in need of sleep...?

There is something wrong with me.
I spent almost all of yesterday sleeping, if not sleeping, lying down and reading/watching something.
I have absolutely no energy or stamina right now.
On the way to the office, I almost had an accident and then banged my head when I was getting out. I am usually not this much disoriented.
I had a couple of biscuits and a strong cup of coffee but they only made me crash more.
I'm really wasted.
I almost drifted to sleep listening to "Rainy Taxi" song - just after that cup of coffee.
This is not good. I need to get in shape and get my life in order ASAP.

This story must win the Hugo award!

I just listened to Impossible Dreams by Tim Pratt.
Now, I have this story sitting in my bookcase. I haven't read the Asimov's it got published in (July 2006). This is a shame. I should have read it before. It rocks!

You can read it here or listen it to here, on the brilliant Escape Pod.

Go and donate some money to Escape Pod, I always do. Steve does a brilliant job. I've been listenin gto Escape Pod since single-digit episode numbers. It is really really good. Go get it! Right now.

This story is the best story in this year's Hugo nominee short stories. The rest are all fall flat compared to this brilliant story.

I love well written alt-timeline stories.

Kudos to Steve Eley for bringing the Hugo nominees to audio for free.

Nokia 445M configuration

Here you go.
There are various pages reporting different syncs. The sync rates I found to be working are:
Horizontal: 30-79
Vertical: 50-114

Although allegedly it's supposed to as high as 90Hz horizontal but it ain't on this graphics card.

This works with openSUSE 10.0 and a crappy on-board Intel card:

Section "Monitor"
DisplaySize 370 270
HorizSync 30-79
Identifier "Monitor[0]"
ModelName "445PRO"
VendorName "NOKIA"
VertRefresh 50-114
UseModes "Modes[0]"
EndSection

Section "Modes"
Identifier "Modes[0]"
Modeline "1280x1024" 132.75 1280 1368 1504 1728 1024 1025 1028 1067
Modeline "1280x960" 124.54 1280 1368 1504 1728 960 961 964 1001
Modeline "1280x960" 105.61 1280 1360 1496 1712 960 961 964 995
Modeline "1280x800" 134.18 1280 1368 1504 1728 800 801 804 844
Modeline "1280x800" 118.88 1280 1368 1504 1728 800 801 804 839
Modeline "1280x800" 102.80 1280 1360 1496 1712 800 801 804 834
Modeline "1280x800" 86.35 1280 1344 1480 1680 800 801 804 829
Modeline "1152x864" 115.30 1152 1224 1352 1552 864 865 868 906
Modeline "1152x864" 99.64 1152 1224 1344 1536 864 865 868 901
Modeline "1152x864" 84.44 1152 1216 1336 1520 864 865 868 896
Modeline "1280x768" 128.77 1280 1368 1504 1728 768 769 772 810
Modeline "1280x768" 113.01 1280 1360 1496 1712 768 769 772 805
Modeline "1280x768" 97.81 1280 1352 1488 1696 768 769 772 801
Modeline "1280x768" 82.91 1280 1344 1480 1680 768 769 772 796
Modeline "1024x768" 102.54 1024 1088 1200 1376 768 769 772 810
Modeline "1024x768" 90.83 1024 1088 1200 1376 768 769 772 805
Modeline "1024x768" 78.43 1024 1080 1192 1360 768 769 772 801
Modeline "1024x768" 66.33 1024 1080 1184 1344 768 769 772 796
Modeline "800x600" 76.84 800 848 936 1072 600 601 604 640
Modeline "800x600" 69.65 800 848 936 1072 600 601 604 637
Modeline "800x600" 62.43 800 848 936 1072 600 601 604 633
Modeline "800x600" 54.47 800 840 928 1056 600 601 604 629
Modeline "800x600" 46.87 800 840 920 1040 600 601 604 626
Modeline "800x600" 39.49 800 832 912 1024 600 601 604 622
Modeline "768x576" 71.64 768 824 904 1040 576 577 580 615
Modeline "768x576" 63.82 768 816 896 1024 576 577 580 611
Modeline "768x576" 57.28 768 816 896 1024 576 577 580 608
Modeline "768x576" 49.92 768 808 888 1008 576 577 580 604
Modeline "768x576" 42.93 768 800 880 992 576 577 580 601
Modeline "768x576" 36.13 768 792 872 976 576 577 580 597
Modeline "640x480" 48.72 640 680 744 848 480 481 484 513
Modeline "640x480" 44.11 640 680 744 848 480 481 484 510
Modeline "640x480" 38.81 640 672 736 832 480 481 484 507
Modeline "640x480" 34.38 640 672 736 832 480 481 484 504
Modeline "640x480" 29.43 640 664 728 816 480 481 484 501
Modeline "640x480" 24.70 640 656 720 800 480 481 484 498
EndSection

Section "Screen"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
Device "Device[0]"
Identifier "Screen[0]"
Monitor "Monitor[0]"
EndSection

Section "Device"
BoardName "865 G"
BusID "0:2:0"
Driver "i810"
Identifier "Device[0]"
Screen 0
VendorName "Intel"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout[all]"
InputDevice "Keyboard[0]" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse[1]" "CorePointer"
Option "Clone" "off"
Option "Xinerama" "off"
Screen "Screen[0]"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Group "video"
Mode 0660
EndSection

Evo's leaving FMP!

Well, out of horse's mouth.

On the other hand, it appears that Evo's been unhappy with what he's doing lately: His words: "But I’m becoming less and less of a scifi podcaster… heck, less and less of a podcaster at all, come to think of it."

I have an other idea.

Google's cache of Farpoint's About page has the following:

Email us:
Michael R. Mennenga, Director: mike @ farpointmedia.net
Summer Brooks, Producer: summer @ farpointmedia.net
Jeffrey Willerth, Producer, West Coast Office: jeffrey @ farpointmedia.net

This is from 31st of May.

Today this link has:

Michael R. Mennenga, Michael R. Mennenga: CEO, Director
Summer Brooks, Supervising Producer, Co-Host
Jeffrey Willerth, Managing Director (West Coast office), Production Coordinator for Video and Visual Media Projects
Draco Vista Studio

Now.. There's Mike, the CEO. Where is Evo? He is not there. My totally unfounded and completely circumstantial made up theory is Evo didn't get the title he wanted, he and Mike or Summer had an argument and Evo walked out.

Well, Brian appears to know something but he's not telling us.

As they decide to put more info out, it's all speculation.

London Book Project

How cool is this!??

Sometimes I wish I lived in London - that is when I am 75 miles away from it and I'm not stuck in its traffic or when I'm not being crushed to death in its underground.

Mr Wolf, meet Miss Sheep...

Come on! How can this happen? The parents of the missing child meet the head of the biggest organisation who has protected sex abusers for so long, namely the Catholic Church and this religious bigot is supposed to be good just because he claims he is The Man of the God and he is completely infallible. I suppose he and his organisation use this infallibility when they ignore the pains of the abused.

I really wonder how the family roped into this publicity stand for the Catholic Church. As if this old goat is going to be any use, or maybe, it might, if the culprit is a Catholic priest he might listen to his Vicar of Christ. Sheeesh...

Observation log

Yesterday, by the time I came back home, the weather was clear which is quite incredible itself, since it's been raining for the last week. Suddenly the clouds went away and a perfectly clear sky appeared, with an almost-full moon. We watched some stuff, then I saw Venus from the window (this is about 11pm). I set up the scope in the middle of the room but both Venus and Saturn didn't look that good. Having two people in the house is quite useful, we just took the kit outside and set it up very quickly.

Then we had a good look at Venus, unfortunately it appears to be in its gibbous phase so it wasn't much fun to look at. We peered at Saturn, which was nice but the conditions were not great. We could not see any of the gaps in the rings.

We looked at the Ring Nebula, which was great! I could not believe how easily I found it, considering that in the past many times I failed to locate it. It's just unbeliveable. Then we looked at Epsilon Lyrae and Deneb. I could not split the double-double, which really pissed me off. Wee peered at Castor and Pollux for fun.

What next, we looked at Mira in Ursa Major, which is not that spectacular on the scope.

Then we looked at the moon for a while using the moon filter, which really helps. Unfortunately there weren't a lot of craters to look at, since it was almost full moon.

Still, it was fun. By the time we packed up and went back upstairs, it was about 1am.
Missed opportunities: Andromeda Galaxy (I couldn't see it at all, I couldn't see Andromeda full stop, the light conditions were not great), double cluster (too low), all sorts of Messiers including Prasepae (which I completely forgot about). We could have done better but anyway, at least we used a very rare opportunity.

Todo list: maintenance on the EQ Mount, it's unbeliveably wobbly, you can't use the focus because it's so rigid and the telescope moves too easily, if not wobbles so bad, you can't even focus. Anyway, that can be done during any rainy evening... Heh, I'm not short of those lately.

Snow in May:: Anti-global warming pundits: STFU!

Rain mixing with snow, 0 degrees Celcius... 27 of May... Global warming denial crowd: just shut the fuck up, this is not supposed to happen!

Trains

I want to see some railtrack and some trains... Shiny railtracks and heavy, dark, sleepers... That would be fun fun fun. And photographing them.

Nodame Cantable

Kawaiii!!!!
And the music is gorgeous!

200705242030_slightly_more_relaxed_now

I love the channel tunnel. OTOH, I have serious issues with the train operators. They treat it like an airplane, whereas it isn't. It isn't that fully booked either, about half of the seats are empty right now. OK, it is middle-of-the-week late evening run but still you would have expected more people on it. I bet more people are flying between Brussels, London and Paris I write this thing. Also there aren't a lot of trains - I mean why would they, this carriage is half empty. On the other hand, they could have reduced the ticket prices and increase the frequency of the trains, more people would use it. It would really make a difference and it is much more civilised.

On the other hand... It's quite hard to get to. I mean, it starts at Waterloo, which is a pain in the ass to get to, or you can (maybe) get a train from Ashford but then you have to drive to Ashford, which is a significant distance for me (round trip around 200 miles) which sucks.

Technomaniac note: There's a problem with the focus on the laptop, quite a lot of times clicking doesn't actually grab the focus - it really pisses me off but I'm too tired to get angry about.

We're about to enter the tunnel, we've slowed down considerably now. The sun is setting and it's crystal clear. I should have been at home, observing.

Wohoo, the sun is beautiful, straight at the horizon... Or was.. Now we're going into the tunnel, I won't be able to see it again I think.

Now we're under the sea. I love this thing. Such an engineering feat, it should be used by more people, more often and the prices should be cheaper (so that even more people will be using it). They can make money by selling fuel and snacks, it'd be quite lucrative.

200705242018 on the eurostar

Location: Eurostar speeding towards England
Mood: Depressive and extremely tired


This has been a distastrous week.

First... I had a very poorly tested software.
Second... I forgot my passport at home and found about it when I was just about to check into Eurostar.
Third... After postponing the trip to Tuesday morning, I forgot to phone the hotel to talk about the reservation.
Fourth... I had a lot of problems with WebSphere shite.
Fifth... I found about the cancelled reservation, it took a while to find an other hotel room since it looked like all of Lille was fully booked.
Sixth... The second day wasn't that good either (but I did have some progress and finally ended up with one serious problem.
Seventh... I was asked to stay an other day, which I was completely cool about but the only hotel that had a room was a single star and it was VERY basic. Unbeliveable BASIC. (At least that night I had a good dinner with my colleauges and had some fun).
Eighth... WebSphere is still a pile of shite.
Ninth... Finally, after managing to escape, I find out that the return ticket for Eurostar WOULD NOT STOP AT ASHFORD. FUCK FUCK FUCK! I had to beg and beg, finally they gave me a seat on the next train, A FULL TWO HOURS LATER! Well, the Eurostar staff were brilliant, polite and helpful, I am really grateful.
Tenth... I dunno.. Something's bound to go wrong.

Update: Tenth... Fuck it! You can't make this up. After I got out of Darmouth tunnel, a huge HGV tried to run over my Volvo! He pushed me into the next lane, I hardly controlled the car. If there were any traffic on the lane I was pushed into, it would be a very serious accident. It's so fucking unbelievable. Also roadworks on M11 and M25 made the journey far too long with heavy delays. This sucks.

Importance of checklists

Fuck... Left the passport at home. Rescheduled the train journey to tomorrow morning. Wasted money. Wasted time. Pissed off. Angry. Ass, meet kick.

patrickMoore := arse

It's a sad thing. A person who has done so much for the popular science can act like an arsehole bigot. It's a well known fact that Sir Patrick is a Tory but behaving in such an immoral way? Argh, an other hero bites the dust. I'm really really sorry for him.. No, that's a lie. I'm not. How can a clever man like him utter such stupid words, it's just unbelievable. It appears that finally senility hits him, or maybe not, maybe we can't blame his gray matter aging, maybe he really meant it - which is worst, a hero like him getting completely nutty or his hidden feelings about women finally coming out and shaming him?

Hitit Gunesi Podcast

Now we're on our way...

Dejavu all over again

Woah..De... Ja...Vu...
Here I was, listening to "Eye In The Sky" by Joe Frank and suddenly everything goes funny and I know exactly what's going to happen and just follow the precognitions and here I am.

By the way, Eye In The Sky was very good. Go and find it, listen to it.

first podcast out of the way!

Yay!

It needed to go out. I've been hanging to it for two months and I did almost no work on it.
Today, I cleaned it up - twice. Audacity crashed towards the end of the first attemt. I rushed the second edit but it's OK.

Then I cleared it up and mixed it with Ardour2 with gates, compressors and whatnots.

Then I exported it, clipped the end using Audacity again, converted it into mp3 with Lame and then I edited the mp3 tags using Amarok and....

I tried to reopen the project in Ardour2 and the damn thing dies on me. Arrrrgh!

Anyway, the first MiniMi episode is out, it's 2:15, with only 1 minute of Eralp talking. Now, that's not long - I am really scared of the long shows I'm planning and I really envy other podcasters, how do they go through all this, it's unbeliveable. Especially Mike of Farpoint Media is MetaGod!

Kurt Vonnegut(*) R.I.P.

He's gone... Oh well, so it goes...

Section 6!

Unbelievable! Google Mail locked me out with Section 6 - I can't see any of the HDRI pics Michele has been sending to me! And this happened just after I reported a problem with Thunderbird. Strange? Suspicious? OH HELL YES!

This is the first time I'm seriously pissed of with Google Mail - so far I've been a big advocate and this really sucks.

2007052010

Back in Starbucks... I love Borders in Cambridge. I browse, buy books and magazines and sit down and have a nice cup of extremely expensive coffee listening to some podcasts... Live the feeling. I need to do this more often but...

Food in Starbucks is evil and outrageously expensive so sneaked in a KitKat in. Hehe. They can try throwing me out. Good luck to them.

Just before the easter bank holiday, it's almost completely empty. Probably all of the studens have gone home or on holiday somwhere, same with the rest of the people. It's only me who gets stuck.

Spent an hour reading some documents and some PDFs I had with me - I better get going...