Words resemble walking sticks..

Writing is such fun

2008-07-18T16:18:00.002Z

Writing is such fun. Like, really really fun.

But it does take me a long time.

It used to come so much easier when I was younger.. especially in my early teens. Now I just struggle though. I'm not sure if it's the drinking and smoking, or the loss I'm feeling as having to rewrite so much of what I lost.

When I moved back from Holland, I lost pretty much everything I had. The thing I miss most though was my Amstrad 6128. I wrote so many things on that when I was 12+, so many many things. Losing that was a crushing blow, and only now, 7 years after losing it, am I finally becoming able to write stories again.

AL was probably a big reason for this. Writing is so much like world building (and in this case, was the world!), and why make my own when I have such a rich background already living. "Because I want to" doesn't cut it when you're weak-willed and depressed - go for the easy option (or the harder one really).

But Arcip is finally coming together. I'm surprisingly becoming quite disciplined about it, though with mixed results. Sometimes I can write 3 or 4 pages, other times I'm lucky it I get a paragraph. I still feel loathe to go back and rewrite stuff as I'm still exploring the characters. I also suspect I will have to rewrite a lot, but ho-hum the flow of thought :P.

One thing I am glad about is that the years more wisdom have made me a better writer (in my opinion, but then I thought I was a pretty damn hot writer when I was 9!). So far, not one sex scene (the sexually frustrated version of Arcip only had one, but other writings at the time were littered) and instead a lot more (too much methinks sometimes) character exploration.

A private wiki is an amazing resource for writers I've found. I'm currently using Mediawiki at the moment, though that's only out of laziness - a smaller, lighter one would be better. Being able to draw links between characters and (especially!) dates makes it lots easier to visualise your world.

Anyhow. Off to visit friends in my hometown of Windsor this weekend. Wondering weather to take Bernard (my laptop) or go cold turkey. Ran outa smoke and not drinking either, so don't think I'd be able to bear it ;).

Pen island or penis-land?

2008-06-27T14:07:00.003Z

How nice it is to be home. Though I haven't really spent any time at home yet. Been back two nights, and have yet to sleep on my weird 'cushions-on-the-floor' bed (I can't be bothered to pull out the futon, so it's just a load of random cushions I found).

First night I got back, I zoomed off to see Alex and his new house. Next night I went to see some (awful) gig at the Concorde2. Some Asian rock band. Dear lord, they sucked ass. But then I'm heavily baised cos I just hate gigs anyway.. too much noise and too expensive (though I managed to get in for free saving me £9. Score!).

Anyway, last night I ended up sleeping on my friends boat at Brighton Marina. Couldn't get this girl from the concert out of my head though. A hot chick just come out of a mental hospital and was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. Why do I always get attracted to the nutters, and why BPD? Been there before, and the fun is much less than the crap and baggage.

Anyhow, things are pretty damned good. Having fun, still writing and life is good. Except, tennis is on TV. I hate tennis, but there's nothing else on. Back in 2001 I was stuck in a hospital bed for a month with a TV with 30 channels. 26 were Dutch. The three that weren't were constantly showing tennis. And I had super bad insomnia. I couldn't stand tennis before that. Meh!

Home is where the heart is

2008-06-26T10:13:00.002Z

Finally back in Brighton. Finally back home.

I had such a good holiday. It was the first time in two years I got away, and
the first time in near on a decade I had a holiday I enjoyed.

Not only does Scotland rock, England rocks! When I had my flit to Holland, I
thought I did it because I hated England. I didn't. I just hated Windsor and
my life. How come it took 8 years to realize that?

I love Brighton. It's one of the few places that feel like home. My flat
doesn't feel like home, but the city feels like home. As soon as I passed
those big stone pillars miles out of town that say "Brighton", I felt like I
was home. Weird, innit?

I had the time of my life on my holiday. Went up West England, then up to West
Scottland and Skye, then back down the East coast. Except for a few excersions
to Yorkshire, Devon and Wales, I hadn't seen any of my home country other than
Sussex, Surrey and Berkshire. Just saying those counties makes me feel middle
class - wish I had the money to live up to that.

On the way back, I brought a sword. A short sword with a scabbard. It pleases
me.. I've always wanted a sword. No idea how to enjoy it without getting
arrested for it (my long coat is long enough to cover the scabbard!), but I'll
work it out.

While away anyway, I wrote 40 pages of my book (finally!) and.. did little
else. I just chilled. Hardly any drinking, a smoke or two to ease the long
journeys. I escaped life, and it was damned fun!

At the same time, I'm so glad to be home. I'm even more glad to realize that I
think of somewhere as home.

Google Favicon Rant

2008-06-04T13:21:00.001Z

I've not written here for ages. Over 1 1/2 years in fact.. my my, doesn't time fly. I realized I'd had a gmail account for over three years the other day (my first email is from 19/02/2005).

I first found the internet fairly late. Was around 1999 or 2000. I'd read about it in magazines, but even with the rich populas in Windsor, I only new one person who had it at home (and damnit, his parents were minted!). Getting internet at school led to my downfall (in schooling anyway - I've learnt a lot more online than I would have had I stayed at school and onwards), but it wasn't until 2001 when we got our first internet cafe's in Windsor (a music store with 4 iMacs charging £1 for 20 minutes).

Getting off my point anyway. Like many other people, my internet aging grew with Google. It was thanks to Yahoo! mostly - I had my mail with them at the time, and used their search. I spent about a year using a 486 with (what was then) high-speed broadband. Could download Yahoo!'s page just fine, but computing it with whatever browser I was using was a grind. So I switched to Google, and stayed ever since.

As many other people have noticed, Google recently changed their favicon. Finally, Google have explained why:

Last Friday, Google changed their favicon and it caused a big stir amongst Google users. We asked Google why they made the change and they replied that it was to reflect the "simple, playful and unique brand."

Here is the official response from a Google spokesperson:

We recognized there was a need for a Google icon that would better work across multiple applications including web, mobile and client applications. We felt the small 'g' had many of the characteristics that best represent our brand: it's simple, playful, and unique. We will be looking to improve and enhance this icon as we move forward.

First of all, the colours are wrong. After a couple of hours browsing, I can easily up 30 or more tabs open. The red/green/blue/white white square of the old Big G were always easy to spot. Now I have to read the title of each tab. Though a different shade, a single blue colour I have come to mentally link with Facebook.

Secondly, it's lower case. Google is one of the biggest (if not the title holder) internet companies in the world. It's a big G! One of the comments I read in another blog referenced a study where capital letters suggested pomposity. Maybe this is true, but there's no point changing now, which brings me to my third point:

The Google favicon we've been used to for the last god-knows-how-many-years means Google. If another site used it, we'd notice it as Google. What with internet security the way it is nowadays, any symbol or logo of a company we trust is an important thing. Casual users might not notice it right away, but I've had a couple of less experienced computer user ring me thinking their computers were hacked. Why? Because that little Google logo wasn't the same. This should have been part of a much larger brand change, or at least a prominent announcement made. In the long run, this may be better for the Google brand, but in the short run, it seems like a not well thought out idea.

What to do if inside of girl gets wet

2008-06-04T12:43:00.002Z

Confused virgins? I wasn't sure when I saw this on Google Trends.

Yep, that's right. The number one query for the US on June 3rd was "what to do if inside of girl gets wet". Sadly, the data for the trend no longer exists, but it was flat-lined until 6am that day, when it suddenly spiked into the 1000s.

A friend suggested it might be the "Did you mean" for "what to do if inside of grill gets wet". You know what? I really really hope that was why.

Google sleeping with the fox?

2006-11-02T08:52:00.001Z

Ooo.. could google and firefox really be spying on my news feed?

Better still though.. why should I care? I dunno. The only downside I can see is more ads (surprisingly, I found out about the above from a slashdot article about an investigation of Microsoft ad service). But I don't read them anyway. Most of them I block, so who cares if they are targeted at me?

They got my pubes with all their other services I use, so who cares :P.

Woes of the fox

2006-10-29T15:37:00.000Z

Seeing as pretty much everyone is out sailing with their their latest boat from this years Browser Wars (even the big guys, thought I still think it was with more style in the past), I thought I'd stick out my oar as well.

I've had no problems yet. I didn't like the the new theme, so I went back to the old one (that's why they have the bloody themes section). I do like the x's on every tab, so left them there. There are plenty of ways to change things back, or simply improve, so I've little idea what all the fuss is about.

I can understand some niggles, but teething problems are expected for it to be a fully rounded product. Less bitching, more fixing! (Meh.. yeah ok, but I'll defend my loves against others!)

Suicide Ain't Painless

2006-10-29T07:07:00.000Z

Came across an interesting article today, talking about how the suicide rate in the UK is falling. Most interesting bit was, what I hope was a typo:

"The latest figures we've seen also demonstrate that one person takes their life every 90 minutes, and we hope that continues to fall because it's still the second highest cause of accidental death in the UK after road traffic accidents."

Accidental death? Surely if there's one thing that suicide isn't, it's not accidental. Misguided maybe, but then who's to say? We have the right to life, but not the right to death?

The Suicide Act, 1961 decriminalized the act of suicide, though raised an interesting legal loophole.

A person who aids, abets, counsels or procures the suicide of another, or attempt by another to commit suicide shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years".

So basically, the person wanting to die gets off scot-free (though probably with a section - assuming they fail), and the abettor ends up 14 years in the clanger. Laughable! Has the added advantage of being able to kill two birds with one stone (almost literally) if you can coax someone in to help with whom you hold a grudge.

Reader niggles

2006-10-29T01:27:00.000Z

Bah! Been messing about with Google Reader today, and found two pretty big niggles.

The first one, is that the reader tries to eat up ALL of the feed! I've no idea if it does this every time, or (knowing, Google's love of privacy policies) stores it all their side and gives you the updated version. Either way, it just makes no sense! Information is all good an' all, but why do I need to have year old forum posts there? All it does for me is worry about how much bandwidth I'm stinging AL's server for every time I just want to catch up on the latest forum posts.

The second one, is their share option. I've also got into del.icio.us this week, so can see the value of social bookmarking, but I don't want my real bloody name so associated with my google account and little way to change that (other than changing my name in the account). Is only first name, but still.

I've no problem with a beta tag, but yet again, I except these things all shiny when released. If not, at least some give me some control over how the service works for me.

It just doesn't add up..

2006-10-28T19:37:00.000Z

Quit out (and promptly forgot about it) of AoD in a drunken fit last night, so spent most of the day waiting for my nursemaid to log on and give me all my stuff back. Given me lots of time to browse, and came across this great watch blog.

This has to be one of the ugliest things I have ever seen. Yet Sinclair still managed to shift 10,000 Wrist Calculators! The bastard things don't appear to have even had a clock! Pure madness!

Now that's what I call a bug!

2006-10-28T12:11:00.000Z

That's what I call a bug! Too funny to even find many words for it myself - go look at Google's latest flop for yourself.

More about it on news.com.com and blognewschannel.

Snoozing rigs the sexual politics!

2006-10-26T21:08:00.001Z

Woke up with weird red eyes today. Not the dope-smoking, strained veins red eyes.. this was more like the red eyes you get from lots of crying. It's not from crying though, it's from drunken sleeping (scotch hangover, if it matters). Is just odd. Almost 2 hours since I awoke now, and is only just fading. Throat, heart, liver, kidney, brain are all on the booze hit list.. don't tell me it hits my eyes as well? :P

Thanks to Wired's Sex Drive, I found a pretty interesting artice from Reuters today (what day isn't there? :P). They reported on some syndrome called sexsomnia, which basically means you get sexually active in your sleep.

Looking a bit more into it (and not stabbing that far - I am hungover after all), turns out it's more a period of sexually activity during sleep and wakefulness, rather than full on shagging as you dream about the wood elves. Though there is some quite horny thoughts in that idea, it doesn't ring my bell. I dunno.. I HATE having sex when I'm not fully awake. I more or less accused one girl of sexual abuse when she once tried it one me whilst I was still napping. It's not that I don't enjoy it it than state, it's that I can't fully. I dunno.. is weird.

Bah, she'll always get hers with me around anyway, I just wanna get mine with my wits about me!

Tears of a clown

2006-10-26T03:00:00.000Z

The porn bots are getting boring.. this makes me so sad!

That hottie Kirsten sent me one a few days ago, and it was really creative. You could almost hear the wheels spinning in the mind of that little creative sugar as she did her pretty little best to entice those young horny young men.

sooo yeah...i've been so lazy today guys!!!! layin in bed all day :( My pussy is so moist just layin around waiting for my gf to cum over hehe....we are gonna put on one hell of a show...we got some new toys, and some sexy see thru thongs and bras hehe....we will be talking to all our members through the chat rooms while we are performing!!! how awesome is that??? you can meet us, talk to us, and even tell us what you wanna see us do on LIVE cam...all for FREE!!!! it's 100% FREE to sign up and become a member....and my site has thousands and THOUSANDS OF THE WEBS HOTTEST AND SEXIEST AMATURES TO OFFER YOU...and yes! you can meet and chat with every single performer...it doesn't get much better than this.....you will now be able to talk to the women that turn you on so much hehe....cum meet me and watch me fill every hole of mine all week long...
MY PERSONAL CAM

That's pretty inventive, ain't it?

Look what I get sent today!

Hey, Im on this great site where you can watch me or other real live amateurs FOR FREE! It has hundreds of the hottest girls or guys online and right now they are giving away free access! Check it out for yourself here!
Don't miss out on the action! Enjoy hundreds of real live amateur girls performing from their own homes LIVE. Enjoy Instant Free Access Today!
MY PERSONAL CAM

That is horrible. No style.. nothing that leaps out at me that this is a real woman ('sides, methinks my charm just ain't that good that someone I'd never spoken to would hit on me everyday) - isn't that the whole point? Fool the dumbassess and stuff.. com'on you sexy ass porn botters, at least try!

I Love Banking!

2006-10-24T15:19:00.000Z

I'm happy to announce that the lucky winners of this weeks Skewed Logic awards are the lovely bankers of Nationwide. I urge anyone who does not have an account there, should do themselves a favor and consider nailing bricks into their feet before opening one.

I have this problem often with little faeries or imp or some similar creatures of trickiness. Basically what happens, is these little monsters come into flat and hide my stuff (almost like a Borrower, except they're just in it for the shits and giggles rather than the use). One of them took advantage of me the other day whilst I was drunk, and hid my wallet.

So anway.. I want some cash today, but have no card (and not enough in the bank to use an ATM, so would have had to have gone in anyway). In I goes with my passport and enough proofs of address and other misc info to open up a new account, and it goes something like this:

Me: Hey there sugar. I don't have my card with me today, but I got all this stuff proving who I am without a doubt, so press your buttons and give me my cash.

Bitch: Have you reported your card stolen?

Me: It's not stolen, it's somewhere in my flat.

Bitch: Have you reported it lost?

Me: It's not lost, it's somewhere in my flat.

Bitch: I'm afraid I can't give you your money without that bit of plastic.

Me: What happens if I report it lost?

Bitch: We cancel your old card, and send you out a new one within 8-10 working days.

Me: Which means if I do find my card (which I will) it'll be worthless, and I'll be screwed for cash unless I come in here with all this paperwork crap?

Bitch: Yes.

Me: ...

Bitch: Next please.

So home I go. Find card within about five minutes, and go back. Get the same teller (lucky lucky me!).

Me: I'm not even going to pretend to be nice. Here's my card, give me money.

Bitch: (tap tap tap) Sign here please.

Me: Are you fucking kidding me?

Bitch: Excuse me?

Me: You don't want to see my passport? Don't want me to enter a PIN?

Bitch: If you could just sign the form please.

Me: One moment. So if my card gets stolen, someone can walk in here and clean out my account with just that, yet if I come in here with all that paperwork (which I wish I'd brought back with me and this screen wasn't here so I could smack it 'round your face), it's no go.

Bitch: I'm sorry sir, but it's company policy, and I'm going to have to refuse to serve you if you are going to be abusive. Could you sign the form please?

Me: (signs while muttering about faeries and bitches and bankers).

I can't even draw some kind of conclusion about this.. it just makes no sense!

Tiny Explosions

2006-10-20T15:55:00.000Z

Bleh.. tiny things, but as they've gotten rid of the 'Beta' tag from the Google Personalized Homepages, you'd hope everything would work.

As I mentioned before, found a use for their tabs, so thought I'd fill up another one with testing gadgets. Came across one to change the Google logo, but turns out it doesn't work well with the tabs.

Above is the logo on a page without this gadget.

This is the changed one.

Surely this is not intentional? I don't want to have it on every page for really such a tiny visual change I'd get bored of in a few days. Unimportant, but worth a mini-rant.

What have I done to myself? :(

2006-10-19T13:33:00.000Z

Bah.. those bastards don't let me go! I'm sure I was aware this would happen, but didn't think I'd do it - I'm starting my become obsessed by my myspace! One page of crappy html.. urgh! Who cares!

Depresses me.. it really does :( Many many years ago I started my little journey into the 'net on Bolt.com, and it was basically a younger version of what myspace is now. I was so glad when I got into MUDs instead, as.. urgh! It's just not me - or at least, not the me I want to show ;).

Anyway, seems to be a lot of crap about myspace.. all those template things and yucky mess! Found a nice little gem - a myspace rss feed generator. For some very odd reason, there isn't a native myspace one *ponders*. This works just as well though.

On a side note I found a weird, but odd, oversight from the lovely google people (Kugra is a bit of a google fanboy if not before mentioned).

Their personalized homepages recently got a sexy tabbing function. I hadn't found a use for it before, but not wanting to clutter up my main page with myspace taint :(, it's suddenly become VERY useful! Oddly though, the uk version DOESN'T have the tabs, though it does share all the other features (new content carries over). Very weird!

..I've changed my mind, and opened up the doors!

2006-10-18T11:17:00.000Z

Or not :(.

Oh dear lord, I sound like a Myspace user. Oh wait, don't care :) Totally, being self obsessed rocks!

Yeah.. so I went and did it :(. Estrella forced me into it, and I've just spent the day pissing about with it. I swear.. I gotta stop making promises to myself, cos I always break them! Hell, that's why I never bother with the new years resolution crap.

Had a real fun day at the doctors the other day anyway. Got there 10 minutes early, and have to wait 40 minutes 'til hes ready! Managed to choke myself as well.. swallowed some saliva down the wrong way, and couldn't breathe. After coughing and gasping for what felt like five minutes (and trying to do it so no one could see :P I was fine, was looked like I was dying) I spent the next 10 minutes scared I'd cough and start it up again. Was glad at that moment that I didn't have to see my doctor, as it looked like I had just found out my first child had died (weepy eyes from suffocation and shit).

I seem to get those red eyes often. I either need to be sober more often, or learn to cry more (meh.. is sorta fun sometimes :P).

Kugra Gettin' Medieval (or 1976)

2006-09-10T06:44:00.000Z

The body is a wonderful thing. Mine espically. Weeks with four hour naps and I'm fine. Couple days of twelve hour snore-a-thons, and I've.. err.. not slept. Well, not quite. My body feels active, but mind is sluggish. Why doesn't the mind seem to need much rest? Or just mine.. I don't understand it.

Anyway.. indulged in several pleasures today (of the mind sadly, unless you count a pack of digestive biscuits and a crap). The second day of the first Fidocon (super spam and damn! I forgot how ugly MUSHes are :(), chucked a couple of posts on RPIMUD and LPUni forums (how can I lack so much self-confidence that post text for all to see is a big thing?), 3m exp on AoD and turned down two creator apps and approved like 20 files on AL. Oh, and posted a load of links whilst explaining my dull-to-the-average--person day (wtf man is up with you?).

Really though.. what is this blog thing all about? No one reads it (like I'd ever give out the link anyway), so it's just a stumbling block for anyone that googles for me.. hmm.. maybe that's why? Back to point though, it's not like I can write up what's really happening, as I don't even tell myself that ;)

Ah well.. it feels constructive.

Oh! I saw the best busker EVER couple days ago. Dude was Jimi Hendrix clone and played the strings like the black god himself. Is so weird to me that I appear to have some values, but I couldn't stay around for more than 30 seconds as I didn't have change :( Still though.

And on a side note, I told a friend the other day I wasn't narcissistic. I'm still not sure if I am. I don't love myself and think everything I do is wonderful, but then would I know? I'm stuck with me though, and get on pretty well with myself. As I walked from the supermarket today with my pack of ten noodles, three tins of tuna and four packs of biscuits I thought to myself how boring my life is. Then I realized, I only feel bored when I be objective, so fuck it all. The fine line for this hinders on being myself and going out of my way to be obtuse. Either way, I don't feel bored :)

2006-09-08T10:43:00.000Z

Wow.. after a few months of ignoring this, turns out I did forget it. The mind trashed with cheap dutch beer for a while really is a wonderful thing!

So what's new? First coffee of the morning, listening to swing, and internal dope alarm ready to go off soon requesting more.. nothing hugely exciting.

Linux stuff? Urgh! I would love to get more use out of the OS , but really, it needs to be a lot less hassle and more support. Of course, I have that all too popular inferority complex where I need to be doing something different so I really can be an individual, but what the hell? If I wanna use a piece of software, I want the time to be taken up on downloading. Installing should be 'click, click, read, click, install in this dir, disable other shit they want to auto install, boom!'. I don't want to change header files and download 3 other bits of software which each require the same sorta ritual. Do I should ignorant? Probably yeah.. but I can't be bothered to waste my time when it's too much hassle. And don't even get me started about getting hardware working!

Anyway, I'm more than happy right now with XP. Cygwin is perfect for other stuff (apache, perl, mudos). My recent glory was the creation of Limaweb, and I'm really hoping that a step in this direction will take me somewhere. Just have to fix one of two things:

1: Stop using MUDOS and Lima to create cgi engines.

-OR-

2: Work out enough C to strip down the code enough to make it a stand alone cgi engine.

One of the problems I faced first off, was that default Lima attempts to create a stand alone http daemon. Total overkill as most MUDs also run off the same machine that's also running an apache web server and some kind of Perl forum software (I've been cosying down with YaBB). What I know about Perl could be written down and saved as some socket connector to the main mud and create a pretty impressive mud to net website, but that's another story (it's this story really).

But where to go with it now is the question? The biggest issue is the Lima + MUDOS licence (most of the core code is not covered by the Accursed Lands licence as the majority of work was done on my test mud server - though I don't intend to release the code anywhere else either way), which rules it out of commercial usage (Lima alone had an estimated, but confirmed, price of $30,000 around the turn of the century). Really, with that, it goes nowhere. The knowledge and experience it's given me though.. woo woo!.

So, next realistic step I guess is learn perl. Hmm.. will get back to that thought at a later date.

2006-02-23T11:54:00.000Z

You know what? I really don't mind buskers. If they play well, I'll slip a couple coins in their hat. If they don't, I won't - and they don't seem to hassle me about it. I don't mind beggers either. If I don't have 10p or something, I'll give them a ciggie - they seem just as happy.

Those bastards with clipboards trying to get you to sign up for some charity though.. they're a different matter. They bounce over to you, pigtails flopping in the hair, start chattering away trying to make small talk, all the while thinking 'I better try and get this mug to sign up.. might make this £25 an hour I get worth it.'

Why does charity need salespeople? If you want something from me for charity, put a tin next to a tell and I'll stick my change in there. Even the boxes though now I avoid, as any charity who hires people to get my money in the street goes on my blacklist.

I have found a couple ways to get them not to hassle you though. First one is to work out what they're trying to save (normally children, animals or old people - any other person in the world doesn't need saving apparently.. they all fine). Then when they block your path and wave their clipboard in your face, tell them 'I don't like children/animals/old people' (or even better, replace 'don't like' with hate :)). Their sunshine face suddenly clouds over, and bam! One down.

Another way (which is a lot easier and less time consuming) requires a good 'pissed off' stare. Just perfect it in the mirrior if you don't have one naturally (luckily, I do). Soon as you see one, snap it on, and stare directly at them. They'll be looking around for potentional mugs so you're bound to catch eye-contact quickly. As they hop over, just keep staring at them. Clouded face, hoping down to a hesitant walk.. BAM! Another one down.

Either seems to work with 80% of them. Combination should do the trick, without having to resort to the boring old 'Fuck off and get outa my face'. I get accosted by these every Tuesday anyway, so have plenty more tricks to try out. One I'm planning is trying to get them to sign up for PACH 'People Aganist Charity Hawkers', but it might just be too time consuming.

2006-02-22T10:56:00.000Z

Getting used to Susie now.. just keep stroking her the right way and she treats me like a god!

Seriously though, I'm starting to miss XP less and less and everytime I boot in there, I feel in a strange environment. It's not really like I've done that much to get the full use out of linux as of yet.. it's just the possibilities and the learning experience.

Some of the applications take a little bit of getting used to. I really miss 2xplorer (changed to duel pane in Konqueror, but it keeps switching back all the time) and Crimson Editor beats Kate hands down in looks. On the other hand, it might just be getting used to things (and working out how to use them right :P). I wasn't that impressed with amaroK at first, but really starting to enjoy it It just seems a hella lot more intutitive than winamp and feels a lot better to have it all in one window, than all the stupid ones wamp had.

Firefox, of course, I'm fine with - been on it for a year or so now. All of the plugins seem to work cross-platform, which kinda suprised me at first - but hey, not complaining :). Gaim is in same boat.

MU* clients. I remember when I tried Mandrake before that there weren't many that took my fancy, and have heard from other linux users that Windows MU* clients were a lot better in design. From my expierience so far, I'd have to agree with this. My current one - KMuddy - doesn't really do it for me. There's no central profile manager - each aspect of a profile has to be opened in a different window. Copy and paste works really horribily (no CTL+V/C here) and you have to highlight your selection, then edit - copy OR, even worse, when you want to paste something you have to edit - paste, and it gives you a choice of command or input. Why? Why not do it as input and press enter if you want it as a command? One of the worst bits is a lack of toolbar - I hate having to click on tab, disconnect/reconnect.. just a button that did it would make perfect sense. Also doesn't appear to be any logging facility (though haven't checked that much). It does support multi-language plugins though, so I'm sure these things would be easy to fix - it just gripes me a little that they're no on by default. All in all, it just feels like a ugly childs toy when compared to my Windows favorite MUSHClient.

There's much much more than can be said when comparing any operating systems, but this is quite an important thing. That said, there in a huge choice of applications and I'm just looking at what appear to be some of the standard ones. Overall though, I am really enjoying myself and pleased that I'm finally giving linux a proper go.

2006-02-19T01:38:00.000Z

Well, update.

Tried getting my graphics working. First boot into SuSE was into init 3.. eep! Checked on other comp and deleated ATI*.rpm.. all cool :) - cept, no fancyness. Ok then, tried installing it again. Err.. fglrx suddenly sees ATI Radeon 9200*.. wow! Glxgears is 100 fps.. wth? Armagetron is 450.. sorta messed up.

Another suprise. No sound working (no mp3 anyway). Can listen to the test .ogg I ripped from like the worst CD ever.. that's it. Took 3 hours to sort that out, and now I leave it. Still have XP - that can be my gaming station :P

Anyhow, played 12 hours of ET today :o. Friend of the clan died, so was a memorial to her (wish you the best Patis). Now I'm getting drunk. Wish it was still a fun thing to do *sigh*

Ah well.. could be worse.. a lot worse.

I really wanna call it Susie.. 'I'll be right with you after I've played with Susie some..'

2006-02-19T01:34:00.000Z

Got a new computer at last. Real nice piece of kit as well. Not state of the art or anything near, but allows me to play ET at over 80 fps (compared to the 20 I was lucky to get in a corridor before :P). That about the most push I'll be putting on it right now ('til I finally get 'round to getting GTA:SA that is.. then everything changes :D).

So anyway, got XP up on it all fine. No probs there. Thought I'd give a real proper bash (pun intended ;)) at pissing about with linux proper. Have tinkered with Mandrake and Slackware before, but usually gone back to XP within a week. Got Mandrake back on it – sweet! Fired up Firefox.. ah wait – why aren't I connected? 6 hours later and it still doesn't recognize my modem. Alright then, next day I borrow friends router.. seemed to remember that working before. Well, it did work before :). Didn't now of course – to get the network card working with Mandrake I'd have to recompile the kernel. Yuk! Had enough trouble in the past just trying to get a decentish MUD client working.

Alrighty then – back to XP. Few hours later I decide to try out SuSE. Heard a lot of good things about it from a few people (and it seems that it'll support my card! Rock on!). Downloaded the bootup cd, got into install blah blah blah.. detected 'net connection, downloaded packages – whee! Was looking real sweet :). 3 hours and 2GB later, it paused installing. I waited and waited.. still trying the same package – status bar not moving. Left it an hour.. nothing. Blah, oh well, I thought and rebooted. Ah wait.. no login names. Urgh again! Tried recovering unfinished installations for hours.. no dice (not even furry ones :(). Right, you bastard!

Back to XP again. Downloaded all 5 cds (no DVD on this comp yet). Finished burning the last one 30 minutes before I had to leave for work. Great. Couldn't help myself so had a go at installing before work. Dum de dum de dum.. err.. wtf this cd doesn't work? It booted you up fine you &^%&! Anyhow.. whole day at work pissed off.. scowling at customers for messing up my shirts (work in clothes shop), sending people off in wrong directions when they ask for shit.. sorta normal for me really, but just a bit increased :)

Got home.. another few hours pissing about. Aha! Just a faulty cd (physical cd.. not the .iso). Sweetcakes! Oooo.. bootloader has penguins on it now! Just is the real stuff! Couple hours later and I'm on :D. Ah feck.. no music :( Another few hours and it's fixed (SuSE don't like mp3's all that much.. open source my ass.. least this closed source shit is easier :D). Whee!

Now though, no graphics card support. Got a Radeon 9250, which does pretty nicely in windows (see ET stuff at top :)). Linux (or maybe just SuSE – still learning :P) ain't ATI's best fan though and it's a bugger to try and install the driver. Tried my hand at it last night – bleh.. not working. FPS of 50 on 3 gears turning around.. you gotta be fecking kidding me!

So anyhow.. that's been my week pretty much.. cept for playing a lot of ET earlier in it :P. Trying to stay with it for a while though (big MUD fan and trying to get drivers/codebases I like running in windows is like dragging nails over.. a pile of wet mud?). Still got XP there though for ET ('til I can work out the ATI crap) (and GTA:VC :P) so can always poke back and jump about – though is real fun learning something new :) (also I'm on a 30GB per month bandwidth limit and MUDding is a lot easier on that than ET after all the downloading SuSE shit :P).