To Be Frank …

This PBS | I, Cringely . Archived Column shows just what’s possible, with a TV Tuner card, a large amount of bandwidth, some hard-drives and a large wad of cash !

Google Answers: google headquarters, flammability of

Ask a stupid question ….

Seems I’ve blogged a lot of random stuff today – this was thanks to FRLinux !

John Rowland Resignation: President Bush’s Farewell Letter to Connecticut Governor John Rowland on the Occasion of his Tragic Forced Resignation by Ruthless Liberal Ethics Nazis – From Whitehouse.org

This thread from Footnotes (gnomedesktop.org) on Tranparencies in Metacity might be worth following

Many people are playing with xorg 6.8.1 and the xcompmgr application. Unfortunately, it seems rare (currently) for the xcompmgr options to be documented. So here they are in full:

I tend to use “xcompmgr -cfC &”, but it’s up to you what you want to play with !

xcompmgr v1.0
usage: xcompmgr [options]
Options
-d display Specifies which display should be managed.
-r radius Specifies the blur radius for client-side shadows. (default 12)
-o opacity Specifies the translucency for client-side shadows. (default .75)
-l left-offset Specifies the left offset for client-side shadows. (default -15)
-t top-offset Specifies the top offset for clinet-side shadows. (default -15)
-I fade-in-step Specifies the opacity change between steps while fading in. (default 0.028)
-O fade-out-step Specifies the opacity change between steps while fading out. (default 0.03)
-D fade-delta-time Specifies the time between steps in a fade in milliseconds. (default 10)
-a Use automatic server-side compositing. Faster, but no special effects.
-c Draw client-side shadows with fuzzy edges.
-C Avoid drawing shadows on dock/panel windows.
-f Fade windows in/out when opening/closing.
-F Fade windows during opacity changes.
-n Normal client-side compositing with transparency support
-s Draw server-side shadows with sharp edges.
-S Enable synchronous operation (for debugging).

This article has the details.

Get your patches while they’re hot !

Got these in an email earlier today:

TESTICULATING:
Waving your arms around and talking bollocks.

BLAMESTORMING:
Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed, or a project failed, and exactly who was responsible.

SEAGULL MANAGER:
A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything and then leaves.

ASSMOSIS:
The process by which people seem to absorb success and advancement – by sucking up to the boss rather than working hard.

SALMON DAY:
The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream, only to get screwed and die.

CUBE FARM:
An office filled with cubicles.

PRAIRIE DOGGING:
When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm and peoples’ heads pop up over the walls to see what’s going on. Also applies to applause for a promotion because there may be cake.

SITCOMs:
Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids or start a “home business”.

STRESS PUPPY:
A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whining all the time.

XEROX SUBSIDY:
Euphemism for nicking free photocopies from one’s workplace.

PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE:
The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

ADMINISPHERE:
The rarified organisational layers that start just above the rank and file.
Decisions that fall from the “adminisphere” are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.
This is often affiliated with the dreaded “administrivia” – needless paperwork and processes.

404:
Someone who’s clueless. From the World Wide Web error message “404 Not Found” (meaning that the requested document could not be located).

OHNOSECOND:
That minuscule moment in time when you realise that you’ve just made a BIG mistake (e.g. you’ve just hit ‘reply all’). (Probably came from Lemmings ? )

WOOFies:
Well Off Older Folk.

CROP DUSTING:
Surreptitiously farting while passing through a CUBE FARM, then enjoying the ensuing sounds of dismay and disgust.
Usually leads to PRAIRIE DOGGING.

What the Bubble Got Right is an interesting essay on the dot-com era bubble.

Frozen Bubble For Series 60 is almost the excuse I’ve been looking for to upgrade my Meteor phone … hmm …

A pic of the little bro’s wedding last weekend … all fun, all ’round !

And one of Michael enjoying himself.

What next ? – This report from Bad Reporter

This overlay of the paths of the three big hurricanes to hit the Florida area this autumn, and the counties / areas that voted for Bush and Gore in the last elections in 2000. Some interesting correlations alright !

The Official God FAQ

One wonders – is the answer as such for a reason – that _knowing_ there was a Deity as opposed to believing there was, could undermine the very basis of (dis)organised religion ?

Interesting article posted by Donncha. It has me wondering though – why’s he worried about potty-training ?
Donncha ?

16:49 < Stewie> round here people have started snorting curry powder!
16:49 < Stewie> The police are issuing warnings against this practice after someone overdosed and went into a corma!

Kae posted this News Report from Iraq to IRC earlier … classic !

Dubbya’s version of U2′s “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”. This could become a classic !

AudioStreet: rx Song Information – sunday bloody sunday

From IRC … Thanks Stewie for the hint … makes Knoppix remastering easy !

11:03 < Stewie> booting a ISO is simple:
11:03 < Stewie> chainloader hd(0,0)/image.iso
11:03 < Stewie> boot
11:03 < Stewie> …in GRUB is enough.

An interesting thread on ILUG over the last few days … threw up this plugin for the GIMP …

http://refocus-it.sourceforge.net/

Must try it one of the days !

It’s been a long few weeks since we got back from our holiday … and no time to get the pics posted either !

Sinead started back to work … so between getting out in the mornings (getting Michael to his childminder etc.) and trying to get some quality time when I get home in the evenings … not much has been getting done ..

We’re off for a few days soon for the little brother’s wedding … so hopefully we’ll get some time to unwind a little !