Alex

Drunk a n d on teh interwebs

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:15:51 GMT

Firstly: why are there no comments on my substituting corona for stout post? Myk is excused, as he has good taste in cider.
Secondly: I had a job interview on tuesday, which seemed to go ok. I managed to avoid talking for hours about whether my work was to support government policy or to inform policy. this is a major philosophical issue for an APS employee, support vs inform, but something i shouldn't go into while drunk. still the interview seemed to go ok.
Finally; My uni should be done, barring horrible failure. last exam was wednesday, though there is an outside chance that I'll get into honours starting september some time.

I'm off to bed,

PS. tonight was the monthly meeting of the canberra brewers club and i didn't have to drive, hence why i am drunk.

The horror

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:13:16 GMT

Seen on a comment thread for a gingerbread recipe:
"Didn’t have the stout so I substituted Corona beer."
No words can describe the horror.

A quote

Thu, 28 May 2009 13:36:46 GMT

"Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative California-based organization opposed to gay marriage, was understandably less restrained. He termed the state high court's ruling "a victory for democracy and a victory for the civil rights of clergy, county clerks and Californians across the political spectrum who did not want to be forced by the government to approve of same-sex marriage.""
A victory for the tyranny of the majority, and a victory for theocrats who wish to impose their religious views on those who don't believe, people who refuse to do their jobs, and people who confuse government policy with their views.

From an article on the upholding of proposition 8 in California.

How not to glass a planet

Sun, 24 May 2009 14:36:52 GMT

I saw the latest Star Trek today. It's a good movie, though it suffers from the problem that their giant planet killing machine sucks. Their plan looks like this:

Step 1) Drill hole to center of the planet.
Step 2) Drop small black hole into center of the planet.
Step 3) Laugh manically while the planet implodes.

The first step fails, as the planet's radius is a bit over 3,000km, all solid rock that gets denser as you go down. By the time you reach anywhere near the center the hole would have collapsed, repeatedly. You might be able to reach the center of the planet, but it would take you a lot longer than 10 minutes.
Also, if you had a planet with a gooey liquid center then all the goop oozes out and the crust collapses well before you hit the center, and everyone dies before step 3 of the plan.
Note: if your going to try this anyway, drill down through the north or south pole, as planets aren't true spheres and it's a little shorter from the poles.

Step 2 is problematic, as small black holes don't suck matter in that fast. The planet would implode, but it would take a while, and that is if the black hole didn't evaporate first from Hawking radiation. Plus you don't even need to fire it into the center of the planet, if you lob it lazily into the planet it'll wander into the center in it's own time.

Step 3 is better, but still wrong. see as the matter gets sucked into the event horizon of the black hole it gets compacted, undergoes fusion and releases radiation. As the planet still over the black hole is opaque to the radiation, the radiation piles up. eventually the force of the radiation overcome the force exerted by the planet above it, and the whole thing explodes. This is what happens in some supernovas.
Of course everyone is dead by this point, but still there is nothing worse than a wrong, mad scientist.

If you want to destroy a planet, your best bet is a bunch of big bombs. Nukes will work, but fancy Sci-fi bombs are usually cooler. Drop them onto the planet, watch as everyone dies of radiation and fucked up weather, then next time someone gives you lip point to the charred cinder and ask them if they want to be next.
A giant gamma ray or xray laser would also work, sweep it over the planet and watch as people cook and plants wilt. Though that would require a lot of power, and bombs might be better.
Marvin the Martian knows his stuff.

Pain in the arse

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:24:07 GMT

I bought a new computer recently. It is shiny and fast (it can calculate pi to 1 million digits in less than 8 seconds) however there is one problem.
I can't get it to run games without running windows.

I have been running Ubuntu 64bit and have been really impressed. After install I had to do four things: install the sound card driver, install the video driver, setup the monitors and install a different mp3 player (I prefer Amarok to rhythm box). However I would have to do all this on Windows, plus install Mozilla, gimp, pidgin, non-windows media player video player and open office. So I'm really enjoying using Ubuntu.
Except for the fact that it's a pain in the arse to get any games to run.
I have tried wine, and crossover games, however I just can't get city of heroes or geneforge to run properly (however halflife 2 runs well along with Portal, though still no cake). This is really the main requirement of my home desktop, but I don't want to have to use windows for everything else.

There is an old copy of XP here (service pack 1!), so I'll give that a try with VMware. Otherwise it's vista for me. Vista, with aero and uac and every-other-fucking-thing except native dx10 disabled.

Now I understand

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 06:12:24 GMT

So this is what Twitter is for.
Explanation here.

That has to be the best use for Twitter I have seen yet.

Computer comparison

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 11:24:36 GMT

I've wanted to do this for a while. Basically its a long winded response the Emma or Gavin (I can't remember which) saying, effectively, "why not buy a Mac?". So I'm going to work out, with numbers, why I shouldn't buy a mac (or maybe why I should?).

Firstly, requirements:
Use: I want to overclock the machine and play games on it. So I want a decent CPU, a higher end graphics card, plenty of RAM (at least 4gb) and good cooling potential within the case.
Things I don't care about: portability, looks (I have removed the plastic front of my current case for better airflow and uglier looks), bundled applications (Yay, open source!) and warranty (I plan to void it).

Therefore
CPU: high end Intel core two duo. Quad core doesn't add anything to gaming, most games are single threaded, and I don't do anything else that needs a quad core. 2 cores however do help by allowing one core to just run the game, while the other does other crap.
RAM: 8gb, going no lower than 4gb. Higher frequency is better too, as it's best to run the ram in a 1:1 ratio with the FSB.
Motherboard: High FSB, support for PCI-E x2, support for 8gb of ram.
HDD: at least 500gb
Sound card: able to use my current one, otherwise not on board.
PSU: a little bit of head room, for when I increase the voltage.
OS: The PC would run Linux, while the Mac would use Mac-OS whatever. So I'll ignore OS in this.
Drives: DVD burner.
Case: Decent amount of room (better cooling, easier to work in), 120mm fan mounts.
Screen: I like my current ones.
Other bits and bobs: current ones.

To the Apple site!
Eeeeww, iTunes.
Hmm, Mac Pro from $5k? I'll try an iMac.
2.93ghz core 2 is a E7500, 3.06 is a special job apparently. Well I'm over clocking, so E7500 it is.
Base = 3000 (1066mhz FSB, on board sound)
Memory +4gb= +1700 (1066mhz, DDR3, 2x4gb)
Graphics: WTF is a nvidia 130? The decent nvidia card is the 260. I guess ATI Radeon 4850 then.
= +380
Mouse + Keyoard? Bugger off *puts on Logitech fanboy hat*
Remote? Nah, I watch video and listen to music from 30cm away.
Warranty? Nah
iWork? Not if I can avoid it.
MobileMe membership?
"Buy a Mac on a one-year subscription in MobileMe, the Internet service from Apple that keeps your email, contacts, and calendar up to date across your iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, and PC. You also get an elegant Gallery for sharing your photos with friends and family, iDisk for storing and sharing important documents online, and you can access and manage it all with a suite of desktop-quality web applications at www.me.com."
I don't have an iPhone, iPods shit me off and I won't have a mac and a pc.
Printer? I thought we already went into this with the i(Don't)Work?
Case: "Elegant, simple, and stunning, iMac packs all its components — from the processor to the iSight camera — into an astoundingly thin, anodized aluminum frame."
Read: no extra fan mounts, no expansion slots, and defiantly no water cooling. Though it does look like a Star Trek TNG prop. I could play Picard, you know that Jean-Luc Picard.

Total $5078

Ok, now the PC (unless I've listed the price for the mac part, I won't list the individual prices)

CPU: E8400 (3ghz, 1333mhz fsb)
Motherboard: DFI Lanparty-UT (1600mhz fsb)
RAM: 8gb Corsair (4x2gb, 1600mhz ddr3) $575
Graphics: Nvidia 285 (a little better than the Radeon one above, but there isn't much in it) $583
HDD: 2 1tb samsung drives
PSU: 1010W OCZ
Case: current one

Total $2272 + postage

To be fair the Mac does include a screen, so I'll add that in.
Monitor: Dell 30" wide screen 2299

Total with big shiny screen: $4600 rounded up a bit

So for my intended use, by going PC I can get better RAM; 3x the HDD space; better case; bigger screen; and probably a better PSU. All for $400 less. Or for $2800 less if I give up the screen.
The video cards and CPUs are pretty much the same.
Intangibles: In my experience Ubuntu and Mac OS are pretty equal, though Ubuntu has the benefit of being open source. Also I'm happy to sacrifice a bit of stability for greater customisability. Though my stability issues are windows related, not hardware.

Lets see what it would take to get a Mac which matches the spes I have there.

quad core mac book pro
Ram: 8gb, $490 (still only 1066mhz)
RAID card? Well the motherboard in the pc above supports RAID, so I guess so. $1400
HDD: hmm 2tb, $800 (Strange, doesn't list cache. No SSD option either)
Graphics: Nvidia gt 120s again. I guess 2 will be about right. $300
Drives: hmm this one is hard. I was just going to keep my 2 DVD drives, but neither will do double layer and only one burns. The Mac has options for 2x double layer burners or just one. No dvd rom option. I'll leave it.
Monitors: Nope
Monitor adaptor: wha? $45
Other crap: Nope

Total $8534. Though it does have free postage.
Still doesn't have 1600mhz FSB support, 1600mhz ram (will limit the overclock fun), psu is still an unknown, and still looks like it has rather poor cooling, though there are no details. It still doesn't have a very good graphics card either, there should be an option for 2 x Nvidia GTX 285/295s, which a pc that price could have.
For that price I can get a custom Mountain mods cube, 2 high end graphics cards, dual loop water cooling, >3tb HDD space, maybe an Intel SSD to boot off.

Overall: Macs are, for what I want, overpriced and underpowered. Also, they probably come with iTunes pre-installed.

Obaying orders

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 09:15:26 GMT

Once again I have been ordered to blog, though I have no idea what to actually say. I have been doing things, but most of it seems to be irrelevant from a wider perspective; defiantly nothing worth publishing. So this will just be stuff about what has been happening to me day to day.

Lets see, where to start? Of course, beer!
Beer: I have drunk all of the pale ale I made (at least all I can find, there might be a bottle lost downstairs somewhere), so I spent today making more. The other point of this was to try out the new equipment I bought, a new kettle and electric element, along with the total capacity of the setup. It all works fine, and I now have 40L of pale ale wort.

Car: For a while now I've wanted to own a nice modified sports car, ideally a series 4 Supra or 240/260Z. However the noise of other people's cars is irritating, and I don't think I can justify owning such an inefficient machine. However I found a solution, build an electric MR2.
Seeing as I have a job now, I bought a bunch of books and have started planning out the project. There are still a bunch of assumptions in the planning, though I can't really get better data till I start ordering components (eg. peak torque is limited by the DC/AC converter current). That said it should be good for 0-100km in around 5.5 seconds, top speed of ~140km/h, and a range of about 100km. Now I just need to save money.

Work: I'm busy slaving away at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, which is actually quite good. The the stuff I'm working on is pretty interesting, though the actual work can be fairly dull, and the people there are nice. The only question is if they extend my contract, or if I'm unemployed come may. My boss has been a bit evasive on this, though the sensible thing (IMO) would be for her to keep me around.

That's about it really.

Spent Grain Beer Bread

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:37:32 GMT

So mainly for my own notes, this is the recipe for the bread I sometimes make.

3 cups of spent grain (wet)
1.5 cups warm water
1 package (1 tablespoon) dry BAKERS yeast
1/3 cup brown sugar or honey
3-5 cups flour
Dash of salt

For anyone else making it:
Spent grain is the grain left over after making beer. It generally adds texture and a subtle flavour. The brewer soaks the grain in water, then drains the water off, leaving something like a course, thick porridge. The exact mix of grain, thus flavour, varies depending on the beer it is left over from.

I usually add some cinnamon, nutmeg and all spice. Maybe a teaspoon each. The particular spices that will work depends on the grain in the bread, but I've found that mix to be good generally.

Brewers yeast is lazy, use bakers yeast. Don't use larger yeast, it's really lazy.

Substituting beer for water seems to work, though I would match the beer to the grain used (pilsner for all pilsner malt, stout for grain with lots of roast barley). I'm not really sure on this one.

Now here is a stupid arguement

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:43:43 GMT

Article here

So MP Fred Nile wants to ban (female) topless bathing, this is his argument.

""Our beaches should be a place where no one is offended, whether it's their religious or cultural views," he said.

"If they've come from a Middle Eastern or Asian country where women never go topless - in fact they usually wear a lot of clothing - I think it's important to respect all the different cultures that make up Australia."

The practice was at risk of raising the ire of Muslim men in particular, Mr Nile said.

"I don't want to have any provocations or disturbances on our public beaches," he said"

This is really stupid. Firstly because a ban on female topless bathing offends me, because it's sexist and prudish. If we allow men to go topless, then women should be allowed. It is only fair. Further more, banning nudity is just prudish. There is no harm to society for people being naked in some places, like the beach, in fact liberal attitudes to nudity are helpful for children (look here for a summary).
Basically the only reason to ban public nudity is that some conservative people are uncomfortable with it. Now without any evidence for a negative effect, should we ban a behaviour because some are uncomfortable with it? I think that we need evidence, without it it comes down to who can shout loudest out of me and Niles (at least until one of us gets shot, probably me).
So this is a stupid argument: we should ban X because X offends person A. However a ban on X would offend B. In a society based on the rule of law, we must consider A and B equal, and thus look for something else to decide.
Now if we are in a theocracy the Reverend (Niles) outranks the heathen (Me!), and he would have his ban on beach boobies. Is that the type of society Niles thinks this is, or wants it to be.

Now I'm off to bed before I Illiterate again (and my thinking gets any fuzzier).

Bloody Telstra

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 03:27:14 GMT

My father recently got himself a laptop with a 3G wireless internet connection, via one of those USB dongles. Of course he got the internet service through telstra, as for some insane reason he's loyal to them. Still they get all that setup, and discover that the tinted windows of the house block the signal. So they call telstra and get an antenna installed, and it all works fine.

Till my brothers get hold of it.

Now they are both WOW addicts, and they realised that my fathers 3g internet had lower latency than the satellite net, which lead them to jury-rigging a network between the net and their computer using my dads laptop as a bridge. This irritates my dad, as he wants to be able to turn his laptop off and doesn't want cables running through the house. So they call me.

My solution is to setup a wireless network, that way my brothers can play WOW and my dad can use his laptop where he wants. So I poke around on the net and discover that Billion have released a router with wireless n and support for a USB 3G modem (the 7402nx). So I order it.

Of course, setting up the system proves to be a pain in the arse. First my dad's laptop won't connect to router, any attempt to get to the router login screen via a browser results in the computer trying to dial telstra via the 3G modem. Fortunately I brought my laptop, which works perfectly. 30 seconds later and we are bathed in the sweet glow of unencrypted wireless N (no one can see my parents house, let alone get a signal from it, and if I encrypted the network I would get calls asking what the password is) and I move to a comfy seat. So, from my comfy seat, I order my brother to connect the 3G modem while I enter the details for the internet account and configure the router. A quick reset and, nothing. I double check that everything is plugged in, double check the details, reset, and nothing. I call my father and ask for the protocols for the connection, which in hindsight I should have known wouldn't work. Having run out of options I call telstra, and settle in for a wait. After only 5 minutes of robots and being on hold (5 min? did I call the right number? I thought I called telstra) I get the network info. I re-enter the info, reset the modem, and...

Nothing.

There is no error message, the router sees the modem, but it won't let me get a net connection. I have no idea what is going on, but my guess is that telstra have tinkered with the firmware for the modem, thus stopping the router from easily communicating with it (this is based on the fact that the telstra ones are harder to get working with Linux that other providers ones, and that you have to install special software on the computer to use the modem).
Anyone else have any suggestions? I can't find new official firmware (there is some beta stuff, but I would rather steer clear of that for my parents network). Personally I think they should just give up on the net or move, it's always going to be a pain getting net out there, but that view isn't very popular.

How to improve the internetz

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:20:22 GMT

Add Benny Hill music to any youtube clip

see

This is good for a laugh

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:44:29 GMT

Garbage

"The most perfect mechanism ever designed and made is the marvelous mind and body that is man."
Really? Then why is there a 1 in a million chance that your brain craps itself every year? (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease ) That constitutes the " most perfect mechanism"? What about knees, surely there is a better design for them. And veins, why do we get haemorrhoids and varicose veins? Not to mention that our optical sense is a piece of shit. I can go on if you want.
Seriously, if god created the human body I want a fucking refund.

"And it is also only natural that our Maker sent along His instruction manual... That instruction book is the Holy Bible. Yet man has made this the most misunderstood, misinterpreted and maligned book that ever came into human hands."
Maybe it's just me, but I don't trust a book that which says to stone me to death when we know was heavily edited in the 3rd century. The fact is has nothing on anatomy, developmental biology or psychology is also kind of strange when it's meant to be our "instruction book".

"Psychologists do not themselves understand of what the human mind is composed."
Actually, the human mind is composed of human neurons. There are many studies which have looked at brain damage, and the pattern of impairment of function relates directly to the location and degree of damage. Eg. Broca's Aphasia. These studies, when taken together, provide overwhelming evidence that we don't have a soul. Now, there is no fundamental assumption of monism in psychology, psychologists such as Gergen have proposed theories that are completely compatible with a dualist view. The only problem is that there is no evidence for a dualist interpretation, and overwhelming evidence for the monist interpretation.
So the problem is that if we are right, then their beliefs are wrong. And this is threatening to their understanding of the world, so that instead they ignore all the evidence.

"Man, to be born ultimately into the very God family, was designed to have godly-type mind—ability to think, to reason, to make choices and decisions, capable of forming ethical, moral and spiritual attitudes."
I just can't help but think of bonobo chimps, along with other primates, that seem to do all of this. Except maybe the spiritual attitudes, lucky them.

"There is virtually no difference in shape and construction between animal brain and human brain. The brains of elephants, whales and dolphins are larger than human brain, and the chimp’s brain is slightly smaller.

Qualitatively the human brain may be very slightly superior, but not enough to remotely account for the difference in output."
The important thing is not size, but ratio of brain to body. Humans have the largest brain to body ratio, followed by primates then most other things. This is also roughly the order of cognitive ability.

Meh, I'm too tired to go on. It's like they are trying to make up the most stupid shit possible.

Election

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:00:28 GMT

We need a mozilla plugin that blocks "go vote" messages for elections you can't vote in. Or maybe one that auto-replies "you go vote, I'll just sit here and drink beer. What with me being Australian and all. Bloody Americans".

This explains my sex life

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 12:08:51 GMT

Or lack thereof
Why are there 2 paragraphs dedicated to contradictory anecdotes? Why couldn't they use that space to give more info on the methodology or the results? Damn crappy reporting.

Your Theory Fails if...

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:44:21 GMT

I can't tell if it is serious or a Reductio ad absurdum.
https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/holtorf/3.8.html

I have returned!

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 07:27:47 GMT

We need more socialised health care.

In other news I am back from Tasmania, which was good despite high fat, alcohol and caffeine content. Or maybe because of the fat, caffeine and alcohol.
We saw seals, lots of sea birds, an Aunt (and her husband), some good paintings, some shitty paintings, lots of over hyped paintings, a few restaurants and Port Arthur.

Progress!

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:18:41 GMT

7000 words down, 3000 to go!

What are you doing here?

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:00:07 GMT

For some reason I'm not entirely clear on I signed up for Ok Cupid, and the number of people on there I know is kind of freaky. Though in one case it was only by recognising her kitchen.

Cleaning

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 08:13:38 GMT

I just pulled more hair out of my computer than is on my head.

Advice

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:56:11 GMT

So to what degree is an age gap important in a relationship?
My gut (or near gut) opinion is that it doesn't matter, though in this case it does matter in that she thinks it does. However we are both uni students and fairly similar in our mindset.
I don't know, if I did I wouldn't be asking you lot.
However the age gap is down to 6 years, so at least I'm improving (or getting worse?).

I'm a nerd

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 02:42:18 GMT

For some reason I find this really funny, I think it's the understatement in the second sentence.
"Dualism is the view that the brain and the mind are separate; that we study the brain, but that consciousness is a feature of the mind. The problem with this view is that there is not a shred of evidence to support it."

Essay Question

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:46:41 GMT

So a question inspired by the psychology essay I'm working on:
What do you think would be the implications of evidence that free will is an illusion?

This isn't actually part of my essay (though it would be if I could yak on for a few thousand more words), so you don't have to worry about doing my work for me.
I might post my own long winded answer in a while.

Just a thought

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:26:26 GMT

I was reading This and had an idea.
What if we made a loaf in the shape of a person. Then we get a Roman Catholic priest to bless it, eh voilà! See if the Eucharist becomes the body of christ (I wonder which bit?), then a human loaf would become the whole body of christ.
Buggered if I know what we would do with this, but I figure it would be good for a laugh. Maybe make him out of gingerbread and see how fast he runs? Or make it 50ft tall? Or build an army of them? Or just slice him up, toast him and serve with dip.

Quotes

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:59:06 GMT

Some quotes from the computer game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, that I have been playing too much of recently. I really like these (and the game).

"Why do you insist that the human genetic code is "sacred" or "taboo"? It is a chemical process and nothing more. For that matter -we- are chemical processes and nothing more. If you deny yourself a useful tool simply because it reminds you uncomfortably of your own morality, you have uselessly and pointlessly crippled yourself."

"Free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip in information will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun it's rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."

"If our society seems more nihilistic than that of previous eras, perhaps this is simply a sign of our maturity as a sentient species. As our collective consciousness expands beyond a crucial point we are at least ready to accept life's fundamental truth: that life's only purpose is life itself."

"And what of the immortal soul in such transactions? Can this machine transmit and reattach it as well? Or is it lost forever, leaving a soulless body to wander the world in despair?"
I should probably explain this one: the event in game which triggers this quote is the building of the bulk matter transmitter. To get here requires understanding the human brain, as well as constructing self aware machines (and lots of other fancy, sci-fi goodness). Yet the faction leader the quote is from, Sister Mariam Godwinson, still clings to her belief in the soul despite it being disproved.