xset

BST – Bloody Stupid Time

// March 28th, 2007 // No Comments » // Personal

Why oh why does GB hang on to the concept of BST?

As someone who finds it very very difficult to adjust my sleep pattern the weekend just gone is normally followed by a week of rushed mornings, late arrivals and general chronological calamity.

And for what?

The basic concept behind BST is one of daylight saving which was very important for no apparently good reason back in 1916 when it was introduced. Since then BST has been applied during WWII to ensure maximum production time for industry and has also been cited as having positive effects on energy consumption, economic growth the price of fish and other fantastic areas of modern life.

All I know is it plays merry hell with my body clock and I’d sooner have it abolished.

Thinking allowed

// March 24th, 2007 // No Comments » // Personal

Recovering a screwed hard drive would be so much more fun if it had flashy lights
I really need to get my arse in gear and work on my secret plan o coolness
Speaking of which I should really think about the whole XSet DTR thing
Coffee …
Ftp working – good
Hard drive still screwed – bad
How did it get to 10 past 3 already?
I take pleasure in marking Microsoft’s emails as spam in hotmail
God – weekends are dull

Things you don’t want to see first thing in the morning…

// March 23rd, 2007 // No Comments » // Personal

Entrails … that is all

ROVT – Monkeys, Movies, Mario and More

// March 22nd, 2007 // No Comments » // Personal

I’m going to have to keep this short today so lets kick off with some sozzled simians (aka drunken monkeys)

Hot Fuzz is making waves atm but this short clip from Spaced demonstrates the core of their British Humour … unfortunately you don’t get to see the end with Brian just lying there … brilliant. Oh and check out this Big Train short where they ban wanking in the workplace

And from shorts to overly longs … namely the Return of the King long. Even through my undying love for all things LOTR I can admit that the last film just ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran … and ran a bit more. This is how Lord of the Rings should have ended had Tolkien not been a bit caught up in his classic Good v Evil plot line to apply some common sense.

As all good geeks should, I do love myself some Mario … even when represented in Linerider or Lego forms.

And finally, the news … or lack of it.

See you in 7

Twitter v IMified – Microblogging and who will win out

// March 21st, 2007 // No Comments » // Personal

Two services, both coming from similar ends of the spectrum (the aptly named microblogging phenomenon) But I have to wonder which will win out? Twitter has the edge at the moment as you can update via multiple channels but IMified can’t be far behind and supports multiple services. Plus with a unified communication platform now in reach of a load of people (Smartphone, Blackberry, etc.) IM is becoming more and more valid as a communication mechanism.

I find Twitter almost addictive but I (as of today, to be fair) tend to update it via IMified as I can access that from my phone without incurring additional charges.

It will be interesting to see which of these two will survive the Web 2.0 peak, trough cycle as they seem to be a little to similar in their niche – in an ideal world both services would be run by one company, that company would be Skype and I could phone stuff in too

Peggle … aka a wasted weekend

// March 12th, 2007 // No Comments » // Personal

Gah! Another one from Popcap (the guys who invented the stupidly addictive bejewelled) that resulted in my wasting lots of this weekend in front of the computer.

Peggle is one of the beauteous games which is so simple in concept, so flawless in implementation and so damned fun to play that hours can slip away from you as you play.

Basically the concept is very similar to the original pinball concept, you fire a ball into an arena and have to clear all the orange pegs. You have blue pegs to get in the way, purple pegs which give you higher scores and green pegs which provide special abilities depending on the level you’re playing.

I can’t really explain it any more clearly than that so go grab yourself a copy and play it … but not if you have anything to do for the next 4 hours! You’ve been warned.

The devil makes work for idle thumbs…

// March 9th, 2007 // No Comments » // Personal

as witnessed by me, last night, sitting post computer clean with a can of compressed air that had been in use for about 15 minutes and was therefore nicely chilled.

The central heating was on high and I had just moved the machine back under the desk when I realised that I was a bit warm … especially in the downstairs department and without really thinking I shook the can and sprayed …

… sprayed a gout of sub zero, compressed gas into my gentleman’s area.

Fuck me that was cold

It’s Friday, have a laugh

// March 9th, 2007 // No Comments » // Personal

Cos I’m having a lovely time today… ish …

Anyway, I was listening to the rather dinky, Chillout channel on Last.fm when I cam across a tune I recognised (not that unusual really) Day For Night by Moloko. I promptly fell off my chair laughing because the same track was used at the end of one of the funniest 80 seconds of audio I’ve ever heard (and I don’t say that lightly) – a brief skit from Chris Morris’ Blue Jam called 4ft Car featuring a regular character known only as sweary man. Take a listen and see if it’s just me:

[audio:noddy.mp3]

Not safe for work due to excessive swearing!

Testing out IMified

// March 8th, 2007 // No Comments » // Personal

A fantastic looking service which ties your IM account to your blog, online calendar, basecamp, and a whole lot more. Expect a follow up post if this works

ROVT – Spoons, Slaps, Stop motion, Ships, Sickness, Sabres and more

// March 8th, 2007 // No Comments » // Personal

IT’S BACK!!!

After a few weeks hiatus (ok so more like a couple of months) I’ve finally managed to sort out my timing to get Ripped Off Video Thursday back on the net.

Enough from me, let’s get on with the giggles:

First off a little gem for all those of you who grew up in the mid 90’s and had an N64 – Live Action Golden Eye! – completely with stupid running, crap aiming and hiding of very large guns in your coat!

This next item will cause some contrition as I’d started to write this post yesterday lunch time but before I had chance to post it, Markiss ripped off the same video. Bastard That said it’s more than funny enough to show twice – I give you, the Wooden Spoon Gag.

A couple of naughty nuggets next up including a dog who does what dogs do when dogs don’t get what dogs want … yes … and some classic porno moments from the Teletubbies… yes you did read that right – Teletubby porn and you best believe that Google is going to love me for that.

In true Roberto form this next item gets inclusion purely by virtue of being a stop motion flick – of an entire day at the Panama canal. Roll with it for a bit as it starts rather slowly.

And finally; do you recall those two guys who made their own light-sabre dual movie? Complete with sounds, twirling and music? Well they’ve come back for a second crack at the jedi business and I think this one is even more awesome than the last! If only I had the co-ordination to do something like that…

Anyway, that wraps it up for this week. Almost… because if you have seen a vid that you believe warrants inclusion on ROVT then why not let me know about it? Drop and email to this fantastic short of Samuel L Jackson’s speech from pulp fiction laid out in typographic style. NSFW as you definitely need sound! (Hat-tip: Creative Bits)