subtitles http://newblog.fallingbeam.org/blog/ (Click here if you came looking to download subtitles)]]> 2005-12-27T06:31:30+00:00 Well So Could Anyone http://newblog.fallingbeam.org/blog/archives/2005/12/well_so_could_a.html If you want to watch a rather engaging piece on the making of the Pogues song "Fairytale of New York", you can have a look at it here. Distributed and capped by UKNova, as far as I know, but someone reposted. It really is a lovely song, and the Pogues definitely grow on you. Wonderfully used in the Wire.

]]> P2P subtitles 2005-12-27T06:31:30+00:00 Shocked, Shocked http://newblog.fallingbeam.org/blog/archives/2005/12/shocked_shocked.html This is from maybe a week ago or more, but it's Colin Powell talking about detained prisoners and Casablanca - a rather nice analogy.

]]> News subtitles 2005-12-27T06:25:03+00:00 Wag of the Finger http://newblog.fallingbeam.org/blog/archives/2005/12/wag_of_the_fing.html Oh my fucking god. Could this be any more of a tool of a column? I have no problems thinking of Google as a corporation, and I've always been suspicious of the way in which it has tried to "brand itself cool". Boo Hoo, companies being "irresponsible". I wish companies would be in it less for the profit and more for the jacking me off, that's what I say. If companies aren't jacking me off, they should be given a stern talking to by the likes of Mr Thurrott.

As a stunning corollary, we can have a look at the wonder and monomania of people who fixate on those who are not first (Economist premium access). Target "dicking" their workers. Makes me happy to love Walmart in my unseemly capitalistic running-dog fashion.

What I hate most is that because of my surroundings, I'm forced to change the tenor of my dislike, which is annoying to me. When can I sound reasonable again?

Gah your own damn self. You see what happens when you lose all self control? It's like a rage blackout.

]]> Computer Stuff subtitles 2005-12-22T15:28:02+00:00 Comedy of Socks http://newblog.fallingbeam.org/blog/archives/2005/12/comedy_of_socks.html I have pens, and as I told Winston (who I'm indebted to about the pens), I have socks to last me through nuclear winter. I also have Oral-B toothpaste, Simple, the shower gel I like and shoehorns. I should have bought clips - I'll probably angle to get them from the place at Shaw Towers tomorrow. Need to go to B.S Moey.

Apace I tell you.

Props to Golden-Haired Sammy.

]]> Personal subtitles 2005-12-22T09:16:02+00:00 Prague TV Screenings? - The Get-Psyched List http://newblog.fallingbeam.org/blog/archives/2005/12/prague_tv_scree.html I'm considering what to bring. I have delusions of having screenings of some things while I'm over there. I'm assuming I'd be able to find someone with a nicer laptop screen/default audio than mine. If someone has a TV and S-Video, I will weep.

This is preliminary list:

Spaced
I Spy Apocalypse (Spooks)
Game On
Bit of Fry and Laurie
NewsRadio
OC Pilot
Sports Night
Scrubs
State of Play(?)/Shameless
Freaks and Geeks
Wonderfalls
Firefly
The Inside
Poliakoff (Shooting the Past/Perfect Strangers)
The Wrong Trousers
How Do You Want Me
The Wire
Murder One
Twin Peaks?
Scenes From a Marriage?
2.5 Men
House (unaired pilot)
Once and Again
Smoking Room

Part of me wants to put in Nigella Bites and a season of the Bachelor, but that might be pushing it. I'm sure I'm leaving out important things. I also wonder if Election Night (West Wing season 4) would be a nice one.

]]> Prague Summer Program 2006 subtitles 2005-12-22T05:10:08+00:00 Play Now http://newblog.fallingbeam.org/blog/archives/2005/12/play_now.html I suppose I'm just ignoring the student issue now. It'll be amusing if my peers suddenly bother. ie the ones that don't already. It's surprising to me that all these things are coming back so instinctively. I still haven't sent off the postcards, and I think tomorrow should be my Queensway day. I should also remember about the shower gel and simple.

I suppose it's dawning on me that RSS is for people with a lot of time on their hands (actually, some time ago). But it's nice to have rediscovered VTV and EZTV feeds. If you just search for VTV RSS, you're going to find what you're looking for. And now I can even use the UKNova feed to parse if I really wanted to. Burn baby burn.

I wonder if this is why I actually have some semblance of a play now.

]]> Personal subtitles 2005-12-21T17:28:38+00:00 Legendary. And You're Too Late http://newblog.fallingbeam.org/blog/archives/2005/12/legendary_and_y.html While I'm sitting here thinking about my sexual comedy, I can't get Omaha out of my head - somewhere in middle america. It's a pity that that album is such an acme of mawkish. And that is signals such a particularness. So no, apparently I don't write any differently after months away.

Did you turn the lights off?
Yes.
Really?
Yes.
When, just now?
Yes.
So I should go and turn it off now?
No.
(Goes off, light switch sounds)
So do you want to go out?
Maybe.
Yes or no?
Uh.
So where?
Can we
No.
But
No.
What about?
No.
Have you?
Yes. So should I get ready?
Up to you.

I really do like that episode of Scrubs. (which that dialog had absolutely nothing to do with, except in the most allusive of ways, and proximity)

]]> Personal subtitles 2005-12-21T04:24:41+00:00 Fiction Collective Draft http://newblog.fallingbeam.org/blog/archives/2005/12/fiction_collect.html It's probably past time that I put up a more recent draft. The stated intention being that this will be more or less what is to be sent out. Gah.

]]> Personal subtitles 2005-12-20T14:47:41+00:00 Motherfuckers http://newblog.fallingbeam.org/blog/archives/2005/12/motherfuckers.html Fuck me that was a lot of trackback spam. I really don't want to, but apparently circumstances beyond my control dictate it. At some point I might even move up to 3.2. But then I'd have to figure things out again, back things up. So yes, Motherfuckers.

]]> Site Updates subtitles 2005-12-20T14:35:59+00:00 TVTAD is Back!! http://newblog.fallingbeam.org/blog/archives/2005/12/tvtad_is_back.html Apparently they've been sneaky for some time now, but I've been too out of it to realise. TVTAD.com. Only thing is now you have to supply your own RSS feed - via TVRSS.net. Off to screw the man :).

]]> P2P subtitles 2005-12-20T13:21:12+00:00 PSP2006 Blog - Electronics http://newblog.fallingbeam.org/blog/archives/2005/12/psp2006_blog_el.html I've actually snapped up the blog address psp2006.blogspot.com, if anyone is interested in editing it. I could just cede the address to you/add you as a writer etc. I'm really not interested in maintaining it, as I can barely maintain this one. I'd be happy to make periodic submissions though.

I'm wondering since I otherwise travel light, whether it'd be a good idea for me to buy a whole bunch of adaptors for electrical devices. In Singapore the mecca of cheap-ass electronics, it might be nice to bring over a couple. As for ethernet cable, it should be fine to just point people to their local Home Depot - or just bring a bunch from there. I could buy a roll and bring crimpers I suppose...

That said, I've found the most darling retractable ethernet roll-up thing. I'm just worried it won't be long enough.

]]> Prague Summer Program 2006 subtitles 2005-12-20T10:58:37+00:00 Pay as you go Mobile for Prague http://newblog.fallingbeam.org/blog/archives/2005/12/pay_as_go_mobil.html Just because Margaret just sent us the very useful newsletter, with tonnes of stuff about Prague, I decided it'd be a good time to check out Mobile providers in Prague. There are 3 main providers - Eurotel (the Czech incumbent, affiliated with O2), Oskar (owned by Vodafone), and T-Mobile.

My instinct was right, in that these are networks that don't really "play well together" - so if you are making calls between different providers, you get gouged by higher rates. This doesn't happen with the US, but is certainly a concern in say the UK.

So my proposal is that people (if they're smart) will stick to one carrier, rather than going "off-piste". What I've found so far suggests that Oskar is the way to go (and I've always had a good experience with Vodafone in the UK).

Just a direct comparison of tariffs (all pay as you go, of course, by getting a sim card) - Oskar and Eurotel, the pricing seems that much better, and much less complicated, for Oskar - though you would have to take into account the free weekend calls on Eurotel (which I'm always skeptical about - read the fine print below).

Caveats I would bring up would include the following: I have very little idea of the extent to which US phones are locked in to their provider. You may very well find that your phone is unable to use a provider other than the one you're using now. But if your phone is "unlocked", it's just a matter of switching sim cards (please tell me this is an elementary skill, like walking upright and saying fuck).

SMS is also going to be very useful as a communication tool, though calling rates are actually surprising good. What also convinces me about Oskar is that their online SMS sending service has a nicer interface, compared to Eurotel's.

Honestly, I haven't tried the hardest with T-Mobile, partly because they don't have an online SMS system, and because their website is woefully underdeveloped. So much so I can't even find a tariff page.

So yes, I can do a cut down version of this for margaret, for the program, or I could wait for more consultation, or I could set up a tinyurl for this page, we'll see.

Conclusion is very simple. Stick to Oskar/Vodafone. Even in the UK they had over-taken the state-run incumbent.

Edit: to put things in perspective, 1 CZK is about 4 cents (and a bit) in the US, so it'll be about 8c for a text message, 12 cents per minute for a call within the network. Just imagine, that calling outside the network will be about 24 cents per minute and you'll realise why we'll all want to "keep it in the family".

]]> Prague Summer Program 2006 subtitles 2005-12-20T10:33:58+00:00 The Poor Ship http://newblog.fallingbeam.org/blog/archives/2005/10/the_poor_ship.html The Economist has redesigned their site. Spanky. Content now actually fills the page. I'll sort of miss the old way of laying things out, but probably not too much. Very much along the lines of how Reuters has it's site - probably they decided they didn't need quite so much red.

I watched Serenity. And I bought tires. I'm still waiting to spank the people, but they need to make a bloody appointment. I should freely admit that Opera defaults to working - but big picture, yeah?

At some point I'll get around to posting what is almost complete - but I'm now wondering if I don't need to add on another chapter - "what? a man make a tailor?... ... are you mad old fellow?" - or something like that.

If only Joss didn't choose to be so insistent on his landmarks. The poor ship.

]]> Personal subtitles 2005-10-02T08:35:34+00:00 Opera at Western Michigan University (Workarounds for gowmu/wmich) http://newblog.fallingbeam.org/blog/archives/2005/09/opera_at_wester.html Opera is fully compatible with everything you could possibly wish to do on the Wmich websites. That includes wmich.edu as well as gowmu.wmich.edu.

However the biggest problems you will encounter using Opera is with gowmu - because of the way it "sniffs" for browsers. It is only rejecting Opera because it sees that it's not on its "approved" list of browsers. But once you get around that, everything works - which tells you that GoWMU is arbitrarily blocking Opera - basically sending it different (read: broken) code, so that things don't work the way they should. The same thing used to happen with MSN.com, until Opera sued their ass off.

The way to get around this is to "spoof" your browser identification. You can do this by pressing F12 and changing from "ID as Opera" or "ID as IE" to "ID as Mozilla". When you tell them that you are Mozilla, they will send you the right code, and everything will work. The longer term workaround for this is to add a line to ua.ini - which is found in your profile directory (to find this on your computer, type opera:about in the address bar and look for "Opera Directory").

At the bottom of your ua.ini file, add this line: wmich.edu=2 - that will allow Opera to ID as Mozilla just for that site - and that setting won't change when you adjust the global setting via F12.

If you don't want to keep getting that annoying page saying "your browser is not supported", just bookmark this url - http://gowmu.wmich.edu/cp/home/check/pre?optInSupport (right click and "bookmark link"). If you go to GoWMU via that link, you'll never see that annoying page again.

The broader issue though, is that Western should support Opera - it is a fast, secure, easy to use browser, that will be gaining a great deal more market share in the coming months. In practical terms, if Western's tech support department doesn't want to start getting unnecessary calls about this, all they need to do is stop "sniffing" for Opera. Their developers can start by having a look here. While that is taking place, I'd be more than happy to help them develop a page on their tech support site that deals with Opera - including using M2 (Opera's mail client) to read wmich.edu e-mail. The content of this post is free to be redistributed, in part or in whole - as long as you link back to me and give me credit.

Can anyone say Fanboy?

Edit: it appears I should have done a bit more homework - wmich.edu=3 (IDing as IE) actually works better - you don't have to use the workaround url.

For all the people still using FireBadger, the url to avoid the unsupported browser page will work for you as well. But if you move to Opera, you don't have to :).

]]> Opera Boggling subtitles 2005-09-22T16:46:35+00:00 Big Whoop. http://newblog.fallingbeam.org/blog/archives/2005/09/big_whoop.html I'm supposed to be going to IKEA, but instead I'm here, struggling to think of something exciting to boggle about the new Opera community site. They're still going through some teething problems, so well, whatever. As is my wont, I will unleash a slew of complaints as things progress. In the Once and Again dialectic of Christy and Graham, my initial impression is more sizzle than steak. Which is not a bad thing, and is a corollary of the fact that the community was pretty far progressed already before the revamp - it is what it is.

I'm getting a bit worried that they are only really privileging the journals hosted on my.opera.com, which would be very very annoying. As of right now, I can't see somewhere to submit my feed. And OperaWatch is missing. It's just dawned on me that the fuckers might have just changed the name of Opera Journals and that's the new blogging site. We'll see.

I'm hungry and thing Dino's might provide some welcome relief.

I suspect they might be trying to do something "subtle" by making Opera the destination of bogglers in general, rather than just meta-opera-boggling. Interesting, but this was not what was expected. I really am very hungry.

I know I'm a bit of a downer, perhaps I should wait till after the victory lap?

]]> Opera Boggling subtitles 2005-09-06T15:43:28+00:00