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Richy's Random Ramblings

Blog: Validation and checking

November 30, 2002
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[W3C logo]“Prodded” into action by Neil’s observation that the W3C Validation service now supports a wider range of DTDs and has a slightly-niftier looking interface AND David Brake blogging about the “Xenu’s Link Sleuth” (and, yep, the Xenu is a reference to a certain organisation which claims to be a religion), I’ve decided to just check my blog for validation and links….

Well, after correcting a couple of URLs (mainly escaping the & symbol in them so it was & instead), correcting a couple of minor typos (ww instead of www, onClick instead of onclick) – my blog’s index page now correctly validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional. I’m working on trying to get it XHTML1.0 Strict though (there seems to be a niggling little fault which I can’t find at the moment), and once that’s done – I’ll try and ensure the other pages validate.

Oh – and I’ve also changed the category names slightly and added an internal webcam. At the moment (until I reboot my PC), both cameras are offline as the software I use for updating has semi-crashed and I don’t really want to reboot over such a minor matter.

Games: Pong and Pong and Pong

November 29, 2002
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[Pong Screenshot]Wow! There seems to be quite a few sites about Pong out there! There’s the previously mentioned game of Radial Pong, this fancy Flash movie about Pong not just being a game (and how those bats are really controlled), a quite infuriating and difficult Shockwave game of 3D Pong (I managed a final “high” score of 121), a 3 slightly less high-tech looking versions are also available and there is even a nice text based version available (“The enemy, the Left Paddle, has managed to reflect your shot and send it back to you. It looks like it’s going to go below your paddle”).

Pong your heart out!

Life: Monday night drunkedness

November 29, 2002
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[Lisa Scott-Lee from Steps]Right, I’ve been meaning to do this all week – but I’ve only now really just got the time and the inclination to blog about Monday night. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but since they don’t let me out much 😉 I thought I may as well write a little summary of that night.

Oh, I wasn’t sure if I was going to go out or not, but then the barman/owner text messaged me/SMSed me asking for recommendation of sources of Karaoke tracks. I texted him back with a couple of short recommendations and then burnt a couple of CDRs with a few tracks I had lying around. I was quite surprised as last time I tried burning anything, I just kept on getting failed CDs (after 8 of them, I gave up and put it down to a drive fault).

So I decided to go out. I went to catch the bus into town (why pay for a taxi if you can help it?): but I missed the bus by around 2 minutes. Yep, I still don’t know the late night bus time tables around here (the First Leicester website doesn’t help by just saying the bus is every 30 minutes) – so I ended up walking into town. Just as I got into town, the following bus passed me: so no time difference between me walking and catching the bus, I saved money (ok, 75p) AND I got some exercise…

Continue ReadingLife: Monday night drunkedness

Net: Slashdot dupes!

November 29, 2002
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[Slashdot]Ok, I know today (well, November 28th) is the American Thanksgiving Day Holiday, but that is no reason for Slashdot to have so many duplicate stories. They’ve had “When Personalization Runs Amuck” (posted at 7:25pm) which was a repeat of “When Profiling Goes Wrong” from 4:36pm on November 26 (both about the same article on the Wall Street Journal about how the personalisation profiling services as used by TiVo‘s and Amazon can sometimes suggest things that make you have a ‘double-take’). Before that, at 4.55pm they ran “Face Transplants On The Way” which was a repeat from November 27th’s 05:07pm story “Getting More Face Time” (both about the same BBC news article that facial transplants could take place in the next six to nine months).

The Slashdot editors then round it off by posting “Hark! I Hear a Dropped Packet” at 3:15am, which – you’ve guessed it – is a repeat again. But this time from the same day, okay at 1:47pm when “Using Sound To Test Internet Connections” was still on the front page (so even the Slashdot editors looking at their own site would have seen it). Ok, it didn’t have so much “lead information” about the article on New Scientist but still…

You’d think if Slashdot really wanted to get people subscribing to them (instead of relying on advertisement revenue), they’ll make at least a little effort to run things professionally wouldn’t you? [end rant]

At least a few readers managed to make a couple of comments which made me laugh….

Continue ReadingNet: Slashdot dupes!

Techy: Cheap Int’l Phone Calls

November 29, 2002
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[Red Phone Box]I’ve just investigated the costs of calling my Nigerian spammer friend Jerry Duruibe, but BT charge 62p per minute for calling Nigeria (even though they do provide some useful information if you are calling abroad). It’s still cheaper than NTL‘s 75p per minute tariff!

The normal international call-saver number I use – KomTel’s 0871 871 8989 (which I got via The Register) – won’t work as Nigeria isn’t one of the covered countries (a similar international call saving service is available on 0871 871 9971, 0871 871 0610 and 0871 871 2929 by the way: but they all seem to be cover the same countries). The cheapest “alternative-supplier” I’ve managed to find so far is Alpha Telecom (10p per minute to Nigeria/Lagos), but that isn’t a “pay-as-you-go” service which I’m hunting for (you’ve got to “pay-in-advance” either via credit card or pre-paid phone card).

It looks like, if I’m going to call Jerry then C2000 Ltd or Go Talk would be cheapest at 29p per minute… I’ll think about it though.

[Thanks to Joel Feinstein‘s list which assisted in my research]