f-log

just another web log
31 Aug 2002 18:24 -- seti : 1622 -- dnet : 77,349
I though the laptop had blown up, it powered on but not display !!
I used the OFF system button which brings up a BIOS "are you sure" message (so the screen was working then) and noticed that just as the screen appear (and also when I canceled it) there was a list of text much like Linux booting.
Appears I hibanated Linux powering down :( but a CTRL+ALT+DEL later and here we are.
openssl took literally hours to compile and then openssh kept giving me this
"Privilege separation user sshd does not exist "
which is odd as it is supposed to work "Out of the box" !
Using http://www.google.com I found the following fix
./configure \
--prefix=/usr \
--sysconfdir=/etc/ssh \
--with-pid-dir=/var/run \
--libexecdir=/usr/lib/ssh \
--with-pam \
--with-tcp-wrappers \
--with-ipv4-default \
--with-lastlog \
--with-privsep-user=nobody \
--with-privsep-path=/var/sshd
but being lazy only used
./configure --with-privsep-user=nobody
and that worked just fine (with a following make and make install)
well not too fine, the executable in the source DIR works but it has not been install properly. Maybe I should try this again ;)
I finished reading "Counting Sheep" by Paul Martin, which was a non fiction book title looking at all aspects of sleep, including history, dreams, disorders and much much more.
One of those 'life' manuals everyone should read, I think I will re-read it in tens years time.
Interestingly its replacement for 'on train' entertainment was taken up by my brain, I scribbled away a number journeys before tiring.
Today it was the turn of the game boy advanced (with afterburner) running "Broken Sword", which has supposedly won lots of acclaim on other formats. I am finding it as dry as any other click and point adventure game, although some of the humor is very ... well, humorous.
But I appear to be stuck ever move I make gets me a "Game Over" screen, do I cheat and check the net knowing I may just end up following another "walk through" step by step, or stick at it and risk getting bored trying to find the one sequence of events that gets me to the next stage ?
Must try out the "Hanagumi Taisen Columns 2" Dreamcast before we move :)
http://www.boob.co.uk/tutorials/guide.html - Dreamcast programming resource list, a must !!

25 Aug 2002 20:48 -- seti : 1590 -- dnet : 74,259
It has been a nice slow cool day so I got to do some sys admini stuff.
Started off with trying to get http://www.openssh.org for windows to work, to find it can not be installed on a system with Cygwin !!
So instead I got filezilla from http://www.sourceforge.net which comes with a free FTP server running on my laptop for easy file transfers.
I already use their excellent FTP client (also free) and downloaded putty ssh client for windows to find no server on the Linux machine.
Got the latest build of openssh and using old fashioned floppies copied it to the Linux machine, found it needed http://www.gzip.org/zlib so got that as well.
But obviously that is not enough so I also downloaded http://www.openssl.org.
I also watched Tim Burtons Planet of The Apes DVD (not mine), very much a 'hit and run' film, fast and furious and obviously for the American market :p
First off this is not an accurate remake of the classic films, nooooo, the planet is not even earth which sort of leaves a lot to be said.
One of the really impressive components of the classic POtA films was the interest in the evolution of society and religion and how in turn it bent and folded its followers.
This incarnation is flat and uninterested in offering anything to think about, the large amount of extras also amount to nothing when the content is so ineffectual.
So many plot floors so little time! for instance when the lead crashes he is wearing a space suit but it appears to not be air tight ! and where does earth appear from at the end ?!
Oh and one last rant, the trailers on the DVD note that the ending twist is better than the original, laugh? I almost died ! the ending could have been thought up by a five year old !
Enough of that, the openssl is two meg and will not fit on a floppy, shall I waste a CD ?
Oh and I started watching the last DVD I bought (about five weeks ago) Macross Plus box set.
The box set contains three DVDs in two boxes, two for the series (although it would have fitted on ONE!) and one for Macross Plus the Movie.
So, I took out the DVD labeled Series parts 1 and 2 to find, first of all it will not play or even be recognized as a DVD then after making sure the Part 3 and 4 DVD worked I find that the DVD is in fact parts 3 and four, hmmmm.
Whip it out and try the 3 and 4 labeled DVD again and find it is the Movie !!
Movie DVD is in fact (you guessed it) the parts 1 and 2 !!
This either means I have an extremely rare run of the box set (worth loads of money) or (more likely) the Manga guys really screwed up and everyone got a bad run !!!
Talking about DVDs I watch the extras disk on Big Trouble in Little China and was not impressed, though I have to say a lot of work obviously went into the research and building of extra footage. But I liked the main film so I will not complain.
My motto is "If in doubt, cheat!", an especially good motto if you are a coder :D
AND as such I may try the ultimate sin and write a VB program that will control the webcam (Kensington) software as if an operator was at the helm !!
Oh and I have changed all my windows sounds to messages spoken by a Text to speech engine (demo from the web), cool but may annoy the hell out of me :)
Thinking of web cams it maybe time to pull a classic trick program out of retirement to capture the fun of the webcam at work ;)
I will update you on the whole SSH thing 2morrow !
http://www.sportslore.com/laughs/laugh6.htm#cont - disk ripping even more famous than before !!
http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/cgi-bin/ttsdemo - text to speech fun
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ - windows ssh client
http://www.computergear.com/1054.html - i need an account here !!
http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla - free FTP client AND server !!

20 Aug 2002 19:49 -- seti : 1572 -- dnet : 73,520
Its hot again, far to hot my setup !
I tried to replay Halo in Legendary mode but the word slaughter is not strong enough, plus the heat was putting me off.
Where we are looking to move to does not appear to have broadband :(
I have suddenly realized I have not yet tried, let alone used my Dreamcast coders cable.
Even if I do not do anything great I should at least test it works !!
I wonder if the win GCC tree can take DC development ?
I am currently reading a non-fiction book Counting Sheep (after reading Steven Kings Dreamcatcher and firestarter) and although very interesting, I find myself awake thinking about how to sleep :(
http://www.whois.co.uk/ - try and find my name :)
http://www.whois.net/searchD.cgi2?str=coke&query_type=any&as=1&last_str=cola&page=0&.cgifields=query_type - this just an example, see what other trademarks are under threat
http://www.worldtime.org/cgi-bin/wt.cgi - nice world time/map thingy

13 Aug 2002 22:11 -- seti : 1540 -- dnet : 74,013
<Buurrrrrp!>

12 Aug 2002 20:53 -- seti : 1535 -- dnet : 73,222
i have been ill all day so not much to say.
Finished watching Metropolis yesterday and the extras, forgot to mention last time, Metropolis is nothing to do with the classic B&W sifi (well except it is based in the future and some other stuff).
Takes a long time to end, I wonder if people keep try to leave the cinema? But its not a bad film, recommend it to anyone who likes powerful movies.
One thing I did not like so much was the constant saxophone tones making it sound like New Orleans, although supposedly this was the desired effect (see interviews on second disk).
Did watch Big Trouble in Little China twice. First time I watch (or just heard) the DVD film with the directors/Actors commentary, fine if you can do something else, could not have watched it otherwise.
Twain looks bad, download a free twain SDK from http://www.dosadi.com which works but, the demo examples fail if the camera GUI is not shown, so it is only if EVERYTHING the camera GUI does is reproducible :(
http://www.dosadi.com/index.htm - mark twain , i do not think so !

11 Aug 2002 14:09 -- seti : 1529 -- dnet : 72,525
We are looking for a new house at the moment so that is taking up a lot of time, I just hope I still have broadband !!
For some reason my pop3 mail does not work unless I restart the firewall (well drop all the chains and rescript them), which is odd, especially as the windoze machine takes twice as long to boot :(
Saw Geobreeders anime DVD, I can not understand the choice in name but the series was very cool, must get the next DVD release.
Although the plot is odd (to the MAX), with phantom cats that can turn into people and leasise with any computer program trying to take over the world.
But wait it gets weirder, the only way to stop the cats is to use electronic talismans and press [delete] on a connected computer terminal !!
Apart from the madness there is some really good characters and a healthy mix of humor, romance and random violence :)
The DVD had a great selection of PC extras as well as the normal multi languages(I watched in Japanese with subs) and trailers of forthcoming attractions. Slide shows, story boards, scripts and links to the main anime sites.
I also started watching the Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis DVD. A very strange mix of Disney, Tintin, Anime and CGI bizarre is not a strong enough word.
I have not seen it all yet but it has a certain eye candy quality that is very compelling, the main characters look like Astro Boy, the detectives out of Tintin and I can not place the lead female. I will let you know my verdict once I have seen the rest.
The web cam server is working fine, but the camera still turns its self off after 3-4 hours :(
Looks like I will need to write my own twain server, but will that be enough ??
http://www.vgmusic.com/updates/ - video game music archive
http://www.mythen.ch/w.randelshofer/ - anyone you can write an IIF Java Animation view deserves a link !
http://www.w3.org/ - the big three double ewes !!
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~atman/spam/adblock.shtml - death to ads !!
http://www.geocities.com/kojima_uk/ - anime gaming images

7 Aug 2002 22:01 -- seti : 1510 -- dnet : 70,977
Still no webcam but I think it maybe running out of memory and that is why it turns off.
I have written in a memory statistic dump option so I can prove/dis prove this theory.
I also investigated writing my own Twain server, could be fun !!
Tried to watch a pirate DVD of minority report, had a perfect box/inlay and the CD looked totally legit.
It booted up with the scene selection menus and then it was the same as any other hand recorded VHS dodgy copy, unwatchable, I honestly thought it was out in the states and someone had imported but it looks like 100% fake as the US still have not released the DVD.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/ - good stuff all the time
http://www.tiqit.com/mpc/mpc.html - need one of these, or maybe two !!
http://www.toysnjoys.com/mcfarlanetoys.html - I have the Kaneda bike set !
http://the.animearchive.org/index2.html - The Ultimate Animanga Archive and it is !
http://www.inwap.com/mf/reboot/index.html - reboot reboot reboot
http://www.upyourstreet.co.uk/compare.php3?printer=&old_radio=NA&location1=cippenham&radio=NA&location2=another+postcode&series%5B0%5D=Hpr%3A4%3ALOCS&series%5B1%5D=Gcs%3A0%3ALOCS&series%5B2%5D=Gcs%3A1%3ALOCS&series%5B3%5D=Gcs%3A2%3ALOCS - I live here at the moment
http://buypower.vauxhall.co.uk/trafficnet/ - realtime traffic net data via flash, i think this was a hidden url ;)

5 Aug 2002 22:11 -- seti : 1497 -- dnet : 68,453
How is the webcam? dead, it turns off after 2 hours or so :(
but luckily I found this little beauty
http://www.geocities.com/trypt0/videocamsupport.html

4 Aug 2002 20:57 -- seti : 1497 -- dnet : 68,453
No URLs just a note that I should have a live webcam soon.
Well I have a webcam it just not live yet ;)

4 Aug 2002 12:15 -- seti : 1495 -- dnet : 68,453
I just want to emphasize the Steel Angel Kurumi ROCKS and everyone should watch it !!
And make sure you watch the extended previews to understand all the comments made at the beginning of each episode.
I have gone through the rest of my Dreamcast Games;
-Tomb Raider Chronicles - Nothing in English in the game, with no way of changing language (odd) and I found no compulsion to play it for more than 5 mins :(
-Giga Wing - Unbelievable shoot em-up but the sprites were to big on the screen and it made it difficult to do anything, stretched to 10 mins cos there was some good music (did not last)
-Gunbird 2 - Non - VGA, see my list at the end of all DC games that are non VGA
-Charge N Blast - Unplayable controls and boring to boot :(
-Tech Romancer - Best of this bunch, very similar to VOOT on the Saturn, but not enough combat moves and becomes boring easily, may be more fun two player, Sarah is not interested :(
-Tee Off - a golf game that .. is not VGA compatible !!
So, out of the 10 games were any worth having ?
Hmmm, its a tough choice because if I had seen any of them as cheap I would have bought them just to complete my collection, it is a pity that three were not VGA compatible !!
This VGA compatible thing I keep going on about is lazy programmers not putting in tiny bits of code that would make there games work on a computer monitor and instead ONLY work on a TV.
I have 42 Dreamcast games and 6 do not have the code to be VGA compatible, sad really.
I got my demon email to work without dialup anymore, thanks GMW and it sends email via my broadband ISP, cool !
I am seriously giving thought to using the other ISPs web-space to link to pictures, it just finding all the documentation and then setting it up, but it could be fun.
http://www.snpp.com/guides/ql.html - THE Simpsons Archive, everything and more
http://www.simulation-argument.com/ - Are You Living In a Computer Simulation ?
http://www.speed-trap.co.uk/index.html - UK speed trap bible (*)
http://www.jonathonrobinson.com/3.0/web/webtsos.html - bizarre Flash music video
http://www.theultimates.com/email/ - is it THE ULTIMATE E MAIL DIRECTORY
http://www.xe.net/ucc/ - The Universal Currency Converter

3 Aug 2002 21:36 -- seti : 1492 -- dnet : 67,435
I had to drag myself through Mini Goddess (Belandandy files) as it was not fun clear or even interesting but Steel Angel Kurumi is the complete opposite.
A very modern anime, featuring very clear, crisp visuals and some sneaky CGI sequences that look hand drawn.
It reminded me of Tenchi-Muyo and Urusei Yatsura (two of my favorite Anime series) and contained the same entertaining reluctant hero type characters in fanciful comedic situations.
The DVD had six of the first episodes and loads of extras including a behind the scenes documentary Chatting with the angels, which was entertaining because it was all about the US voice actors.
They showed examples from the series and it was quite horrorfying to find they had been VERY unfaithful to the script (I watched in Japanese with subtitles).
If no Japanese version had been available I wonder if I would have enjoyed this show so much.
It was 90 mins long and now I desperately want the next six !!
It is AGAIN to hot to think so here are some more URLs, remember I ensure they work before posting them here !!
http://www.bmacleod.com/selectgallery.html - Some very different CGI images created with Bryce
http://www.darwinawards.com/ - Humans are soooo stupid
http://rigby-jones.net/ericschwartz/ - Unofficial Eric Schwartz site, expert cartoonist from the Amiga age, RESPECT !
http://neurosis.mit.edu/foo/ - Send message to people in the toilet
http://www.latech.edu/~acm/HelloWorld.shtml - Lots of computer languages, lots
http://www.unmuseum.org/unmain.htm - Museum of Unnatural Mystery, need I say more?
http://www.telebugs.tk/ - not up at the mo, but there is hope :(

1 Aug 2002 22:20 -- seti : 1484 -- dnet : 67,335
Finally down to 24 degrees, maybe I will get some sleep !!
I have now completed all the XBox games I own, Halo, Wreckless and Munch's Oddysee, now what ??


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