William Goodall's Blog http://blog.williamgoodall.name Occasional mutterings Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:08:01 +0000 en hourly 1 Inception http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/23/inception/ http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/23/inception/#comments Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:08:01 +0000 William_T_Goodall http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/23/inception/ Went to see Inception today. It was quite good but I must have missed something (I was a bit tired) as it seemed quite straightforward to me.

]]> http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/23/inception/feed/ 0 Apple Is the New Microsoft, Part 2 http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/21/apple-is-the-new-microsoft-part-2/ http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/21/apple-is-the-new-microsoft-part-2/#comments Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:36:11 +0000 William_T_Goodall http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/21/apple-is-the-new-microsoft-part-2/

Apple surpassed Microsoft two months ago as the world’s most highly valued tech company, and is now challenging the Redmond giant on another key metric: In a blowout third quarter, AAPL posted record revenue of $15.7 billion, which should be close to or exceed what Microsoft reports Thursday. [From Apple Is the New Microsoft, Part 2]

That would be two out of three. How long until Apple overtakes Microsoft on profit too?

Later

Next quarter then :-)

]]> http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/21/apple-is-the-new-microsoft-part-2/feed/ 0 Misfits http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/19/misfits/ http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/19/misfits/#comments Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:31:43 +0000 William_T_Goodall http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/19/misfits/ Enjoying Misfits season 1 on Saturday. Missed it the first time round because I never heard of it. The DVD for the 2nd season is due out in December which means it will be on TV soon. Not long to wait after catching up with the first season.

]]> http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/19/misfits/feed/ 0 I write like David Foster Wallace http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/16/i-write-like-david-foster-wallace/ http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/16/i-write-like-david-foster-wallace/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:47:06 +0000 William_T_Goodall http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/16/i-write-like-david-foster-wallace/ Flattering if it were true :-)

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

]]> http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/16/i-write-like-david-foster-wallace/feed/ 0 Predators http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/14/predators/ http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/14/predators/#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:36:30 +0000 William_T_Goodall http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/14/predators/ Went to see Predators today. I found it a bit tedious which was disappointing. The digital projection was nice and sharp although it did make me think it was just like watching on a very big HD TV with a surround sound system. Which I have at home. And I can pause that to go to the toilet. And there is nobody chattering or texting on a cellphone or kicking the back of my chair.

]]> http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/14/predators/feed/ 0 The Girl Who Played With Fire http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/06/the-girl-who-played-with-fire/ http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/06/the-girl-who-played-with-fire/#comments Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:56:56 +0000 William_T_Goodall http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/06/the-girl-who-played-with-fire/ I see the UK release of the movie, the second in the trilogy, has moved two weeks earlier to 27 August from 10 September. So that’s nice :-) I guess the third part will now be released earlier too.

]]> http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/06/the-girl-who-played-with-fire/feed/ 0 D-Link DNS-323 http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/03/d-link-dns-323/ http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/03/d-link-dns-323/#comments Sat, 03 Jul 2010 12:57:08 +0000 William_T_Goodall http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/03/d-link-dns-323/ The box containing the DNS-323 and the cheapest compatible drive I could find (which was a 500GB) arrives and is unpacked.

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NAS and HD in boxes.

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Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB.

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Eco-friendly cardboard packaging on the DNS-323.

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It is even smaller than I expected.

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Cables, power brick.

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It seems quite nicely made.

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Side by side with HD before installation.

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Another view.

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Rear view.

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Front cover just slides off to slide in drive(s)

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Assembled and hacked in short order. Got lighthttpd mySQL and PHP running. Just a bit of tweaking and hardening and then I’ll find a place to tuck it away out of sight and save some desk space :-)

Later

Tucked away in the home theatre cabinet with other fan-bearing gadgets.

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]]> http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/07/03/d-link-dns-323/feed/ 0 Dead Server part ii http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/06/29/dead-server-part-ii/ http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/06/29/dead-server-part-ii/#comments Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:10:21 +0000 William_T_Goodall http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/06/29/dead-server-part-ii/ I ordered a D-Link DNS-323 NAS on Amazon for under a £100 with the cheapest supported HD I could find without looking for too long which was a Western Digital Caviar 500GB for £36. Should arrive Thursday and once I’ve hacked it will have a web server, PHP, MySQL and such on it and will serve.

]]> http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/06/29/dead-server-part-ii/feed/ 0 Dead Server http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/06/26/dead-server/ http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/06/26/dead-server/#comments Sat, 26 Jun 2010 13:55:47 +0000 William_T_Goodall http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/06/26/dead-server/ The ancient G3/350 “Kihei” iMac from 2000 I was using as a server on my home network expired sometime in the last week. I don’t know when because my network monitoring software, which emails me when there are faults, was running on it :-) It also ran a cron job to send some automated email reminders to places, and hosted some bits and bobs of DAMP web pagery I had experimented with over the years. And a chatroom that seldom saw much use that I hosted for a moribund mailing list I’ve been on for many years.

I’d upgraded the HD and RAM on the iMac but I’m not going to try fixing a power supply or whatever it was let out the magic smoke.

I’m thinking about what to replace it with. A Sheevaplug or hacked NAS type solution for less than £100 would be good.

]]> http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/06/26/dead-server/feed/ 0 SKY HD reboot part 2 http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/06/25/sky-hd-reboot-part-2/ http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/06/25/sky-hd-reboot-part-2/#comments Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:39:34 +0000 William_T_Goodall http://blog.williamgoodall.name/2010/06/25/sky-hd-reboot-part-2/ Previously.

The mechanical timer did the job but was a bit too noisy.

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So I replaced it with this.

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I shall find out tomorrow if I managed to program it correctly :-)

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