the world was scheduled to blow up and as the time got closer and closer (for some reason, everyone was very calm about this) I still didn't know what it was that I wanted to say to her. The world ended late, and even with those extra few minutes, I still didn't know what to say. I hate that.

I feel almost calm today. Not sure exactly why that should be, because today's no different to any other, but I still feel very calm and... relaxed, I guess the word is. Not sure how long it'll last. Probably by the time I wake up, I'll be less relaxed again. We'll see.

I finished watching "Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom (1984)Action, AdventureSet in 1935, a professor, archaeologist, and legendary hero by the name of Indiana Jones is back in action in his newest adventure. But this time he teams up with a night club singer named Wilhelmina "Willie" Scott and a twelve-year-old boy named Short Round. They end up in an Indian small distressed village, where the people believe that evil spirits have taken all their children away after a sacred precious stone was stolen! They also discovered the great mysterious terror surrounding a booby-trapped temple known as the Temple of Doom! Thuggee is beginning to attempt to rise once more, believing that with the power of all five Sankara stones they can rule the world! Now, it's all up to Indiana to put an end to the Thuggee campaign, rescue the lost children, win the girl and conquer the Temple of Doom.Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom" last night. I've been watching it (and "Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)Action, AdventureThe year is 1936. A professor who studies archeology named Indiana Jones is venturing in the jungles in South America searching for a golden statue. Unfortunately, he sets off a deadly trap doing so, miraculously, he escapes. Then, Jones hears from a museum curator named Marcus Brody about a biblical artifact called The Ark of the Covenant, which can hold the key to humanly existence. Jones has to venture to vast places such as Nepal and Egypt to find this artifact. However, he will have to fight his enemy Renee Belloq and a band of Nazis in order to reach it.Raiders Of The Lost Ark" ) in small 10 or 20 minute segments before bed. Maybe it's because of that (but I don't think so), but I felt that Temple was far more uneven. It seemed rushed, and some bits just didn't seem to work. It's pretty immemorable too. Before watching it the main thing I remembered about it was the poison section at the start, with only a general idea of the story, rather than anything else that stood out. Having watched it last night, I think I'd add to that the bugs section (which I'm trying to forget!) and the mine car ride. But it's nowhere near Raiders. So tonight we begin with "Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (1989)Action, AdventureThree years after he recovered The Ark of the Covenant. Jones recovered an artifact that he found as a kid, the Cross of Francisco De Coronado from treasure hunters. Now, Jones discovers the history of another biblical artifact called "The Holy Grail". He was also informed that his father, Henry Jones is missing. Jones has to find his father who is looking for the Grail. However, Jones will become involved in the search of the Holy Grail along with his father, as well as fighting the Nazis to reach it.Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade" , and we'll see how that goes.

Can't think of anything else to add that's really all that worthwhile.

Chewbacka: Waaah. C3PO: That was a perfectly valid joke. Han: When humans get offended they don't rip your arms off. Wookies do. C3PO: R2, I have an idea for a new strategy, make fun of humans. [ Making fun of things; Me ]

Which is in response to the idea that you can't offend certain groups because they do nasty things.

Oh, and apologies to George Lucas for changing dialogue and probably misremembering in general.

Nothing really to report today. Seem to have got a few things actually done - much head scratching over the past 2 or 3 days has paid off into writing tiny bits of code. Frustrating when it takes you that long just to work out where to make tiny changes. In any case, a few little bugs have uncovered a whole nest of nasties. I was working my way slowly through them (and have a list of ToDos to deal with now) but it's 3am now and I can't concentrate.

Much cursing of self again.

Oh, and a few CDs that I'd bought arrived today as well, which is quite nice.

A lot of staring at code and staring into space to try to understand what on earth is wrong. Very frustrating when all you have to show for a day is about 5 lines changed. I guess if things actually work then it's ok, but still it doesn't feel good.

Made it as far as the phone today. Annoying. Self-discipline where are you ? It's only a matter of stopping myself doing what I really want to do.

I was going to finish some stuff this evening, but it's ended up being very late and I don't think I can right now.

Oh, I did update the Lyrics.pm to be triggered on the 'Now playing' button when already in the playlist display. That seems to work. And I wrote my own lyrics XML server, using a similar output form to that of the lyrc.com.ar site does. Not entirely impressive, but it does the job.

Had a very strange dream today about being in a car crash and being helped by a very nice girl who wanted me to go to her school reunion with her. The crash was caused because someone had decided to shoot a film on a section of road and failed to mark it properly, so a large amount of sets and equipment was strewn about. Like in the middle of the road and stuff. We missed the equipment but in doing so ended up hitting a wall side on. Which was fun. Anyhow, this girl - who I think was called Jess or Jane - took us back to her house and we stayed there for a few days (hey, I don't know why) and then I went to the reunion with her. She was very strange about it - as if she wanted people to not remember her, just so that she could be indignant that they didn't. Nobody did, and it was all very strange.

I made a little update to the SlimServer Lyrics.pm script today. Nothing complicated, but a tiny tweak to make it use the local lyrics database if files are available. So we don't have to go to the network if the text is already local. Makes things a little bit quicker. The Lyrics.pm script is really quite cute, 'cos it was so easy to update to do that - once I'd worked out the simple things like 'how to know what the current filename is'. It's nice when things are structured and designed for easy updating.

I just want to scream today. I'm investigating an odd little problem which is important, and causes us problems. Because of this it'd be nice if it's fixed. So as I've been hunting it down I keep seeing more bits that underlie it that are broken. Imagine you're in a building and you can hear a little squeak and you look around to find it and the squeak is caused because a coffee machine wobbles. So you look for the reason that it wobbles and it's because someone's put a small lump of paper under it. You remove the paper and the coffee machine wobbles more. So you look to see why this is and it turns out that that floor isn't quite level there. So you take up the floor tiles and find that some builder left their coat under it and so things can't be level. Shoddy, but ok, so you remove the coat and the coffee machine seems to no longer squeak, except except when the life is coming up. So you look at the life and there's nothing wrong. You take another look at the coffee machine and find that its still squeaking but it's more concerning because you can feel things rock when it squeaks. You take out your spirit level to make sure that you're not just imagining things and discover that your spirit level has been marked in the wrong places and in any case has no liquid in it. So you fix your level and find that there is indeed a problem there - the floor is swaying. So you take up the floor boards again and find that the coat was resting over a hole through which the air displaced by the moving lift is being blown, which is causing the flooring to sway. You look through the hole and find yourself staring right down into the mouth of hell because the other terrible things that have gone on I can't even be bothered to make up because the reality is so much scarier than this simile and, let's face it, this is such a stupidly long paragraph that if you've read to this point you're either fascinated as to what my point is, or you know exactly that same sinking feeling you have as you realise - again - that the foundations that you'd kind of assumed were solid are actually a lash up which is only just holding up under the collected pressures of everything above it.

And so you end up running from the building as fast as your legs will carry you in the desperate hope that maybe you'll escape before the whole edifice collapses because you just know that if it does so you'll be crushed utterly and go to the hell reserved for People That Poked Around Where They Ought Not To Have Been Poking.

Either that or you devise elegant, extensive and fundamental changes that will address the root causes of the problem, washing away all the incidental squeaks that you found along the way. And then you ignore it and do a quick lash up job because you don't have another lifetime to put into the Right Thing and anyhow, nobody really gives a damn because nobody other than you would Poke Around Where They Ought Not To Have Been Poking, would they ? After all, nobody else is quite as bloody minded as you are, are they ? Are they ?

Rant over.

I suppose I'd better go cover up the holes and lash up the coffee machine...

The SqueezeBox arrived today as well. Setting it up is an absolute doddle - so long as you remember what your wireless setup is. I pondered for a bit after it refused, repeatedly, to connect to my network before I remembered that it was MAC locked so it was just ignoring the squeezebox entirely. That fixed, everything worked fine. I even reinstalled 'AlienBBC' for playing the BBC streams and that worked just fine. At least, for a bit. There's still the funny echoy bobble effect but I think that they're fixing - or have fixed - that.

The only real frustration seems to be that the server tends to get paged out on the linux box. Which tends to mean that it takes a while to get the Artists menus and stuff. Maybe I should set the 'don't page me out' option which - presumably steps through a load of memory references and code just to do nothing and keep it paged in. Presumably.

Today seems to be empty. I've spent a lot of time staring at code, trying to work out how broken it really is. The more I stared at it the more convinced I became that it's broken and the consequences are more far ranging than just that single component. I think I've managed to spread the endemic through about 4 components directly, and possibly indirectly affecting 3 or 4 more. It's kind of painful because it means more work to fix what is actually a serious problem, but only for a specific region - which just happens to be important because it's causing me significant problems. I guess the measure of a fault is not in how often it's encountered but in how much of a problem it is once it is encountered.

Spent too long on the phone to Simon, when all I wanted to ask was a simple question. Oh, the things I do to distract myself.

I recently tripped over the album 'Out of myself' by a Polish group called 'Riverside'. Comments by other people have linked them to a number of other groups, but for me there's something of the feel of 'The Perfect Element I' (Pain Of Salvation), little bits of the darker Royksopp, a definate special feeling which I feel is quite close to that from Jadis' 'More Than Meets The Eye' (which may be more in the 'oh, this is very likeable and instrumental' vein than muscially), and a good dose of Arena's 'Contagion' is in there (probably again only in feeling rather than musical intent or similarity). It's very guitar oriented, which is a strange thing for me as I seem to be more drawn to the piano side of things.

Lyrically, it's quite a down album in general, although there's a quality of redeption there which brings it up. Maybe I need to get a better feel for it. It's not clear in its theme except that it's a escapist type of album. Certainly it feels like it's constructed as a cohesive whole, rather than a number of individual tracks.

But if you lose your faith Know that I am still your friend And if the sky falls down Know that I will still support you. [ In Two Minds, from Out Of Myself, by Riverside ]

However, it's an album to be listened to more, than it is to understand at the moment.

Odd day, today has been. I seem to have lost a lot of this evening to phone calls, which is always frustrating. More so because I end up returning from them with longer ToDo lists than I started with. And legs that hurt from pacing, 'cos I'm not exactly used to it.

Long ago, whilst looking at the fun church of the flying spaghetti monster, I came across a mammoth lego project - a cathedral built out of lego. It's quite astounding. I've been meaning to mention it for a while but never quite got to transfer it from the Windows box to the RPC for the diary...

Some time ago, Ian pointed me at BigDog. Before you look at the site, imagine two people facing one another, about a metre apart. Now strap a very thick table between them, at waste height so that they have to move togethe and can carry stuff. Now cut off their torsos, leaving just the two pairs of legs facing one another. A scary image, you'll agree, but make it a mechanical device and it seems to become quite interesting. Look at the site to see videos of it bounding (hmm) around. 'WMV' format only, it seems. Be impressed as the operators push it over and it keeps on going. Be amused as stumbles through puddles. Just be generally quite surprised that someone's actually made such a thing.

Another one that's been lying around for a while was a picture diary of a person's attempt to thwart the evil, money grabbing... toll road. Possibly not the bastion of all evil, or particularly money grabbing, but it's an amusing experiment in how they collect money. Amused me anyhow - although I don't condone attempts to pay with fruit - I'm sure it causes much annoyance for those that run the things.

Aww, I've just had a really nice email from Matthew Godbolt and it's cheered me up no end. Nice to hear from him anyhow. Sadly, I'm too tired to write much now, though...

I think I've just worked out why Flash keeps reappearing as installed in Opera. I think it gets re-enabled every time you do a re-installation of Opera to upgrade. Which either means that it's supplied with Opera, or that it's not actually uninstalled, but just disabled by the 'uninstaller' tool that they supply. I reckon it's the disabled thing. It is a bit annoying to have to remove the damned thing over and over again.

Ever looked at your name written down and thought "I don't like that" ?

I don't know why, but it just didn't feel right when I wrote it a few minutes ago. Oh well.

I keep meaning to write a diary entry that's a little more from the heart than the more recent ones. I keep putting it off, as if doing so will make it any less truthful, or real.

What does that mean ?

It means that I miss Caroline.

That's really what it means, in all.

It's frustrating to be repeatedly asking myself those questions that can't be answered, but that's not the real thing. It's painful to know that she's 'nearby' but not in any way that's important, but that, too, isn't the real thing. It's so very difficult to know that I could pick up the phone and talk to her (notwithstanding finding her number that I've put somewhere out of the way just so that I don't do that), but that's just a barrier of my own making. It's annoying to replay things to try to work out what happened, but that's not a real problem.

I don't know what else to say other than I miss her, and I feel it every day, from when I get up, to when I go to bed. It fills those idle cycles when I stop thinking, and it flashes over when I am thinking. Why should it be, I don't know ? She came back into my life like a ghost and seems to have disappeared as silently - as if I meant so much less to her. Which I probably do, and I accept that. If she doesn't even want to talk to me now, then I can accept that too, but... it doesn't change the fact that I miss her.

And I could go into a long set of qualifiers about what 'her' really means in that sentence, but it's not important.

When I started that lot, I thought it'd be something grand and important. Something eloquent and with great poetry. But I guess they weren't to be.

Is that the entry I've been wanting to write ? I don't know. But maybe it's a step in the right direction.

Today has felt very strange. It's not like a normal day. Sort of like the ghost of a day, in that it's not quite here and yet it's familiar and strange. Almost dreamy.

I've been updating things today in a very tedious way. Look at component, change a few things, make sure it works, check in, move on. Highly tedious, but necessary to ensure that everything is being done correctly. I've got a headache now, though, so I'm going to call it a day.

I discovered today that the voice of 'Spottyman' in SuperTed (1983, BBC One)AnimationSuperted was a teddy bear found to be defective in the toy factory where he was made, and then disposed of into an old storeroom. A Spotty man found him there and brought him to life with his "cosmic dust". He was later taken to Mother Nature and given magical powers that enabled him to fight evil. This evil invariably takes the form of Texas Pete (an evil cowboy, the antagonist of the series) and his gang; Bulk (an overweight, bumbling fool) and Skeleton (an undead, outrageously camp, cowardly skeleton with pink slippers). SuperTed was Jon Pertwee. I was just thinking "I recognise that voice" and checked out the credits... and there he was... strange that I never noticed it. But then I was 6 when SuperTed (1983, BBC One)AnimationSuperted was a teddy bear found to be defective in the toy factory where he was made, and then disposed of into an old storeroom. A Spotty man found him there and brought him to life with his "cosmic dust". He was later taken to Mother Nature and given magical powers that enabled him to fight evil. This evil invariably takes the form of Texas Pete (an evil cowboy, the antagonist of the series) and his gang; Bulk (an overweight, bumbling fool) and Skeleton (an undead, outrageously camp, cowardly skeleton with pink slippers). SuperTed first came on TV!

Somehow it's 2am. Not quite sure how that happened as I was meaning to get to sleep at about midnight. On the other hand, I think I've spent about an hour writing notes to myself to remind me which way my thoughts were going. Just means a whole load of 'ToDo's sitting in my inbox to replace those that I've deleted today.

What ever happened to 'Tunes' adverts ? The 'help you breath more easily' ones ? Which might be an odd question, but I was just taking my lovely 'night nurse' medicine and thinking to myself 'this must be what evil tastes like' (with apologies to Phoebe) and followed the thought with the musings about Tunes... all of which is uninteresting, but... well, what happened to them ? Tunes are still made - at least I'm sure I've seen them, but did the company just decide that they'd actually got enough customer awareness and didn't need any more ?

More generally - and I don't want to ramble too much, 'cos it's late and I really do want to sleep - how come there's only a few adverts that are ever on television these days ? Is that really any different than before ? Is my memory just telling me that things were more varied ? Or do I just not watch enought television to notice that there's more than 10 adverts out there ? If I cared, I'd sit there and watch telly for a few hours and tally up the adverts. But I don't, or at least not enough to drag me away from other things to do it.