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Author: Richy B.

Follow me on Mastodon at @rbairwell@mastodon.org.uk or just the posts on this blog by following @richyb@blog.rac.me.uk .

Snippet: Boxy, Boxy, Boxy.

June 23, 2003
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Yesss, it seems that Zaphod (my old PC: now equipped with a working fan and a 120Gb hard drive) is now running Debian Linux successfully (well, it’s just downloading the security updates as I type). Why the cheer? Well, yesterday’s installation didn’t quite work so I offer this advice: Despite what the Debian website suggests, ignore the net-install and jigdo installs and download a complete CD image from your local mirror. I just did and it was plain sailing!

Now I’ve just got to be sure I want to purchase a RedHat Linux webserver: the reason I’m installing Debian is so my server and a home/office machine is running the same OS, but there’s a chance I’m swapping the main Beebware webserver from Debian to RedHat (as I can get a cheaper hosting package if I go to another backbone provider). However, I’m happy with the level of service my current hosts have provided me with so it seems a bit “bad” for me just to be comparing prices and bandwidth allocations…

Add:
Seems I spoke too soon. The original 250Mb partition I made for Linux was too small, so I’ve had to start again from scratch (I’m giving it 750Mb to play with now). Fingers crossed. And I just hope it doesn’t, somehow, bring down my Windows XP box when it connects to the internet (for some reason, on occasions it has caused the network section of WinXP to go strange)

Personal: Sweeet

June 23, 2003
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Oompha LumpaI’ve just been speaking to my GESF (and will be again shortly) about various things and the conversation got onto personalities and she said that I had a nice, kind, considerate, lovely personality and if I was there now that she’d give me a cuddle!

Ahhh, I responded “Stop it – my face is turning the same colour as an Oomph Lumpas” (and, yep, I could feel the blood rising in my cheeks). In usual Richy/GESF manner, the conversation then went off on a tangent and she asked if I had spent so long on a sunbed that I looked like David Dickinson [Order from Amazon.co.uk] , I then (deliberately – honestly!) put my foot in it by saying that Dale Winton was more my sort of man sweetie! (yep, I did a camp voice and everything). We had a good laugh.

(David Dickinson and Dale Winton are both UK TV personalities that are known for being a bit “orange” looking, Dale Winton has also recently came out and announced he is a homosexual although he does have a number of camp mannerisms which made it quite easy to guess anyway).

Anyway – gotta go do stuff now. Need to call GESF back, get Linux running on Zaphod (my old PC), crack the latest Google algorithm (it’s a strange one and a large number of people are reporting problems with it already), finish off coding a site, have dinner, finish reading Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets (I finished the Order Of The Phoenix yesterday) and a whole host of other things: but not necessarily in that order!

Snippet: Too Hot

June 22, 2003
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It’s too hot to go to sleep, I’m too tired to attempt a 6th install of Debian Linux on Zaphod (with its shiny new 120Gb HD, new processor fan and 15m network cable to Ford), I’ve got programming work to do for work, but I’m too tired to even start reading Book 1 of the Harry Potter series (I finished Order Of The Phoenix earlier today and it was a bit of a disappointment: it could be so much shorter without most of the blurb, and there were no real surprises in it).

Oh – along with it being 11.50pm and being quite hot, it’s also raining, but my throat feels parched. I can’t win 🙁 Can somebody please sort the weather out for me please?

Change of subject: Does the word “Mardy” mean anything where you are? I’m asking as it means something here in Leicester (and, it appears, over most of the East Midlands), but my GESF had never heard of the word before (her flat mate, from London, knew what it meant though).

Books: Harry Potter etc etc

June 21, 2003
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I’m now in possession off an authentic, hard-cover copy of Harry Potter And The Order of The Phoenix – even though I had no intention of actually buying it. £16.99 for a book is a bit pricey for me (unless it’s a specialist book: I’ve paid nearly £100 for a copy of the “Programmers Reference Manuals for RISC OS” before), and even WH Smith’s reduced price of £12.99 didn’t get my fancy (my Mother brought my sister a copy for that price).

But when I calmly manoeuvred my extra big trolley into Macro (a “trade only, usually in bulk” style supermarket) to buy a dishwasher, I noticed they had Order Of The Phoenix available for just £8.99! Normally, Macro adds VAT (17.5% of the purchase price) onto goods as they are intended for business use (and businesses can then claim the VAT back afterwards), but books are VAT-free!

So, Harry Potter and the Order Of The Phoenix cost me just £8.99 from Macro! Can any body get any cheaper, and if so, where did you get your copy from?

Fun: Cross Crossing=Happy People

June 19, 2003
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Pedestrian CrossingIt’s been ages since I’ve had a “funny picture” entry and since I’ve currently got my old hard drive in my main PC, I thought I’d raid the archives…

Here’s a picture of 4 people using a pedestrian crossing in an unusual way. It’s almost like the pedestrian crossing is made out of sugar and they are sucking the sugar up in big straws… (yeah, yeah, I know what they are really doing). It’s obviously been “Photo manipulated”, but still 😉

Click on the pic for a large image.