Anime Art Blog Cool Geek Life World Rant

May 17, 2003

Art  First and Second Law

Song of the Day is First and Second Law off the At the Drop of Another Hat album by Flanders and Swann:

The First law of Thermodynamics:
Heat is work and work is heat
Very Good.
The Second law of Thermodynamics:
Heat cannot of itself pass from one body to a hotter body
Heat won't pass from a cooler to a hotter
You can try it if you like but you'd far better not-a
'Cos the cold in the cooler will get hotter as a rule-a
'Cos the hotter body's heat will pass to the cooler

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:48 PM | Art | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Geek  Oo-glay? Eh-mipto!

And if anyone out there knows the origin of the expression "Oo-glay? Eh-mipto!", please contact me. Click where it says "Tell me", on the left. No, your left.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:30 PM | Geek | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Geek  public static void main, public

public static void main,
public static void main,
public static void main,
and typo was his name-o!

I hate Java. It was completely obvious that Java was a huge pile of dog poo the moment they showed the Java version of "Hello, world!":

class HelloWorld {
public static void main (String args[]) {
System.out.println("Hello World!");
}
}
In Python, the entire program is
print "Hello, World!"
Which is why I program in Python rather than Java.

If you need to interface with Java stuff, you need to take a look at Jython. It's Python, with all the requisite Python goodness, but it is written in, runs on, works with, and compiles to Java. And like all the good things in life that don't cost anything, it's free!

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:18 PM | Geek | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Geek  Sitemeter

Useful Web Thingy of the Day is Sitemeter. It tracks how many people are visiting your site and where they came from. And it's free. Scroll allll the way down to the bottom to see. I put it on the left originally, under the Blogger icon, but it's too big and screwed up my formatting. No matter, it works fine wherever it is.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:07 PM | Geek | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Blog  Friday Fishwrap

Blog of the Day is Friday Fishwrap:

I don't know why these made me laugh so hard.. I think it was the possum.
This refers, of course, to Teen Girl Squad over at HomeStarRunner.
Note that the obligatory adorable kittens have all found good homes, so you're too late!

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:02 PM | Blog | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Geek  Shiny Happy Disk Drives

Well, it's happened: Hard disks have broken through the historically significant* $2/GB barrier. The drive in question is a 120GB Maxtor, now retailing for $219. Last week it was $249; two weeks ago it was $269. That's pretty rapid deflation even for a product that's seen price per unit fall by a factor of 5000 since 1990.

So the only question is: How many? The sooner I get rid of the rest of those poxy Deathstars the better.

*I just made that up.

Update: The same supplier has Opteron processors and motherboards. A bit pricy for the home user, but dirt cheap if you need a 64-bit dual-processor server.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 03:05 AM | Geek | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Art  Deathstalker vs. Harry Potter

Dire as it was, Deathstalker and the Complete Lack of Plot was only slightly more boring than Harry Potter and the Extremely Slow-Moving Story, which somehow managed to score a 7.3 on IMDB. Now there's a movie that could do with a MiSTing. If you should feel the urge to watch either one, a few minutes of The Princess Bride is the recommended treatment.

May cause excessive quotations. Do not operate machinery if effected.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 02:37 AM | Art | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Cool  Oolong

Bunny With Things On His Head of the Day is Oolong.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 02:18 AM | Cool | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Blog  Remember James Lileks' Swing?

No, me neither. But Gnat seems to like it.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 01:41 AM | Blog | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 16, 2003

Art  Deathstalker And The Movie From Hell

Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell is one bad movie. Even with Mike and the robots it was barely watchable. Deathstalker 2 wasn't nearly as bad, though that was at least partly due to having Monique Gabrielle wandering around wearing not very much at all. A quick glance at IMDB shows Deathstalker 2 with a rating of 4.1 against Deathstalker and the Script from Hell at 2.0. Looks like 2 was the best of the bunch, in fact.

Godzilla vs. Megalon doesn't seem to be a whole lot better. Maybe I need to buy some popcorn to enjoy MST3K properly. Mmm, popcorn...

Posted by Pixy Misa at 03:40 PM | Art | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Life  Grey Rainyness

Another grey and rainy day for Sydney, but it's expected to clear up by Sunday. Which would be nice.

Just in case it does rain all weekend, I went out and bought Buffy seasons 5 and 6, Futurama season 2, and Babylon 5 season 1 on DVD. (Grace Bros is having a sale on DVD box sets, hence the sudden splurge.) It looks like I've already watched most of Futurama Season 2, but at least now I have a nice high-quality version which I actually paid for.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 02:49 PM | Life | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

World  A Tiger? In Africa?

Those struggling to distinguish the small alpine country in Europe from Australia were dealt a blow when a kangaroo was hit by a car and killed in central Austria.
Skippy! Noooo!!
A police officer in Steyr reached by phone said that coming across a kangaroo - dead or alive - was "extremely uncommon around here."
No kidding.

(source: Yahoo News via The Wall Street Journal)

Posted by Pixy Misa at 08:50 AM | World | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Anime  The End Of Guu

Episode 6 was sadly the last of Jungle wa Itsumo Hale nochi Guu Deluxe. I think there's a short special around somewhere, though. I'll have to see if I can dig it up.

And this quiz tells me I'm Hale, which is no great surprise.

You are Hale! You are a gamer and a very
sweet person, but your friends, family, and
your life are constantly causing you to stress
out. Hang in there, things will get better!

Which Jungle wa Itsumo Hale nochi Guu character are you?

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:57 AM | Anime | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Blog  Report From Planet IMAO

Frank J. over at IMAO discusses feminine hygiene and notes that any dead bloggers should redirect all their traffic to him. If I die, Frank, I'll make sure I do that.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:44 AM | Blog | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Blog  Time For Your Meds!

Blog of the Day is Time For Your Meds!:

Cameron Diaz performed my surgery. Well, at least after I got the IV of Versed, she did. And she did it topless, folks. It was quite a show. Everything went well (how could it not?), but it was not without mishaps.
Come for the kitties, stay for the awww, they're so cuuute rants.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 02:14 AM | Blog | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 15, 2003

Art  Obligatory Marx Brothers Reference File

Entry 1:

Hello, I must be going,
I cannot stay, I came to say, I must be going.
I'm glad I came, but just the same I must be going.
Hooray for Captain Zoidberg! [Spaulding! — Ed] Whatever! Hooray!

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:47 PM | Art | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

 Under The Lemon Tree

Comic of the Day is Under the Lemon Tree by Ralph E. Hayes, Jr. I'd really advise that you start from the beginning.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:40 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Cool  Buffy! Futurama!

Buffy Season 6 and Futurama Season 2 are out on DVD!

Also, yesterday marked one month of blogging. At least three people have read at least part of my blog, so clearly it's not all in vain.

I really do have work to do, and so I must be going.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 08:47 AM | Cool | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Art  Near Enough...

Rain, rain,
Rain, rain won't you help me
You know this day, isn't going to last for long;

Rain, rain,
Rain, rain won't you guide me
These arms, these legs, propel them to another day.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 08:42 AM | Art | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Cool  Adventures In Downloading

Another episode of Futurama an episode of MST3K (Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell), an episode of Buffy (season 7, episode 21, the final semi-final as it were) and the Azumanga Daioh movie have joined Jungle wa Itsumo Hale nochi Guu Deluxe episode 6 on my hard drive. All in all a good night's downloading. Some day soon I may have the opportunity to watch them. Now stop bothering me, I have work to do.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 08:38 AM | Cool | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Anime  More Guu

Jungle wa Itsumo Hale nochi Guu Deluxe Episode 6 is available now on BitTorrent. Which means that by tomorrow it will be on Kazaa, and by the weekend it will be everywhere.

Meanwhile, why not waddle on over to AnimeSuki for this and a huge amount of other anime goodness.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 01:33 AM | Anime | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Art  Everything You Know Is Wrong

Song of the Day is Everything You Know Is Wrong by Weird Al Yankovic:

Everything you know is wrong
Black is white, up is down and short is long
And everything you thought was just so
Important doesn't matter

Everything you know is wrong
Just forget the words and sing along
All you need to understand is
Everything you know is wrong

Weird Al's new album, Poodle Hat, is out on May 20th.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 01:11 AM | Art | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Blog  Gweilo Diaries

Blog of the Day is Gweilo Diaries:

Today we've got a possible North Korean plot, Chinese underwear soup and lots of gratutitous breasts.
He's wrong, of course. Breasts are never gratuitous.
gra·tu·i·tous Pronunciation Key (gr-t-ts, -ty-) adj.

1. Given or granted without return or recompense; unearned.
2. Given or received without cost or obligation; free.
3. Unnecessary or unwarranted; unjustified: gratuitous criticism.

Well, okay, I'm happy enough to accept definitions 1 or 2. But unncecessary, unwarranted or unjustified? Bah!

Posted by Pixy Misa at 12:56 AM | Blog | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Geek  Three Processors In Search Of A Buyer

Since I rejoined the workforce I've been thinking about upgrading my PCs. I have two main computers (plus a notebook), and they're both over two years old. They're 1.2GHz Athlons; one running WinXP (which is a whole 'nother story in itself) and the other running Linux (Red Hat 8).

Now, my rule of thumb is to upgrade a computer (assuming I have the money) when the replacement is (a) cheaper than the original and (b) at least twice as good. So, I should be looking for a 2.4GHz Athlon, right?

Small problem: there isn't one. There's a confusing gaggle of performance ratings, and if you're trying to work out how fast a particular Athlon might be, you have to know that the XP2400+ has a 266MHz bus and 256KB of level 2 cache, the XP2500+ has a 333MHz bus and 512KB of cache, but runs at a lower clock speed, and the XP2600+ apparently comes in two flavours, with a 256KB cache and either a 266MHz bus and a higher clockspeed or a 333MHz bus and a lower clockspeed. The XP2800+ has historically come in three different flavours, so very much caveat emptor.

Then there's Intel. I'd rather avoid Intel, not because their products are bad, but because they are evil. Not as evil as Microsoft, not nearly as evil as the RIAA, but clearly on the darkish-grey side of the line. But the Celerons are pretty cheap, and run at 2.4GHz, so...

Turns out Celerons pretty much suck. I'm not sure why, exactly; they have the P4 architecture, and the 400MHz Celeron bus is as fast as that found on any Athlon. Presumably part of the problem is the 128KB cache, but they should be good for something. But I benchmarked a 1.7GHz Celeron, and my tests showed that it was no faster, and often significantly slower, than my existing 1.2GHz Athlons. So, no joy there.

Finally, there's the P4. The shiny new 800MHz bus version is out. That huge bandwidth increase seems to offer only trivial performance increases, though, on the order of 3 to 5 per cent. On the other hand, they all have hyperthreading enabled, so it's sort of like getting a dual-processor system for free. On the other other hand, most of the time I'm only running one thing anyway.

So, what I've decided to do is blow all my money on beer and skittles. Or, since I don't drink beer or play skittles, keep it.

Except for the iPod. Still gotta getta iPod.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 12:49 AM | Geek | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Cool  Safety Dance

Looks like someone has found the St. Claire Safety Sign Builder.

Yup, looks like.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 12:03 AM | Cool | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 14, 2003

Life  I Think It's Raining Again

Water falling from the ceiling is a pretty good indicator of rain, isn't it?

Posted by Pixy Misa at 09:21 AM | Life | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Geek  Learning from Pain Experience

Windows XP is reinstalled. SP1 is reinstalled. Mozilla is back, complete with the mandatory Orbit 3+1 theme. Orbit makes Mozilla look so much snazzier, it's like a whole new snazzier version of Mozilla. All my email, bookmarks, address books and such are where they should be.

More importantly, my incomplete Kazaa downloads are restored in all their glorious incompleteness and busy crawling their way towards completion again.

Hooray!

Posted by Pixy Misa at 03:19 AM | Geek | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Blog  Flooded Lizard Kingdom

Blog of the Day (Hey, didn't we just do one of those? Yes, but it's after midnight now, and anyway, I like this one. Yeah, well, okay, but don't blame me if we all die horribly. How the heck could that happen? We're just recommending a Blog of the Day! Yeah, I'm just saying... Oh, are we still on?)

As I was saying, Blog of the Day is Flooded Lizard Kingdom presented by Princess Piewacket:

Me: "Mom, when you requested a decorative rain gutter spout that looks like a stone gargoyle for your suburban Houston house, you said you wanted the plain gargoyle or the dragon gargoyle. But you also said you wanted the long kind, and those only come in plain gargoyle and stupid-looking squirrels on a rock. So I got two plain gargoyles, figuring that then they would be twins and have a psychic link that they could use to communicate if invaders enter the yard."

Mom: "Good thinking."

Gargoyles! I always wanted to be a gargoyle!

Posted by Pixy Misa at 01:17 AM | Blog | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Geek  Format Format Format

Watch that Maxtor format.
Format format format
Hard drive!

Posted by Pixy Misa at 12:36 AM | Geek | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 13, 2003

Blog  The Puppy Pile

Blog of the Day is The Puppy Pile! ktpupp's just started and needs encouragement.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 09:01 PM | Blog | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Geek  Death Of A Deskstar

Scrik scrik scrik scrik

There's no more hated sound in all the world.

Scrik scrik scrik scrik

My file transfers all seem to have stalled.

Scrik scrik scrik scrik

I have a new 80 gig Maxtor; I'll do what I must.

Scrik scrik scrik scrik

Another IBM Deskstar has bitten the dust.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 08:52 PM | Geek | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Cool  Bad Astronomy

Web Site of the Day is Bad Astronomy.

In particular, check out the movie reviews. He pans The Core much more thoroughly than I did in the cinema while waiting for The Two Towers to start.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 05:24 AM | Cool | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Cool  The Mootrix?

What is the Mootrix?

Posted by Pixy Misa at 05:19 AM | Cool | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Cool  Badgers? Badgers? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Badgers!

And here I was hoping that I would turn out as a cat.

(via The Truth Laid Bear, who turned out to be a bear but I think he cheated, particularly since I'm back to being an Insignificant Microbe)

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Cool | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Cool  Shipping

Winning Bidder is responsible for all shipping costs, permits, cranes or any other equipment needed for loading and transporting, insuring the Property and all costs and risks associated with loading and transporting the Property. Car weighs approximately 40,000 lbs. Location: Fort Worth, TX. Pick up information will be provided to the winning bidder.
Oh well. Never mind then.

(via Slashdot of all places)

Posted by Pixy Misa at 02:17 AM | Cool | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 12, 2003

World  Mice? Mice? Don't Talk To Me About Mice!

From the You Can't Make This Stuff Up Department: Oklahoma City seizes 30,000 mice

Oklahoma City police succeeded in busting an illegal rodent farm but now authorities are faced with the problem of what to do with 30,000 white mice seized in the raid.
That is, I presume, as opposed to a legal rodent farm?
"We have completely emptied our truck port where the vehicles come in and have it totally filled with mice. We don't know what to do with them. They are sitting and waiting," Lira said.
Well, if they're only sitting and waiting, you don't have a problem. It's when they start - you know - that you have a problem.
"He told us he wanted out of the mouse business," Lira said.
Should've called Disney.

(Yeah, yeah, via Dave Barry)

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:42 AM | World | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Cool  Safety And Water Rockets

Site of the Day is Water Rockets. Whoooosh!

Cool Toy of the Day is the Safety Sign Builder (requires Adobe Acrobat).

(Both, unless I'm losing my marbles, which is entirely possible, via Dave Barry)

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:34 AM | Cool | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Blog  Mean Mr Mustard Sleeps In The Park

Blog of the Day is Mean Mr. Mustard who is in his own words "lazy as a comatose sloth on Thorazine". Good thing blogging doesn't require strenuous physical activity, then.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:08 AM | Blog | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Art  As If!

Web Comic of the Day has to be As If! The link takes you to a lovely pink-and-blue portal page, from which you can jump straight to the latest strip or go to the archives to see older stuff.

All of the strips from day one are online, or you can download them as zip files to read at your leisure.

What's it like? It's like, well, cool. And stuff. Just read it, willya?

Posted by Pixy Misa at 02:48 AM | Art | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Blog  Mooveable Tripe

I'm tinkering with Moveable Type but right now that blog is even uglier than this one. When I get it up and running, you'll be the second to know.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 02:43 AM | Blog | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Blog  I'm A Worm, I'm A Worm, I'm A Wiggly Worm!

All of a sudden I'm a wiggly worm. Not, as it turns out, because anyone reads my blog, but because I was indexed by the automatic indexer at blo.gs. Alas. But I'll enjoy my wormhood while it lasts, which is not likely to be long.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 01:04 AM | Blog | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 11, 2003

Blog  Kids these days!

The Defective Yeti is on the receiving end of the blissful ignorance of youth.

Meanwhile, The Ghost of a Flea is on a roll, and points us to - among other things - the Cheeky Girls. I'm not sure if I'll forgive him for that.

Oh, and Cold Fury fisks a sandwich. (You Instapundit [no link] readers will have seen this already, which just shows that you should have come here first! Or something.)

He should have done what I do: Take an Aussie Snacks Roast Chicken Roll (which consists of - get this - roast chicken, on a roll) and add some mozarella cheese. Two minutes in the microwave and you have piping hot mouth-watering cheesy chickeny rolly goodness. Yay!

Posted by Pixy Misa at 06:42 PM | Blog | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Cool  Perpetual Commotion

Site of the day is The Museum of Unworkable Devices:

This museum is a celebration of fascinating devices that don't work. It houses diverse examples of the perverse genius of inventors who refused to let their thinking be intimidated by the laws of nature, remaining optimistic in the face of repeated failures.
Now also available in Portugese.

When you've finished boggling at the perpetual motion machines, wander over to Donald Simanek's site for further scientific entertainment.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 05:15 AM | Cool | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Cool  Futuramarama

I've grabbed all the Futurama I could get my hands on, so now I'm downloading Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (MST3K to its fans). Which I have never seen. I don't know if it's ever been shown in Australia.

Hooray for Zoidberg! [Broadband — Ed.] Broadband! Hooray!

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:47 AM | Cool | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Blog  Amateur Hour

Blog of the day is Amateur Hour, if for no other reason than introducing me to the amazing collection of nifty Flash games at Orisinal. Amateur Hour has some interesting points to make on media and communication and stuff like that too, so give it a read when you get tired of eating flies.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 01:14 AM | Blog | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Blogroll
Instapundit
Tim Blair
IMAO
The Bleat
USS Clueless
Little Green Footballs
International Squirrel Conspiracy
Blogs of the Day
Tiger: Raggin' & Rantin'
Collinization
Geographica
Rob's Still in Japan
Professor Bunyip
Eject! Eject! Eject!
Suburban Blight
Practical Penumbra
Friday Fishwrap
Time For Your Meds!
Gweilo Diaries
Flooded Lizard Kingdom
The Puppy Pile
Mean Mr. Mustard
Amateur Hour
Motley Cow
Category Archives
Anime and Cartoons
Art, Books, Films, Music
Blogs And Blogging
Cool Stuff
Geek Stuff
My Life, Such As It Is
The World
Rants
Cute Kitties
Sitemeter