Wash, rinse, repeat.

Posting this via wii. Typing a post with wii-mote ain’t fun!

Link - (Come and Comment - I like comments!) | Original : Computer booting…. | © Murky Blog, 2009. | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Boot, PC, WinXP

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I’m just pleased the weather forecast is favourable. No rain, but overcast.

I have some trepidation about this one – just getting to the start in time will be tricky as I’m not in London.!

If you want to sponsor me (you really should – it’s for the British Heart Foundation) – then you can use this handy link. Don’t forget to tick the gift aid box if you’re a UK taxpayer.

Link - (Come and Comment - I like comments!) | Original : London to Brighton | © Murky Blog, 2009. | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bicycle, Brighton, Charity, Cycling, London

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The route follows the Thames, leaving it to take in Richmond Park before rejoining it around Hampton Court. It’s 33 miles and full details are here.

Please do consider sending a few quid to the Stroke Association – you can do so with this convenient link.

Link - (Come and Comment - I like comments!) | Original : Stroke Association | © Murky Blog, 2009. | Add to del.icio.us
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It was very glossy, very well made, and ultimately a huge pile of horse manure.

I took a dislike to the film within the first few minutes – a few minor spoilers follow, there is another warning before major spoilers.

The pope dies, and the film moves to CERN where they’re firing up the LHC (which already has the badly wrong publicity about it destroying the world by creating mini-black holes). They show nervous people firing up the machine, with beautiful graphical displays showing the collisions as they happen… which given the rate of collisions is not on. That’s minor though.

What really annoyed is that within seconds three containers filled with significant amounts of antimatter. One of these containers is promptly stolen, and is used as the macguffin in the rest of the film.

This is ridiculous. The amount of energy needed to create the antimatter in these quantities is mindblowing. The LHC will create antimatter, but in microscopic quantities. The storage ring used to contain the antimatter whilst enough is made is huge, and certainly not the size of a can of coke. To use a magnetic bottle in this way, it’d have to be ionic antimatter, and electrical effects would be seen if in those quantities. Think electrostatic jumper and scale that by orders of magnitude. Anti-atoms would be neutral not be held in a magnetic bottle. At one point the rent-a-physicist (who is also an expert in toxins) proclaims that the biggest worry at CERN was that their work would be co-opted by the energy companies. Anti-matter would be a compact store of energy, but it wouldn’t be a source of energy, and making antimatter is vastly inefficient.

The LHC at CERN isn’t about generating and storing antimatter in little bottles – it’s about smashing particles together at high velocity to try and work out how the universe works at a fundamental level. Though the energy involved is high for the particles involved in each collision, the absolute amount of energy involved in each collision is negligible (most of the energy put into CERN goes to heat, rather than into the collision).

Okay, with the "science" part over, let’s look at the actual plot. I’ll put a break in here for those reading the RSS feed.
(...)
Read the rest of Angels and Demons (396 words)

Link - (Come and Comment - I like comments!) | Original : Angels and Demons | © Murky Blog, 2009. | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cinema, Film, Movie

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This race also finished with Jenson’s lap of honour – on foot. He went to the park fermé instead of the winner enclosure – and he had to jog to the podium. It was a lovely sight.

Link - (Come and Comment - I like comments!) | Original : Formula One 2009 – Monaco Grand Prix | © Murky Blog, 2009. | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Formula One, grand prix, Monaco

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Dollhouse has been renewed for a second season – to the palpable relief of those who have seen it. Joss’ previous series, Firefly, was cancelled after one US season and the DVD sales were so strong that Fox funded ‘Serenity’.

It seems that they may have learned a lesson from history as “executives took into account Firefly’s longevity – it has continued to sell well on DVD and spawned a big-screen movie, Serenity – when deciding Dollhouse’s fate.”

‘Flight of the Conchords, Series 2, Episode 2, is on BBC4 at 10:30pm – this does not appear on iplayer, so it’s a ‘must catch’.

Link - (Come and Comment - I like comments!) | Original : Dollhouse Tonight | © Murky Blog, 2009. | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dollhouse, Firefly, Joss Whedon, Serenity, Television

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The trouble was, though I was interested in the technical nature of this, I didn’t actually have any big idea as to what I wanted the theme to be.

Whilst acknowledging that this was rather back to front, it didn’t diminish the interest.

Then, I was looking at my favourite online strip (currently on hiatus), Yehuda Moon and the kickstand cyclery and I thought “that’ll be good to use as a base for my own experiment”.

As a result, I came up with this skin for google:

This was my first theme, showing Yehuda cycling through the snow

This was based on the 23rd Feb 2008 strip.

I thought this came out quite well for a first try, it’s pretty simple really. What you have is a text file which contains XML. This is a formalised language to say ‘use this colour here, this image there‘ and so on. The images and file are uploaded so they can be seen by google, and then you can try out your own theme. All the details of how to do this are here, and I won’t be re-writing this tutorial.

Having had my fun with ‘proof of concept’, I decided I’d like to use a Yehuda theme on my iGoogle homepage, and can only do this if it’s submitted to Google, and can only do this with Rick’s consent. Rick draws Yehuda Moon.

So, I told him what I’d done, and asked for his blessing.

Before he could respond, I’d put together a second skin:

This was a composite from two different strips.

This was based upon the strip for the 31st Dec 2008 and for the 25th December 2008

Rick responded – he liked the idea, and he and I discussed what could be done with it.

I suggested that we work toward a dynamic theme, which changes throughout the day. The idea would be to show ‘a day in the life’ of the kickstand gallery. We decided to do a basic structure and add to it over time, eventually ending up with a full dynamic theme which changed regularly to provide interest. The theme would be roughly in sync with the time of day, so someone using google in afternoon would see a daytime scene.

I created an ftp login so that Rick could send files to me, I would then encode them as static skins, i.e. the look would not change. Rick would comment about any tweaks. Once everything was okay, I would incorporate these static skins into a dynamic google theme which chose a different look depending upon the time of day.

In the meantime, Rick got busy, and said that what I’d already done was something he was happy with, so I submitted the two skins above. As a result we’re now in a position to announce that the first public version of the theme is available on the iGoogle directory, and you can find it here (or just search for ‘Yehuda’). Over time, we’ll quietly update it to add more variation, and then we will gradually modify it as seasons change. At least, that’s the intent. To use this theme with iGoogle, you need to be have a google account, and be logged into it.

Enjoy!

Link - (Come and Comment - I like comments!) | Original : Skinning Yehuda (or the development of an igoogle theme) | © Murky Blog, 2009. | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: css, Cycling, Geeky, Google, XML, Yehuda Moon

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If you’ve never seen the show, give it a go. It’s about two musicians from New Zealand trying to make their way in New York – along with their incompetant manager, Murray. They’re regularly stalked by their fan, Mel.

This is going to sound awful, but periodically they will break into song – and it’s fantastic. The style can range from the funky ‘It’s business time‘ to faux French ‘Foux da fa fa‘ to Kids TV.

Of course, I’ve not yet seen season 2 (though it has gone out in the States) – but having seen Season 1, I’m looking forward to it.

Link - (Come and Comment - I like comments!) | Original : Flight of the Conchords | © Murky Blog, 2009. | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: BBC, Comedy, Flight of the Conchords, TV

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He went on to win Pole Position.

In the race, Barrichello passed Button – and a second corner crash took several cars out. Barrichello and Button were on different strategies, so Button eventually took and kept the lead.

Massa was running low on fuel and so had to let Vettel pass in an effort to avoid running out completely – the battle would have caused him to burn through his fuel. Unfortunately, he left this too late and as a result had to ease off way too much and Alonso went through as well. Massa ran out of fuel shortly after the line – but he did get a point.

The final standings were Brawn, Brawn, Red Bull, Red Bull – Button is now 14 point ahead of his team-mate, and Brawn on 68 points are 29.5 ahead of Red Bull.

This is developing into a superb debut season for Brawn.

Link - (Come and Comment - I like comments!) | Original : Formula One 2009 – Spanish Grand Prix | © Murky Blog, 2009. | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Formula One, grand prix, Spain

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The most important thing for the Franchise is the line which has been drawn between Pine’s Universe and Shatner’s. They can now diverge without worrying about the chronology already established.

Spoilers follow, so proceed at your peril.
(...)
Read the rest of Star Trek (523 words)

Link - (Come and Comment - I like comments!) | Original : Star Trek | © Murky Blog, 2009. | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Film, Star Trek

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