Ah' Been Doin' Things

I took out lots of books from the library again, but this time from the local library, not the Birmingham Central Library. One AS level computing, which doesn't seem very well written, but I have gone throught that making the best of it. Been looking up things on the net to help
me. I am liking all this binary, hex, octal, buisiness - except my 16 and 256 times table aren't very good.
Among the other books are a guide to networking (basic stuff) and XML. Now i have too many books to read, but I quite like it that way. There are also books on maths and physics.
Yesterday I went to St. Paul's church
and St. Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham for the first time and discovered that the latter was designed and built by Pugin, and Mathew Bolton used to frequent the former.


I received Tongue under a Ton of Nine Volters by Meadow House. It's Dan Wilson's Hellebore Shew CD. The artwork on the cover is as fantastic as the songs. I bought it from the Resonance 104.4 online shop. A tenner.

Some of the pigeons around the city centre look very ill: feather battered, sluggish and waddling. Waddling isn't the pigeon way. It's the duck way, but not the pigeon way.

Conversion Time

I have moved my old laptop (3 years old) that I rarely ever use, over to Debian GNU/Linux. Things are as they usually are with a new OS, pretty bewildering, I mean just that feeling of not being at home with your usual OS. When I first got my iMac I felt very not at home as I'd never used a Mac before. Now very ill at ease moving away from my beloved Mac (even in OS 9) to Windows or Linux. I'm still having to figure some things out with Debian. I've got it running all the nice GUIs that come with the CDs (which are available for download here, I used the BitTorrent download option. And there is an FAQ on all that.) so I am still trying to figure things out with it. I had to edit a file to get it to display my screen resolution correctly... Erm And the sound I haven't got working, but most importantly my laptop's network card is working, even though the security updates to Debian aren't. anyway, I've only been using it for 10 or so hours, but it's all looking good so far. It's using UNIX on the Mac and Fink especially that really got me around to doing this. So as things are at present I have a GNU/Linux - Windows - Mac setup here. Which makes me sound way more competent with all those OSs than I actually am.

I am thinking of buying a digital camera. I saw a seagull on the grass outside Birmingham cathedral trying to rip pieces of flesh out of two large salmon fish heads, and putting up a good fight in its efforts to do so. Right then i yearned to take several photographs, and the absence of a camera seemed like an itch you long to scratch.
A simple camera, not an SLR-ish one, which I would get had I the funds. The Canon Ixus 50 looks quite nice. At Amazon for around 220 quid. Time to start saving? looking over cameras on the internet gets you into a hell of confusion, I have no idea how to choose. Sites like this one are helpful.

A few/many links

Within the past few days I have been further exploring basic UNIX commands (ftp, comparing files, listing differences in files with various commands etc.) and XML. I have put up a test XML file. I'll be adding this entry to it. Probably won't keep going with it. Well not in that form. I might try the blogger atom xml feed thang.

Recieved an old Rough Trade 7 inch this morning. From Backbeat Records . It's a Double A side by Sweet Jesus - "Honey Loving Honey" and "Sisterfy". I should get myself a new record player, this old one aint' up to much - but it's not too bad, perhaps just a new needle. This 7 inch really reminds me of The Jesus and Mary Chain (Jesus and the Mary Chain?), maybe it's something to do with the drumbeat, maybe it's the word "Jesus" in the band's name. There is a smidgen about Sweet Jesus and other 90s (e.g. Tiger, Orange Juice, The Hinnies)Bands at www.birdpoo.co.uk. A great domain name.

Have been listening again to some episodes of the wonderous Hellebore Shew. The 27 programmes are up there for download or streaming. (.mp3 and .ogg)

Have been reading through the Maczealots site. It's a fantastic looking site (appearance and information wise), it has lots of useful tutorials, interesting articles and reviews.


www.poignantguide.net/ruby
I've just started reading through this - "Why's poignant guide to ruby." I started reading this cos the google snippet said the guide involving cartoon foxes.
"Why" (the author) makes ruby sound like art and zen and a new, pure way of thinking. His enthusiasm is exciting. The writer mentions Beck and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci caught my eye when I was skimming it, deciding whether to read it ir not. That and the cartoon foxes.

OK. That's all.
Oh, I've also added a favicon. I don't know if it will display in all browsers though.

Links for today

George Monbiot's site Great political commentary.
The burgeoning Wikibooks looks interesting et useful.
Unmediated.org "Tracking the tools that decentralize the media". Hard and software. Lots of links to follow up here. Wonderful.
Had a link to Slashdot about the EU Software patent bill, but can't find it again, so here is the Register on it instead.

Also been reading books I got from the library. I have a special arrangement where they allow my ducky self to be a member; I have to take a human with me, so I borrow by proxy, so I guess I am not really an actual member.
The books are on "A" level physics ("could do better" at that), Visual Quickstart guides to UNIX and C programming. I have delusions of being adept with computers (OS X at any rate). A maths for science book, and a book on Applescript. I haven't yet finished Catch-22 as all I've been reading lately is computer or maths/science related. Oh and a bit of music.

It's like some kind of back to school thing going on. I am constantly sleepy. I should give all this up and go back to the pond with my old friends. I wonder if this is a worthwhile way to go about things. I'm Starting to think the lake/pond way of living seems quite appealing.

Some good learning to be had on the bbc. Here
Some sections on GCSES, A level, and other stuff. Here
I shall be revising and expanding some things I do know and learning some things I don't.

My god. There is far too much that I don't know.
I shall hide my head under my wing. S'too much.

Software

a Binary Clock; helped me learn a bit of binary.
from the makers of Lonesome Electric Chicken

Also have been looking around the O'Reilly macdev site. Lots of good stuff there.