I am getting lazy with my updates again. This is probably at least partly due to me not being bothered. I'll also blame the amount of spam I've been getting, since I seem to be spending most of my free computing time sorting that out - last month I recieved around 65,000 spams, thats an average rate of approximately 1.45 spams per minute. Impressed? So if you e-mailed me and I didn't reply, it didn't get through - try leaving a comment...
I went up to Loughborough last weekend, first time on a motorway, and it was good. A lot easier than the silly country roads, and a lot more fun too. But here's a hint: don't try and eat a flake in a hot car while going at 70mph. It melts, breaks up everywhere, and you end up getting out at a service station looking like the motorway was a little too stressful for you.
This is my last week of teaching this year; I should do some more next year, but that will depend on what I'm up to at that point! Last day tomorrow, and I'd say its come at about the right time this year, I'm getting fed up with the teaching thing again.
Still haven't finished unpacking, and I still haven't started programming. Oops.
Anyway, since I have to be up early tomorrow, I think I had better go to bed, but before I go, I'll point you at this parody of this website (thanks Sid!)
August 2004
We Like Motorways
5th August 2004 at 01:57Comment
Morning Campers!
12th August 2004 at 04:131 comment
So, the spam situation was getting a little extreme. With 27669 between the start of this month and up to midnight this morning, I'm averaging 1.75 spams per minute. Real e-mail tends to get a little lost amongst that. While my own filters could filter about 50% of the spam out a few months ago, I was lucky if it was getting 5% of it as definite spam, and probable real mail was regularly hitting 1000 emails a day - needless to say, most of them were spam.
A couple of days ago, I set up my mailserver as a mail relay, but I found out today that most of my e-mails I had sent weren't getting through. Eventually tracked it down to an IP blacklist, who had blacklisted the whole of pipex, which means I'll have to fiddle with that a bit more. However, while wading through my spam looking for the returned mails, I found an e-mail from a friend I hadn't heard from for ages. Pure fluke, if I hadn't been in there, I wouldn't have noticed and would have just junked it.
So I decided that enough was enough. I had set up my mail server with a view to dealing with spam at a later time. That time had now come; it was time to take some action. For those of you who don't know much about computers, I drew a picture of what that action may look like:
For those of you who do know about computers, I have installed SpamAssassin. Haven't trained the Bayesian filter yet, but I've been running it out of the box for about an hour with an impressive 93% success rate! 80 spams junked, 6 let through. Now, 144 spams a day I can handle, and with some decent Bayesian filtering, hopefully I can make it even better :)
The only problem with Bayesian training is that they suggest training it with 1000 spams and 1000 non-spams. The 1000 spams obviously aren't a problem, but I don't have many friends, how am I supposed to get anywhere near 1000 for the ham?! I don't even get near it when I add my hate mail! Damn the server crash of '03, I'd kept every email going back to when I came on the internet. That would have got me 10th of the way there...
Still, I'm feeling positive, and hope that the battle over my inbox has taken a turn in the right direction.
In other news, today has been my first full day at home with nothing to do since, er, last summer, how nice. I spent it speccing up a Doom 3 machine... Well, this one is 3 years old now, time for an upgrade! Also watched a video about halflife 2 - mmmm, it looks good.
A couple of days ago, I set up my mailserver as a mail relay, but I found out today that most of my e-mails I had sent weren't getting through. Eventually tracked it down to an IP blacklist, who had blacklisted the whole of pipex, which means I'll have to fiddle with that a bit more. However, while wading through my spam looking for the returned mails, I found an e-mail from a friend I hadn't heard from for ages. Pure fluke, if I hadn't been in there, I wouldn't have noticed and would have just junked it.
So I decided that enough was enough. I had set up my mail server with a view to dealing with spam at a later time. That time had now come; it was time to take some action. For those of you who don't know much about computers, I drew a picture of what that action may look like:
For those of you who do know about computers, I have installed SpamAssassin. Haven't trained the Bayesian filter yet, but I've been running it out of the box for about an hour with an impressive 93% success rate! 80 spams junked, 6 let through. Now, 144 spams a day I can handle, and with some decent Bayesian filtering, hopefully I can make it even better :)
The only problem with Bayesian training is that they suggest training it with 1000 spams and 1000 non-spams. The 1000 spams obviously aren't a problem, but I don't have many friends, how am I supposed to get anywhere near 1000 for the ham?! I don't even get near it when I add my hate mail! Damn the server crash of '03, I'd kept every email going back to when I came on the internet. That would have got me 10th of the way there...
Still, I'm feeling positive, and hope that the battle over my inbox has taken a turn in the right direction.
In other news, today has been my first full day at home with nothing to do since, er, last summer, how nice. I spent it speccing up a Doom 3 machine... Well, this one is 3 years old now, time for an upgrade! Also watched a video about halflife 2 - mmmm, it looks good.
I'm Going To Sing The Doom Song... Soon
14th August 2004 at 12:521 comment
So, guess who bought Doom 3 yesterday morning?
And guess who ordered a new machine to play it on, the day before?
And guess who paid £10 for next day delivery?
And guess whose new machine still hasn't arrived?
On Thursday, I made sure that everything I ordered was in stock, placed the order at 11am, and then yesterday I emailed them asking why it still said it hadn't been printed. They said 'Oh, the graphics card is not in stock'. I pointed out that it was, and they went 'oh, ok, we'll post it then', but they appear to have refused my request for Saturday delivery at no extra charge. Which I think is a bit rude, seeing as it's all their fault.
So now I have a top-of-the-range graphics-intensive benchmarking tool, and no machine to test it on.
Well, that's not entirely true though, is it... I had to try Doom 3 out on my current machine. In one word, sad. In two, very sad. Everything was turned off, and so the Gouraud shading was non-existent - you see someone's face half in the light, and know it's supposed to be pretty, but actually half of their face is lit, half of it is not lit, and they meet in a stark line down the middle of his face. Want to read the signs to work out where the hell to go? Sorry, not in 640x480 with low quality textures... Hey, what's that, is it a monster? I can't tell, it's moving so my computer is having to do some extra calculations, which means I'm getting about 1 frame a second. Ow, the red must mean I'm getting attacked, but where's the monster? In the past 3 frames/seconds I've seen 3 red slashes and my health has, oh, I'm dead.
I think it should be good when I can look around in the game at more than 1-30fps and with some of the visual effects turned on. Like graduated surface shading, I'm looking forward to that. But I appear to have to wait until Monday for that :)
And guess who ordered a new machine to play it on, the day before?
And guess who paid £10 for next day delivery?
And guess whose new machine still hasn't arrived?
On Thursday, I made sure that everything I ordered was in stock, placed the order at 11am, and then yesterday I emailed them asking why it still said it hadn't been printed. They said 'Oh, the graphics card is not in stock'. I pointed out that it was, and they went 'oh, ok, we'll post it then', but they appear to have refused my request for Saturday delivery at no extra charge. Which I think is a bit rude, seeing as it's all their fault.
So now I have a top-of-the-range graphics-intensive benchmarking tool, and no machine to test it on.
Well, that's not entirely true though, is it... I had to try Doom 3 out on my current machine. In one word, sad. In two, very sad. Everything was turned off, and so the Gouraud shading was non-existent - you see someone's face half in the light, and know it's supposed to be pretty, but actually half of their face is lit, half of it is not lit, and they meet in a stark line down the middle of his face. Want to read the signs to work out where the hell to go? Sorry, not in 640x480 with low quality textures... Hey, what's that, is it a monster? I can't tell, it's moving so my computer is having to do some extra calculations, which means I'm getting about 1 frame a second. Ow, the red must mean I'm getting attacked, but where's the monster? In the past 3 frames/seconds I've seen 3 red slashes and my health has, oh, I'm dead.
I think it should be good when I can look around in the game at more than 1-30fps and with some of the visual effects turned on. Like graduated surface shading, I'm looking forward to that. But I appear to have to wait until Monday for that :)
BeeBorrBeeBorrBeeBorr
17th August 2004 at 10:58Comment
Oh my god cpu alarms are annoying.
So all my stuff has arrived, and as usual, I'm having some fun and games. The good news is that everything fits, but only just. This is mostly the fault of my graphics card - an nvidia 6800 gt beastie - which is taking up 2 pci slots, but in reality, because of the massive intake fan, it's taking up 3 or 4.
Then there was the problem with it not booting up. Turns out I needed a second power cable, with a little square thing. Pita with an old psu, but after some removal of covers, screws and cables, I was back on track.
That was until I had the machine on for more than about 5 seconds, when the cpu alarm started screeching. So I looked at the temperature monitor: 77 degrees. Considering a decent temperature is 30-40, and anything over 50 is dangerous, this isn't a good thing. However, a short google later, and I had found out it was because of a new version of the athlon chip I was using; later ones reported the temperature differently, which can be fixed with a bios update. Of course, it would have been a good idea to turn off the cpu temperature alarm before running the update utility; internal speakers are never quiet, and with the case off, it was very annoying.
However, the temperature is now showing 38 degrees, all the fans are going round, and I've just finished reconfiguring the bios. Now to install Windows 98!
So all my stuff has arrived, and as usual, I'm having some fun and games. The good news is that everything fits, but only just. This is mostly the fault of my graphics card - an nvidia 6800 gt beastie - which is taking up 2 pci slots, but in reality, because of the massive intake fan, it's taking up 3 or 4.
Then there was the problem with it not booting up. Turns out I needed a second power cable, with a little square thing. Pita with an old psu, but after some removal of covers, screws and cables, I was back on track.
That was until I had the machine on for more than about 5 seconds, when the cpu alarm started screeching. So I looked at the temperature monitor: 77 degrees. Considering a decent temperature is 30-40, and anything over 50 is dangerous, this isn't a good thing. However, a short google later, and I had found out it was because of a new version of the athlon chip I was using; later ones reported the temperature differently, which can be fixed with a bios update. Of course, it would have been a good idea to turn off the cpu temperature alarm before running the update utility; internal speakers are never quiet, and with the case off, it was very annoying.
However, the temperature is now showing 38 degrees, all the fans are going round, and I've just finished reconfiguring the bios. Now to install Windows 98!
THEY KILLED SHERRIF PONY!
26th August 2004 at 15:35Comment
I have had an insanely busy week or so, and haven't played any more doom 3 at all. I have far cry here waiting for me to play, but it's still waiting. :(
Good Morning, Faithful Readers
31st August 2004 at 09:002 comments
Hello! As you may have noticed, there has not been an entry for quite some time. Well, since I am on a mobile phone connection, now seems like the best opportunity to give you all an update. Well, at least it's GPRS so in theory I'm paying by the MB rather than the minute...
OK, so, last time I gave you a proper entry, I was going on about my new computer. Well, I still haven't finished setting it up, and as the later entries indicate, I've only had a few brief opportunities to try out any of my games. I have 3 new ones - Painkiller, Doom 3 and Far Cry - and have hardly played any of them. Far Cry is still in the celophane wrapping...
So, how come, in 2 weeks, I haven't given them a go? Well, I've been rather busy.
For a start, I have once again contracted family-friend-has-a-problem-with-their-computer-so-go-and-fix-it-itis. I have spent around 8 hours on their computer, re-installing the operating system 4 times (Windows ME, don't say anything), deciding their hard drive is broken, ordering a replacement, replacing it, trying to install WME and being told by the manufacturers recovery cd that the hardware configuration isn't expected and that it won't install, and then spending an hour installing a different operating system only to be told by the man that it's not what he wants, so I've got to go back this week and sort him out.
Then there's the flat in Bath that we need. For those of you who don't know, Tristan, Laura and I will be getting a flat in Bath next year. Tristan has a job up at the uni for 6 months (probably more), and Laura now has a job as a PHP developer - congratulations! And I want to see my girlfriend as much as possible, and the rest of the time I'm just going to bum around doing websites - more on that later.
So, last weekend, I went over to Bath to look at houses, and dragged Leela along for a second opinion. Having rung every single letting agency in Bath and the surrounding area, I aquired a list of 4 houses to visit, 3 from the same company. It appears that three bedrooms is not a popular number. We were looking for a three bedroom house, not too far from the town, preferably furnished, with a decent living room and decent bedrooms, each room with enough space for a desk. Oh, and Tristan's room must be big enough for him to lie on the floor...
The first house that we looked at didn't really fit any of the criteria. First of all, there were 4 bedrooms. Then there was the fact that it was a 15 minute car drive out of town, and when you add on to that the fact that the lack of furniture went so far that there wasn't even any carpet, I decided that this wasn't really the place. And that was before the letting agent guy told us that the rent was ridiculously high. However, that wasn't a totally wasted trip, because he had a friend who wanted a website! The friend rang me on the Monday after I got back, told me what he wanted, and now I'm working on that, in between visiting the family friend with the broken hard drive.
Anyway, I was talking about the houses. The next letting agency we went to was just around the corner from my house last year, and he directed us to a house a few roads away from that. Good start, I thought. Lacking any sense of direction, we got out a map and found that the house was just around the corner from Nat/Simon/Tony's old house, which makes it about a minutes walk from my flat last year. And I later discovered Andy lives at the other end of the road! So that's location sorted.
Next up we looked at the property. I can't remember what it looked like from the outside, I was too busy talking to the man, but inside there's a little corridor leading to stairs up. Before the stairs is a door into the lounge/dining room, which is rather luxury, with nice new wooden floors. Next to that is a kitchen and a bathroom, both of which are great, and out the back is a garden and a shed where Tristan can hopefully store his bike, and where we can lock him when he misbehaves. Upstairs, there are 3 bedrooms - mine is massive, it's great. Tristan and Laura can fight over the other two, which are both decent sizes. I think this method of room allocation is fair, since I did spend around 4 days and a months-rent-worth looking for the house... whether they'll agree or not, who knows :p
However, given the price and the smaller bedrooms, we went to look at the other two places. Unfortunately we couldn't look at one of them because they didn't have it, and the other one was even further away than the first. It was also a 4 bedroom property (how come letting agents get the numbers 3 and 4 confused?) so again, was more expensive.
This made it a choice between:
We now have to wait for the trans-atlantic post to deliver Tristan his application form and for it to get back over here, and if it travels quickly enough, we'll be able to move in from the 8th of September. Which is handy, since I believe that's about when Laura starts her job.
As I said, since then my time has mostly been spent sorting out this guys computer and working on the other mans website. Not to mention the other 4 websites which all need to be finished as soon as possible. But, last weekend being a bank holiday, I came up north to visit Leela, and haven't left yet. Came up on Thursday to avoid the bank holiday traffic, spent Friday websiting on my laptop until she got home from work, and then she had 3 days off, which was cool. Saturday we went to Nottingham, where I bought some new shoes which are identical to my old ones, and yesterday we went to Pizza Hut - I've never been to one before, and I loved the free refils on the drinks, although I only had 4. I also love the unlimited refills ice cream factory thing, although in the future I think it may be an idea to use less chocolate sauce. I finished the jar and felt sick... But she is back at work today, and she's just left the house, so I'm waiting for her lovely flatmate Pete to leave and then I'm going to head off for home. Ooh, perfect timing, he's just shut the front door. Bye then!
OK, so, last time I gave you a proper entry, I was going on about my new computer. Well, I still haven't finished setting it up, and as the later entries indicate, I've only had a few brief opportunities to try out any of my games. I have 3 new ones - Painkiller, Doom 3 and Far Cry - and have hardly played any of them. Far Cry is still in the celophane wrapping...
So, how come, in 2 weeks, I haven't given them a go? Well, I've been rather busy.
For a start, I have once again contracted family-friend-has-a-problem-with-their-computer-so-go-and-fix-it-itis. I have spent around 8 hours on their computer, re-installing the operating system 4 times (Windows ME, don't say anything), deciding their hard drive is broken, ordering a replacement, replacing it, trying to install WME and being told by the manufacturers recovery cd that the hardware configuration isn't expected and that it won't install, and then spending an hour installing a different operating system only to be told by the man that it's not what he wants, so I've got to go back this week and sort him out.
Then there's the flat in Bath that we need. For those of you who don't know, Tristan, Laura and I will be getting a flat in Bath next year. Tristan has a job up at the uni for 6 months (probably more), and Laura now has a job as a PHP developer - congratulations! And I want to see my girlfriend as much as possible, and the rest of the time I'm just going to bum around doing websites - more on that later.
So, last weekend, I went over to Bath to look at houses, and dragged Leela along for a second opinion. Having rung every single letting agency in Bath and the surrounding area, I aquired a list of 4 houses to visit, 3 from the same company. It appears that three bedrooms is not a popular number. We were looking for a three bedroom house, not too far from the town, preferably furnished, with a decent living room and decent bedrooms, each room with enough space for a desk. Oh, and Tristan's room must be big enough for him to lie on the floor...
The first house that we looked at didn't really fit any of the criteria. First of all, there were 4 bedrooms. Then there was the fact that it was a 15 minute car drive out of town, and when you add on to that the fact that the lack of furniture went so far that there wasn't even any carpet, I decided that this wasn't really the place. And that was before the letting agent guy told us that the rent was ridiculously high. However, that wasn't a totally wasted trip, because he had a friend who wanted a website! The friend rang me on the Monday after I got back, told me what he wanted, and now I'm working on that, in between visiting the family friend with the broken hard drive.
Anyway, I was talking about the houses. The next letting agency we went to was just around the corner from my house last year, and he directed us to a house a few roads away from that. Good start, I thought. Lacking any sense of direction, we got out a map and found that the house was just around the corner from Nat/Simon/Tony's old house, which makes it about a minutes walk from my flat last year. And I later discovered Andy lives at the other end of the road! So that's location sorted.
Next up we looked at the property. I can't remember what it looked like from the outside, I was too busy talking to the man, but inside there's a little corridor leading to stairs up. Before the stairs is a door into the lounge/dining room, which is rather luxury, with nice new wooden floors. Next to that is a kitchen and a bathroom, both of which are great, and out the back is a garden and a shed where Tristan can hopefully store his bike, and where we can lock him when he misbehaves. Upstairs, there are 3 bedrooms - mine is massive, it's great. Tristan and Laura can fight over the other two, which are both decent sizes. I think this method of room allocation is fair, since I did spend around 4 days and a months-rent-worth looking for the house... whether they'll agree or not, who knows :p
However, given the price and the smaller bedrooms, we went to look at the other two places. Unfortunately we couldn't look at one of them because they didn't have it, and the other one was even further away than the first. It was also a 4 bedroom property (how come letting agents get the numbers 3 and 4 confused?) so again, was more expensive.
This made it a choice between:
- Getting the only suitable flat in bath
- Not getting the flat, waiting another couple of weeks before ringing the places again in the hope that they'll have something new, spending another few days and another few hundred pounds going to Bath and visiting places, risk not finding anything then, and either way, not having somewhere for us to move into when required
We now have to wait for the trans-atlantic post to deliver Tristan his application form and for it to get back over here, and if it travels quickly enough, we'll be able to move in from the 8th of September. Which is handy, since I believe that's about when Laura starts her job.
As I said, since then my time has mostly been spent sorting out this guys computer and working on the other mans website. Not to mention the other 4 websites which all need to be finished as soon as possible. But, last weekend being a bank holiday, I came up north to visit Leela, and haven't left yet. Came up on Thursday to avoid the bank holiday traffic, spent Friday websiting on my laptop until she got home from work, and then she had 3 days off, which was cool. Saturday we went to Nottingham, where I bought some new shoes which are identical to my old ones, and yesterday we went to Pizza Hut - I've never been to one before, and I loved the free refils on the drinks, although I only had 4. I also love the unlimited refills ice cream factory thing, although in the future I think it may be an idea to use less chocolate sauce. I finished the jar and felt sick... But she is back at work today, and she's just left the house, so I'm waiting for her lovely flatmate Pete to leave and then I'm going to head off for home. Ooh, perfect timing, he's just shut the front door. Bye then!