Wednesday, April 12, 2006

The Geek.

I have a bottle of Coke on my desk. It was at that moment when I looked at it that I realised, Yes I truely am a Geek.

No wait... I did a second take... Bloody hell.. Its friggen Diet Coke!!!

In cyberspace everyone can read your RSS feed.

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Sunday, April 09, 2006

Ruby... I shall smite thee!

What better way to reuse an old computer than to install linux on it and learn ruby. Well, jaikoo suggested installing Ubuntu Linux because it would be the easiest way to install Ruby on Rails. What he failed to mention is that my stool samples have better documentation than Ubuntu.

My first troubles started before I even started installing Ubuntu. The old pc has 2 hard drives in it. After doing some maintenance of moving all the stuff (read crap) I wanted to keep to the second drive I prompting disconnected it to make sure I don't have any accidents. BANG. The system would no longer boot from the drive with the OS installed. I had to reconnect the 2nd drive to get it to boot. Weird shit.

Ubuntu. BANG. There are 2 CD images available for it. A standard one and a live one. Now for some weird reason I could find nowhere on their web site the difference between the two. Fortunately it installs easy.

Ruby. BANG. There are only binaries for Windows and Macs. It would seem the source code will have to smell okay. BANG. Ubuntu does NOT install with a compiler but easily fixed. Ruby Gems. BANG. Missing zlib errors. Google is your friend. zlib fixed.

Continue following the rest of an installation tutorial. How hard can it be to cut and paste? BANG. Still at the end of it I did not have a working demo web application. I had errors. Log files are helpful. Read them. It turns out that the permissions on a directory needed changing and its all happy now. Why that couldn't have been mentioned in the tutorial I don't know. And why did it work for the countless millions before me I don't know either.

Ruby. I smite thee!

Apparently the tutorial should only take 20minutes. My time - ~5 hours. Still with it working I can now learn Ruby in the off moments when I'm not doing Java.

In the UK Ruby programmers are scarce. And that scarcity makes them a highly prized commodity. There just isn't enough of them to go around. I don't think Australia is there yet for Ruby jobs but hopefully it will be in by the time I'm good at it!!! Jaikoo.. when you coming down under again?

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Saturday, April 08, 2006

World's oldest profession

It's said that the world's oldest profession is prostitution... but an article from the BBC might suggest otherwise. Teeth found by researchers in graveyard from 9000 years ago show clear signs that they have been drilled - probably by flint drills. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't flint the same stone they use for making sparks in lighters?

Can you imagine Neoanderthal-Denzil stumbling out of the pub to the Dentist: Doc I've got a toothache can you drill it out *hic*. And then KABOOM as the sparks ignite the alcohol on my breath. hahaha.

I'm just glad I don't have a headache because other research in the UK have uncovered skulls that have been cut open for relief. The practice was believed to release evil spirits. Thank God for aspirin!! What is really interesting is that the skill that it was done with wasn't bettered until 1000 years later by Classical Greek and Roman times!

And as fate would have it, other archaeological digs in North Yorkshire, UK have found the remains of a Roman transvestite. It is said that the find demonstrates how cosmopolition the North of England was at the time. I say they should look at some parts of modern London!!

Other controversies during the week suggest that Judas did not betray Jesus but was acting on his orders. I doubt that the Catholics will welcome that theory with open arms.

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Sunday, April 02, 2006

Its cute. Its pink. Its BarbieOS!

Oh Gawd... Something in me just cringes when I read this. [ 1st April ]

Mattel is releasing a beta copies for BarbieOS, based upon Linux. Think all the benefits of an open source OS (as opposed to Microsoft Windows) but cuti-fied... it "features pink text on a flowered background so as to not intimidate or threaten females, and all windows are circular instead of the usual square, since most females unconsciously associate a circular shape with inclusiveness and the womb"


Arggh!! Why do I keep getting caught by April Fool jokes?? I wasn't expecting hoaxes on the 2nd of April... that's timezones for ya!!!
Other April Fool hoaxes can be found here



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