The occasional scrivener

One day left

Just one day left at work before vacation. w00t!

Posted at 21:38, in the alt category. Comments [0]
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Gack

After our bath, I found that the bathroom drain was blocked. Not pleasant to fix.

Posted at 21:49, in the alt category. Comments [0]
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Links for 2005-06-20

• Accelerando! Tags: creative-commons ebook s-f.

Grabbed from my del.icio.us links.

Posted at 17:05, in the links category. Comments [0]
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Links for 2005-06-09

• The Tao of Mac - VNC — VNC hacks and tricks from Rui. Tags: hacks vnc.
• If You Don’t Believe in DRM, It Can’t Hurt You Tags: drm politics.

Grabbed from my del.icio.us links.

Posted at 21:41, in the links category. Comments [0]
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Links for 2005-06-05

• XML Alternatives Tags: devel markup programming xml.

Grabbed from my del.icio.us links.

Posted at 16:05, in the links category. Comments [0]
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Distractions

Two brightly shining candles in the general gloom: Star Wars Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy and Star Trek: The New Generation. Some kind soul has provided the latter as umpteen DVD images on The Pirate Bay, and another even kinder soul has downloaded them and provided my with the discs. I’m now nearing the end of the first season.

I had a little trouble enabling lightsaber dismemberment in Jedi Academy. In the previous game in the series, Jedi Outcast, there was a simple console cheat which made slicing stormtroopers into salami possible. This option is gone in JA, maybe to preserve LucasArts’ squeecky clean image. But you can still enable it by following the instructions below (%install% refers to where the game is installed, on my system it’s c:\Program Files\LucasArts\Star Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy).

1. Open the %install%\GameData\base\jaconfig.cfg file in a text editor

2. Enter the following lines ( or replace them if they exist ):

   • seta g_saberMoreRealistic “99”
   • seta g_saberEntMarks “99”
   • seta g_dismemberment “99”

3. Save the file

I have a autoexec.cfg file in the same directory containing the line helpusobi 1, the cheat mode enabler in JO. I don’t know if it’s necessary, though.

Another cool option seems to be g_saberpickupabledroppedsabers 1, which is supposed to give you the ability to pick up other lightsabers. Haven’t had time to test it yet though. Update: doesn’t seem to work.

Updated on Tuesday, 2005-06-05. Posted at 12:54, in the alt category. Comments [0]
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The French and Dutch No

I agree with Frank. The Dutch and French No’s are a symptom of what’s wrong with the European project: a feeling that it’s an elitist project, a plaything for (ironically) Gallic and Teutonic empire builders in Brussels. The EU seems incapable of explaining to its citizens what it is for.

Update: I read The Economist’s analysis of the French debate — published before the referendum — and heard some more about the Dutch premises on the radio. Predicably, the vote was not really about the EU per se, but rather on the internal political situation in those countries.

The French debate had three parts: worry about the dilution of French influence abroad now that EU has been expanded to 25 members, many of them pro-American; concerns about the economy and the erosion of a “social” Europe; and anger at the political elite, who have too often used “Brussels” as an excuse to push through reforms that they consider necessary, but which were unpopular at home.

Updated on Tuesday, 2005-06-05. Posted at 12:53, in the alt » politics category. Comments [0]
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Hiatus

Well, I seem to have fallen into a blogging hiatus. No one care, no one, I know, but I still feel a bit stressed that I’ve only posted 9 entries in May.

Things that I’d like to write about, simply to get them off my chest, are off-limits. They concern work, which I try to avoid kvetching about in public, and the concern the situation at home, which is more or less grim but also rather private. So I’m reduced to book “reviews”, and I can’t even find something good to write there either.

I’m really looking forward to vacation…

PS this blog needs a redesign… again.

Posted at 01:21, in the comm » weblog category. Comments [0]
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Morse texter

Russ: morse texter. Old skool.

Posted at 01:11, in the comm » mobile category. Comments [0]
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Mundane SF

WTF?

Posted at 23:03, in the books category. Comments [0]
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The Sword of Honour Trilogy by Evelyn Waugh

• Men at Arms
• Officers and Gentlemen
• Unconditional Surrender

Based on Waugh’s own experiences in World War 2, this is a funny — and grim — trilogy about the death of Honour and the birth of the base modern age.

Posted at 22:50, in the books » read category. Comments [0]
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It was twenty-eight years ago today…

Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released June 1, 1967.

Posted at 22:48, in the alt category. Comments [0]
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Reading list

Reading

• Charles Stross, The Atrocity Archives
• Steve McConnell, Code Complete

Shelf

• Ken MacLeod, Learning the World
• John Ajvide Lindqvist, Låt den rätte komma in
• Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

To be returned

• Philip José Farmer, The Other Log of Phileas Fogg (loan from Micke)
• Richard Morgan, Woken Furies (due 2006-08-08)

Queue

• David Allen, Getting Things Done
• Douglas Coupland, JPod
• Graham Hancock, The Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige and Corruption of the International Aid Business
• Harry Harrison, The Deathworld: Omnibus (recommended by Chris Davies)
• David Keck, In the Eye of Heaven (recommended in an interview with Steven Erikson)
• Ryszard Kapuscinski, The Emperor
• William Langewiesche, The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime (reviewed in NYRB, August 12, 2024)
• Michael Maren, The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity
• David Marusek, Counting Heads (due to this blurb)
• Ewen Montagu, The Man who never was
• Richard Morgan, Broken Angels
• Richard Morgan, Woken Furies
• Ted Morgan, Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America (reviewed in NYRB, vol. LI, no. 2)
• Jonathan Raban, Coasting
• Ola Ringdahl, Kapstaden till Nordkap på 333 dagar
• N.A.M. Rodger, The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815
• N.A.M. Rodger, The Wooden World
• Nick Sagan, Idlewild
• Arkadij Vaksberg, Skjut de galna hundarna!
• Vernor Vinge, Rainbows End

Updated on Monday, 2006-06-26. Posted at 21:55, in the books category. Comments [0]
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Links for 2005-06-01

• Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy - dismemberment — follow the instructions at the bottom to get saber-slicing goodness!. Tags: games gore jedi-academy jedi-knight mature mods star-wars violence.

Grabbed from my del.icio.us links.

Posted at 16:16, in the links category. Comments [0]
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