Meme-Free Zone

Torchwood radio plays

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:38:24 GMT

For anyone interested in Torchwood - The three radio plays that aired this week can be downloaded (legitimately) here for the next few days:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/torchwood/download/

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that the third is the best and they're all OK.

Next week five nights of the TV show, all that they're airing this year. I have to be out on three evenings, I just hope that my PVR works properly...

Later:

Since posting this I've been told that this link doesn't work outside the UK. Overseas listeners should be able to find them via the BBC iPlayer site for the next couple of days.

There are also apparently somewhat less legit torrents, and they've been posted to alt.binaries.sounds.radio.bbc

Yes, it is possible to have a hard disk that's too big...

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:08:39 GMT

A couple of weeks ago I asked about IDE hard disks and ended up getting a 750gb Seagate Barracuda from nojay. All of which would have been OK if I'd stuck to my original plan of sticking it into my PC. However, by the time it arrived I'd decided it was possibly overkill for a PC that has got on OK with a 40gb main drive for the last few years, and decided to put the big drive into my network drive box, bung the 320gb drive from that into my USB drive box, and bung the 120gb drive from that into my PC.

So naturally I started at the other end and moved the 120gb drive to my PC and cloned everything without any problems. Took a while, but worked pretty well.

Then I tried to put the 750gb drive into the network housing and the 320gb drive into my USB box, and sort out that transfer. And got nowhere. It recognised the drive, but couldn't format it or access it at all.

So, I decided to try formatting the 750gb drive as FAT32 first - PCs can't do this on drives bigger than 32gb, but Macs can, so I put the drive into the USB housing and used my iBook to reformat it. Took hours, but I assumed that it would fix things.

Unfortunately the result turned out to be another impasse - the drive housing again knew that the drive was there, but couldn't write to it or access it.

So I set out to contact the vendor and the manufacturer yesterday, and discovered in passing that while there is nothing about maximum drive size on the manufacturer's web site for that specific external housing, the descriptions of two of the others they sell say that the maximum drive size is 500gb. My guess is that this is going to turn out to be true for the one I own as well.

So... unless there turns out to be a firmware fix, I can (a) put the 750gb drive into my PC, where it is unlikely to be useful, (b) leave it in the USB casing for loads of backups, or (c) find some other way to make it accessible to multiple PCs - there are gadgets to use a USB drive on a network, for example, but I really don't want to go that route if I can avoid it. There's also an option (d), reduce the partition size below 500gb, but I would prefer not to waste a third of the drive.

What I'd like if I could afford it is a box to take two or more drives and put both the 750gb and 320gb drives into it, which would give me nearly a Terabyte of storage. But my impression is that those things are hideously expensive, and that the affordable ones only take drives to a maximum of 500gb.

So... any suggestions?

Late night fanfic - A Matter of Respect - Superman Returns drabble

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:17:20 GMT

Waiting for a very long hard disk operation to end, thought I'd use the time creatively. Here's a Superman Returns / surprise crossover Drabble. Warning, character death.

A Matter of Respect

Marcus L. Rowland

"Mister Luthor, I'm impressed by the scope of your vision. But disappointed that you didn't talk with me before you went ahead."
There was no reply.
"It's reckless. It attracts attention nobody needs."
The speaker paused, then continued.
"Above all, it shows... disrespect. A failure to consider my family's interests on the East coast."
Luthor was beyond replying.
"And so it ends here."
The strangler nodded, and finally broke Lex's neck.
"Nicely done," said Michael Corleone. "Make sure that the body is left where it will be found."
"Yes, Godfather."
"Now then..." he turned to his consigliere, "getting back to important business..."

Comments please before I post to archives.

It's Heeeeeere!!!

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:41:15 GMT

Only twenty years late... The complete Canal Priests of Mars is now available as a PDF from Heliograph Inc., print version to follow in July / August:

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=63094&filters=0_0_0_0&manufacturers_id=2551

Can't do better than to post the blurb..

BASK! In the glory of London, hub of Empire!

TRAVEL! Aboard a luxurious ether liner!

MARVEL! At the wonders of Mars!

Our heroes help Martians accomplish a holy mission in London, then travel to Mars aboard the Princess Alexandra, the largest and most luxurious ether liner ever built! Throughout their journey they must face the hazards of London, the Ether, and Mars, compounded by mysterious enemies bent on stopping their Martian allies!

The original edition of Canal Priests Of Mars cut slightly over a third of author Marcus L. Rowland’s manuscript to fit GDW’s adventure format.

The Complete Canal Priests Of Mars restores the cut material, features all new artwork by Paul Daly, and adds many useful player handouts. Enjoy the "author's cut" of a classic Space 1889 adventure, or experience it for the first time!

Reasons to hate Vista...

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:28:00 GMT

One of the things happening at work this summer is that a computer management company takes over our IT and will be installing new computers. All of which, unfortunately, have Vista as their operating system.

And it turns out that several bits of software won't run on Vista, even in compatibility mode, including some of our data-logging programs and the software for some extremely cheap radiation sensors. The latter, incidentally, runs perfectly under Windows 7, which is why they're not working on a replacement.

So it goes. At least for the next year or so, at which point they will hopefully roll out Windows 7 instead.

Dragonmeet SW...

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:31:35 GMT

...was good fun despite a relatively small turnout, which wasn't surprising given that it's the first time it's run and that all routes to Swindon were badly messed up today (thanks Railtrack etc.) which can't have helped.

Ran two sessions, the second unfortunately had only two players which isn't ideal for an adventure which is essentially several people versus a small army. I think I gave the players too much help, and had NPCs do too much of the heavy lifting.

Trip there was fast and problem free given the distance (about 80 miles), trip back was dreadful thanks to speed restrictions of 30 at various points, and traffic almost at a standstill for large chunks of the middle 30 miles. No idea why, there seemed no obvious reason for it.

Anyway, I think I'll go again - but hope that next time the trains are running more normally!

The big London Dragonmeet is still on 28th november at Kensington Town Hall. There's also talk of a Dragonmeet Derby at some point (forget the date), but that's probably a little too far for me for a one-day event.

uh-oh...

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:23:44 GMT

Crap...

Tomorrow morning about 7.30 AM I'm biking 80+ miles. We've just had a thunderstorm with heavy hail...

Forecast for tomorrow is good so hopefully it'll be OK anyway.

Cheap netbooks

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:32:41 GMT

Today's email ad from SVP was interesting, for the first time in a long while - they're selling refurbished 1gb / 16gb Asus eee PC 90s for £129.00 - pretty good if you want something like that. I think it's a one day offer. I'm pretty sure this is an older model - this one has a Celeron processor, I think the new ones use Atom - but definitely worth a look if you want a netbook. Actually quite tempted by this one, except for the bit about spending money - right now I'm trying to avoid that since I'm paying for new glasses this month, and it's a bit bigger than I want to carry routinely.

http://www.svp.co.uk/systems-pcs/laptops-notebooks/under-15in-laptops-notebooks/netbook-89-ee-pc-celeron-m353-1gb-sdram-16gb-hdd_asus-01001.html

Dexter theory

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:27:10 GMT

I've beem rewatching Dexter S3 and have a theory about the next season, based mainly on something that was in episode 3-12, also on the Wikipedia article about the show. LOTS of spoilers, don't click if you haven't seen S3 yet!

OK, not actually incredibly startling I suspect, but I haven't seen it anywhere.

At one point in S3 Rita said that she really didn't regret having her children. She also said that she'd married because she was pregnant.

But in 3-12 we learn that she married TWICE, the first time aged 19 in 1989; the marriage lasted six months and ended in divorce.

So... what if the reason she married the first time was that she was pregnant? Was there a child? If so, what happened?

My guesses:

Rita had her baby in college. Neither she nor her husband was ready for the responsibility (or Rita's mother persuaded them that that was the case) and the baby was eventually adopted. Or the divorce came first, followed closely by adoption.

There is a kid somewhere, now 19 and starting to wonder about his or her real parents.

Now things get trickier - Wikipedia says that there will be a new and even deadlier serial killer in S4, and that Frank Lundby (the FBI agent played by Carradine) will be back.

Guess 2, then, is that Rita's kid will turn up while the search for the killer is at its height, and will either be the killer - not very likely in my opinion - or will be suspected of being the killer.

Guess 3 - not related to the above exactly - sooner or later Deb is going to realise that "Rudy" was Dexter's brother. She has a lot of the information she needs already, she just hasn't put it together yet. She might even guess that Dexter killed him. But I suspect that she still won't realise that Dexter was the Butcher etc.

Anyone got any objections or alternative theories?

IDE Hard Disks?

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:55:56 GMT

I need a bigger IDE hard disk in my main PC - it's getting too full even after deleting a lot of crap.

SVP and Play don't seem to have any in stock, presumably because SATA is taking over, but there seem to be a lot of allegedly new ones on eBay, including a fair number of 400gb "Ultra ATA" Seagate barracudas around the £35 + P&P mark. Usually Seagate seem to be pretty good, anyone know any reason why these should be avoided?

LJ election 2009

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:26:08 GMT

I see the wankfest has begun. No surprise that the biggest asshole from last year is running again, just took great pleasure in voting against him. Though I think it could be crueller to vote for him so that he can finally realise he has no power whatever, and is just a sock puppet for the livejournal management.

Hmmm....

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:44:06 GMT

Forgot to say that I had an eye test at Specsavers and ordered new glasses this afternoon - fortunately nothing seems to be going wrong apart from the usual age changes, and I wouldn't have bought them for another few months if the frame of my current glasses didn't keep falling apart - on Friday one of the side pieces snapped off, and I've temporarily replaced it with one salvaged from a much older pair that doesn't match particularly well, while the the frame itself is held together with bits of paper clip and superglue. The oculist who did the test turned out to be a former student from my school, and was very interested in all of the changes that are happening.

It's worrying that (a) the cost of the glasses (varifocus lenses etc.) was slightly more than three of the microscopes I'm planning to buy for work, and that (b) they were still comparatively cheap compared to my previous optician. Suggests that I have been paying well over the odds for many years, and that Specsavers advertising is not entirely hype.

Anyone seen the weather forecast for next weekend?

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:42:42 GMT

There's the BSFA and Science Fiction Foundation AGMs on Saturday, and I have some family business to attend to in the evening. I then want to travel to Swindon for Dragonmeet SW, a one-day games con on Sunday. If anyone is interested, the venue is the Crofts Sports Centre in Swindon, 10am and run through to 6pm, trade hall closing 4pm.

The trouble is that the trains are badly screwed up on Sunday, I'd have to leave home before six AM to get there early. It looks like the best route will be by bike unless I travel the night before and stay in a hotel overnight, which given I won't get there until ten or so makes little sense - but it's about 80 miles, and I can't honestly say I fancy biking it much unless the weather is pretty good.

So... has anyone seen a long-range forecast for next weekend?

Novacon 2009

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:53:18 GMT

Does anyone have up-to-date contact details for the Novacon 2009 SF convention? I've tried to query my membership and the messages bounce.

Now sorted, hopefully

YAYYYYY!

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:20:38 GMT

~~Can't figure out how to embed this, all I will say is~~

BEST BUFFYVERSE CROSSOVER VID EVER!!!

OMG, it's full of ekranoplanes...

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 08:17:20 GMT

Pointed out by ps238principal

Lots of VERY strange ekranoplane stuff.

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/05/ekranoplans-showcase.html

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/06/ekranoplans-showcase-part-2.html

I can only assume that some Russian engineers were on serious drugs...

Motorbike parking again

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:09:38 GMT

Westminster is the only borough in the UK that charges for all motorbike parking (in designated motorbike parking bays) - the others either don't charge at all or only charge for especially secure spaces that have anchor points etc.

This came in last August, has been the subject of a lot of complaints, and they've now reduced the fees by a third. Basically, it's gone from £1.50 to £1.00 a day, from £150 to £100 a year, and all other rates reduced accordingly. But if you read the VERY small print on the sign advertising this (displayed on the post of the parking bay sign) it's also now possible for Westminster residents to get a one-year motorbike parking permit for £50 which also allows you to park in some other resident's parking bays.

Since my one-year parking fee expires at the beginning of August I'm naturally very interested in this. So I phoned Westminster's parking permit department to ask about getting a resident's permit, and they said they cost £85, the standard fee for a vehicle under 1200cc. Checked the sign again, it definitely says £50.

So either the sign is wrong or Westminster's parking permit people are full of crap. I need to get the application in by the end of the month to be sure of getting the permit in time, so sorting this out in the next couple of weeks will be interesting...

Later It turns out that the reason that they don't know about it is because the residential permit part hasn't come into effect yet, which is odd because the other parts have.

It also turns out that I can't apply until July anyway, they issue permits a maximum of a month in advance, and that if I do it in one of their "one stop shops" there will be no waiting period at all, which was not what I was told yesterday.

I HATE dealing with bureaucrats!

WTF?

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:56:58 GMT

I've spent most of my time at work this week putting together a big order for scientific equipment. This has inevitably involved looking through quite a few catalogues.

One of my discoveries was that the catalogue of a certain science education company includes a lot of electronics kits. One of them is for building a switching mechanism (with various timing modes etc.) that is triggered by the light from a cellphone's screen as an incoming call is received.

They suggest using it to switch on central heating. I have a nasty feeling that it would be remarkably easy to find other uses for it, which would be considerably easier than trying to hack the internal circuitry of the phone. Tomorrow I think I may drop them a line...

Baby update

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:11:31 GMT

My sister is just back from visiting my niece and baby, and tells me they are both very well. Baby is nine and a half pounds, which possibly means that the clothes I got for him will be too small, but they're from Marks and Spencer so they can always change them.

later Make that 9lb 12oz, I misheard.

Bulgaria again

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:34:04 GMT

And I'm a great-uncle again; my eldest niece had a little boy early this morning, about ten days overdue. My sister and her husband are headed up North to see them, not sure if they tried to get hold of me first since I slept in late. Expect I'll hear all the details tonight. Another name to add to the Xmas and birthday list - by an odd coincidence it's also my nephew's birthday, so I shall have to watch out I remember both of them!

So farewell then, Fantasy Centre

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 08:40:44 GMT

Got home so tired last night that I didn't post.

Briefly, after several months of planning and preparation and a few days of hell we have my entire department packed up and emptied for refurbishment. We'll be spending the next month or so based in a classroom, then moving back into ten labs on two sites in September. In the course of getting things ready I've wrenched a shoulder and done something horrible to my foot; not quite sure how, but it's currently bloody painful to walk.

So when the movers had gone and we'd finished clearing I went over to Fantasy Centre, London's biggest and oldest second-hand SF bookshop, for their closing down party. I've been a customer through three different locations and about forty years, and will be very sorry to see them go. They're open for a last day today, with a lot of price reductions, but their lease ends in a few days and since both of the guys who run the place are near retirement age they've decided to fold. They'll be greatly missed.

Meanwhile my plans for today mostly involve sloth...

Canal Priests of Mars

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:15:24 GMT

Just reading through the proof PDF of The Complete Canal Priests of Mars, the expanded (or rather uncut) version of my old Space 1889 adventure, which will be published by Heliograph Inc. real soon now - PDF around July 15th, print version at Gen Con, hopefully available from Amazon in mid-August.

The PDF will be $9.95, the print version recommended at $19.95 (say $13-$14 from Amazon).

So far I'm quite enjoying it - it's so long since I wrote it that I'd forgotten just how complicated and occasionally silly the full-length plot is! And it has all new art by Paul Daly which so far looks extremely good. Thus far remarkably few errors, which is always a plus - or me being a very poor proofreader, of course...

later Holy crap - just realised that this sucker was first printed nineteen years ago, possibly 20 - the copyright date is given as 1990 but I think it was actually available in 1989.

Asteroid sizes again

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 12:57:14 GMT

I decided to go with a real picture of the Moon and shaded blobs for the asteroids in the end:

Since there appear to be no better pictures of the asteroids it ought to do.

later: Realised that the Moon picture is in copyright, not a public domain NASA image, so I've substituted one I took last year. Not quite as good, but it's going to be reproduced fairly small anyway so I don't think it matters much.

The Horror...

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:16:21 GMT

Looks like the computer situation at work is worse than I thought. Not only can't I get on line from my work area, they've ramped up the settings on the net nanny proxy the school uses to such an extent that I can no longer access Dreamwidth, Livejournal, etc. at all.

Hopefully this will be resolved when I have my own work room again, since the software also blocks access to numerous sites I need for my job since much of chemistry is apparently a "criminal skill" - my computer was set up to bypass it but none of the others are. But improvements probably won't be happening until mid September at the earliest, so between now and late July (when I go on holiday) and at the end of August and early September I probably won't be commenting or posting during the day.

Fanfic Rec: Cracked Reflection

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:42:57 GMT

http://misachan.livejournal.com/58704.html

It's a Watchmen / Batman crossover, and a very good one. Helps if you know the current Batverse, but it isn't essential.