ComposingLiger's (David's) Journal

The REAL history of Ada Lovelace

2009-10-06T00:14:46Z

As a Computer Science ~~nerd~~ ~~geek~~ student, I have a bit of an interest in the foundations of the Science. The underpinnings stretch a long way back, back to the foundations of logic in ancient Greek times by Aristotle and more recently with the ideas of computation, algorithms in the 19th and 20th century by folks like George Boole, Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace and Alan Turning.

Here's a wonderful little Webcomic about Ada Lovelace, the first programmer (be warned, the comic appears to contain more than a little steam punk!)
Lovelace - The Origin

Desktop Wallpaper Meme (via janusd)

2009-10-04T06:00:58Z

The Rules:

Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper.
Explain in no more than five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!

Whoa! My desktop is clean for once!

My current wallpaper is the westward view from Appleton Tower over George Square in Edinburgh. I think I'm having Scotland withdrawal symptoms. You can just see the Edinburgh Labyrinth in the middle of the park, the University Library and a number of the old buildings around the square (now part of the University). A few week ago I had a wallpaper where you could see Edinburgh Castle and Arthur's seat too.

Back in town

2009-06-19T12:29:58Z

Well, here were are. The second week back home in Melbourne. And it's certainly been interesting. Catching up with family, friends, getting used to the old chores, fixing things that broke while away, getting used to not dropping down to the pub with Edinburgh mates every Monday.

This week has been pretty quiet since most of my friends have been in the middle of exams. It means it's been rather quiet at home at the moment. Filled in the day by stacking the firewood, sorting out a wireless network link out to Mount Dandenong and trying to get this old TV card working again.

Yesterday I spent the day at work yesterday fixing up small disasters that happened while away. Fortunately most of them were pretty straight forward things (such as the Access database reaching 2GB by not being compressed and teething issues with Office 2007). Pretty exhausting doing the whole 9-5 thing too (Especially when I'm slipping into holiday sleeping habits).

*sigh* Pretty quiet at home... Anyone want to go for lunch or somewhere next week?

Exams over = very yes!

2009-05-24T21:31:22Z

It's finally over. After Ten exams I just crashed in a heap this weekend. None of them were too horrible, but 3 weeks with nothing but stress lurking over your back is never fun.

Friday night we had a BBQ in the Hollyrood Park as part of CompSoc's end of year celebrations. As only Australian present I was duly appointed head BBQer complete with over the top slang and accent. The little Tesco value BBQ's in tray were OK, but I don't think they were quite designed for cooking for 30 people. Real BBQs next time please. Other highlights included out door sports (10 person Human Pyramid and barrel rolling down the grassy slopes) as well as the strange French backpacker who turned up and asked if he could join us (complete with Bugle and home made schnapps. He played "Auld Lang Syne" for us as he left). Since the days are getting a lot longer it was still kind of light at 10pm, so we didn't end up leaving until almost 11pm. I made it back to the dorm and almost collapsed in bed - but was reminded that I'd promised to turn up to Bedlam's End of Year too. Quick shower and change of clothes (soot, smoke and ash!) and went and joined them for a bit of music and chat until 2pm.

Saturday I was supposed to be heading to Sterling Castle with a friend from Melbourne, but unfortunately she slept through her alarm... twice... So by the time she made it here, it was almost 2pm. Instead we walked up to the Royal Mile, visited the Scottish Museum, went for Dinner and then went to The Real Mary King Close. We decided that it was much better value than the Edinburgh Dungeon - while not as dramatic, it makes up with actual history. On the way back home we dropped in for Hot Chocolate and cake at Starbucks and then I crashed in bed.

Today's been rather quiet. Started sorting out paperwork and bags, spent a few hours on the phone to the folks fixing the router at home (somehow they appear to have completely fried the old one) and then joined some of the CompSoc guys for a bit of Team Fortress 2. Man, that game is a lot of fun. I'm quite fond of the Heavy - I've already managed to top my younger brother's score using him. *Bwahahaha*

Tomorrow it's off to start packing teh Suitcase and try and find some bathroom scales. Can only take 20KG on the plane and have picked up quite a few extras while I'm here. :D

Mr. Meme

2009-05-10T20:04:18Z

Oh, and have a Meme while you're at it! (janusd did it!)

Who are you?
Are we friends?
When and how did we meet?
Would you kiss me?
Give me a nickname and explain why.
Describe me in 1 word.
What was your first impression of me?
Do you still think the same?
What reminds you of me?
If you could give me anything, what would it be?
How well do you know me?
Are you gonna put this in your journal and see what I say about you?
Would you meet up with me?

The Final Countdown~

2009-05-10T19:11:21Z

Apologies for the long silence over the last couple of weeks, but I'm smack bang in the middle of exam season (A horrible combination of Study, Sleep, Procrastinate, Panic, Revise, Exam). Thankfully almost halfway through them already (Also, ten exams is just cruelty to poor dumb students like me!). We shall preserver!

So, May 2009 already. Eight months in the Scotland and the United Kingdom. Less than one month until I head back home to Australia. I even know the date and time that I fly out, so you can wave as I fly out from Heathrow (Evening of Wed 3rd June). I must say, the Scottish experience has been interesting. In my time here I've:

Completed a full year of my course
Learnt new words (Such as NED, Chav, Naff, Pish, Sederunt, PubPubPubPub, Ban Balloon, Convict)
Eaten new food (Including Haggis. At least 3 times!)
Drunk new beverages (I'm going to sorely miss the Irn Bru)
Seriously ruined the reputation of Australian's as beer swillers
Become a System Administrator for the student run computing service
Worked out how to use the pound correctly
Climbed Arthur's Seat in the middle of a winter night, without a torch just to 'see the stars'
Toured the east coast by train (Durham, York, Nottingham, London)
Been caught in a hotel fire
Cooked my own meals for a full month
Been rather sick a couple of times (nothing to do with my cooking, thankfully!)
Managed my personal affairs for almost a year
Grown quite an out of control "fro".
Precariously rigged lights in the loft of Bedlam Theatre
Been in the winning team for this years System Design Project Robot ~~Soccer~~ Football cup
Almost managed to stop calling Football Soccer
Visited Bletchley Park (the home of WW2 cryptography and arguably one of the cornerstones in computing history)
Become a member of the British Museum
Almost worked out how to understand the Scottish accent in a Pub
Met a whole bunch of interesting people and made quite a few new friends

It's going to be quite sad when I get on that plane. Soon I'm going to have to start thinking about how on earth I'm going to pack up all the stuff I've collected here, take my final look around Edinburgh (still have to go to the Camera Obscura or Mum will never forgive me!), pick up a few souvenirs and then head back home. Sad to think that I'm almost down to "tourist" territory now. *sigh* Where did all those days go!

Hopefully you should hear a bit more from me in a little over a week once exams are out of the way. Freedom!

How to resign in style

2009-04-29T07:55:34Z

Jarrard Wood, a developer for 2K Australia (developer of Bioshock), has decided to resign to go into work in indie games. But not before he sent this little game around the office.

No one but my mother could send post like that...

2009-04-10T18:51:11Z

Oh? What's this in the mail?

An Australian Bilby in Scotland!

omm nom nom nom

2009-04-02T19:52:08Z

Oh! Why didn't anyone tell me that English Muffins were so tasty!
Sure we have them back home, but not like this. *ommnomnomnomnom*

*Sitting quite contently with a Cup o' Tea and a freshly toasted English Muffin with Jam and Butter*

Save IE 6!

2009-04-01T16:33:42Z

As a long time web developer I've seen standards come and go. From the original Netscape Navigator to the W3C to the WHATWG. Each new standard would subtlety break every things over and over again. Through one browser has been rock solid and consistant over the years. Internet Explorer 6! Still in use by almost 1 in 4 users, it comes with XP, the most popular OS on the planet and can be relied on to do things the 'Microsoft Way'. Quite recently there's been a disturbing campaign to stomp out IE6 for a more "standards compliant" browser. Come on. They haven't even got CSS1 working in almost 25% of browsers!

http://www.saveie6.com/ - If we don't, who will?

Since Semester 1 has officially started back home...

2009-03-11T21:42:18Z

I'm a 5th year?! Bloody hell! How did that happen...

The only appropriate phase that comes to mind was the Topics on the old MUCSA forums:

1st year: Brand new and just starting out in Computer Science. Welcome Newbs!
2nd years: These guys are stuck in Limbo... some skills... but much to learn
3rd years: Wisened elders of the CSSE department

I think I've seriously fallen of the end of the list now. Oh dear...

The Internet is really, really great!

2009-03-09T00:21:11Z

Arrgh. Bloody MSN Spam has reached an all time "pain in the ass" level. I'm now blocking everyone who is not on my friends list. If you want to contact me using MSN email me first, or try another account (AIM is probably your best bet).

Grrgh! Why do spammers have to ruin everything that's good. I've heard that Twitter spam is starting to take of now too. =/

Scrambling to finish assignments this week. You may not see or hear much from me until Friday.

My Haunted Laptop

2009-02-25T23:06:16Z

Apologies for the journal spam. I write nothing for several days and then flood everyone in a single night.

Anyone like Ghost stories? Because my laptop is haunted.

Maybe I should give you a bit of an overview first? Ok, well last night I was trying to write up some code in Python to interface a video capture library (GStreamer) with a image processing library (because the image processing library own image capture functions are slightly borked). Anyway, this is a bit of a pill to do since each of them represent image buffers in different ways or call the same formats different names.

Finally at around midnight I make a breakthrough and get a partial image - but it's torn and columns are interlaced incorrectly. I decide to call it a night and fix it later.

Tonight I decide to sit down and try and sort out the image. After fiddling around and reading some stuff up on standard image representation I decide to take a closer look through my code. And guess what?

The line that actually copies the image from the camera library to the image processing library is entirely comment out...
*scary violin screeching time*

There two libraries aren't pragmatically connected my me in anyway... except I can still see my image. XD

So is my laptop haunted? Maybe... :p or I wonder if any of my CS friends can think of a rational explanation. Hell, I'll even give you the code I was using:

#!/usr/bin/env python
# Simple Python Sink Test

import pygst
pygst.require('0.10')
import gst
from opencv import cv
from opencv import highgui

WIDTH = 640
HEIGHT = 480
# 32 bpp = 8 bytes per channel + padding
CAPS = gst.Caps("video/x-raw-rgb, bpp=32, width=%d, height=%d"%(WIDTH,HEIGHT))


# The GStreamer Pipeline
pipeline = gst.Pipeline("imagepipe")
source = gst.element_factory_make("v4l2src", "v4l2-source")
colorspace = gst.element_factory_make("ffmpegcolorspace", "color-space")
scale = gst.element_factory_make("videoscale", "video-scale")
#source = gst.element_factory_make("filesrc", "file-source")
sink = gst.element_factory_make("appsink", "app-sink")
sink.set_property("caps", CAPS)
pipeline.add(source, colorspace, scale, sink)
s = gst.element_link_many(source, colorspace, scale, sink)
pipeline.set_state(gst.STATE_PLAYING)
for i in range(1,10):
buff = sink.emit('pull-buffer')

# Create a simple image
highgui.cvNamedWindow ('win1', highgui.CV_WINDOW_AUTOSIZE)
img1 = cv.cvCreateImage(cv.cvSize(WIDTH,HEIGHT), cv.IPL_DEPTH_8U, 3)
#cv.cvSetZero(img1)
#img1 = cv.cvCreateMat(HEIGHT, WIDTH, cv.CV_8SC3)
#img1.imageData = buff.data

#print "buff: %d"%len(buff.data)
#print "img: %d"%len(img1.imageData)

highgui.cvShowImage('win1', img1)
highgui.cvWaitKey(0)
highgui.cvDestroyWindow("window 1")

(Oh incidently, it turns out that OpenCV python wrappers are broken in the current release, so what I was trying to do won't work even if I do uncomment it! :p)

Physicists like Superheros too

2009-02-25T21:42:47Z

Science of Watchmen:

On the mend

2009-02-25T17:21:09Z

Well, that was certainly a fun couple of days. Turns out I caught a nasty bout of gastro that has been going around here and it's knocked me around a bit. It sounds like eileanach earlier comment was right - I really am out to get every northern hemisphere ill known (An alternative theory was that I was just suffering from all this standing on my head. Quite possible too! :p).

Really do appreciate having the wardens at the halls. It would have been quite miserable if I didn't feel there was someone else to be able to call on (This is one plus for housemates). Two of them dropped past to check that I was doing OK and Marie the lady who cleans our hall made me a cupah (She's wonderful!). Still not quite up to full meals, but been having soup and a light breakfast now that I'm feeling a tad peckish again.

One upside of being bedridden is I've finally started to watch some of the videos that I haven't seen. Slowly been making progress on Zoids: Genesis, The IT Crowd (Season 2) and ReBoot (Season 3). All quite good. Sometimes that's the hardest part - sitting down for a couple of hours to start a series. Watching the rest of it is really quite easy.

Ducked into Uni today for one of Robot project submission. While we had a few technical glitches, we managed to show that most things worked as intended. Next week will be the first friendly match, so I'm going to see if it's possible to record it. If you're lucky we might even be able to stream it live.

Finally, Orange Lucozade has much more of a kick to it than I remember. Somewhere between the last time I had it in Primary School and today it became an Energy Drink. I must say it has a real kick on an empty stomach - must be almost pure glucose.

gurgle

2009-02-22T02:29:29Z

Oh stomach... when did you decided to hate me....

*would go to bed but lying down makes me feel more ill*

Inkspots

2009-02-17T19:37:58Z

*sigh*

Buries himself in work.

1234567890!

2009-02-14T01:11:01Z

▌ ▌ ▌ ▌ ▗ ▛▀▘▛▀▖▞▀▖▞▀▖▌ ▌▐▐▐▐ ▙▄▌▝▀▖▛▀▖▛▀▖▌ ▌ ▌ ▌▛▀▖▄ ▚▗▘ ▙▄ ▙▄▘▌ ▌▌ ▙▄▌▐▐▐▐ ▌ ▌▞▀▌▙▄▘▙▄▘▚▄▌ ▌ ▌▌ ▌▐ ▗▚ ▌ ▌ ▌ ▌▌ ▖▌ ▌▝▝▝▝ ▘ ▘▝▀▘▌ ▌ ▗▄▘ ▝▀ ▘ ▘▀▘▘ ▘ ▀▀▘▘ ▝▀ ▝▀ ▘ ▘▝▝▝▝

*Crashes into bed after the party in AT*

Urgh! What!?!

2009-02-11T08:54:15Z

What an utter TWAT!. How can people listen to this guy without being sickened.

Pushing your political bandwagon on the back of a horrific natural disaster. Myers had it right. Ghoul.

~Her beauty and her terror~

2009-02-08T23:50:22Z

There's been a real heatwave through the south-east states of Australia over the last two weeks. This weekend was the worst with the temperature reaching reached 46.4°C on Saturday - the hottest day on record. A terrible consequence of the temperatures are the bushfire which rip through the dry undergrowth.

I was chatting to my family this morning and found out that almost the towns of Marysville and Kinglake have been burnt to the ground. Marysville is one of this wonderful little country towns about an hours drive north-east from my house - it's lovely place to go for a Sunday drive and pick up lunch at the bakery. It's almost unbelievable to think that most of it is gone. The people who live out that way are a pretty hardy bunch and know the risks of living so close to the bushland and I'm sure that the town will eventually recover, but it's still a bit of a shock when you see the photos. It's a terrible thing to happen.

At the moment the death toll is 108 (and they're still counting). That alone makes it probably the worst bushfire disaster in Australian history easily outstripping the Ash Wednesday and Black Friday bushfires. Thankfully there's been somewhat of a cool change and that's helping to get the fires under control. I still worry that a few people I know live quite close to some of the places where fires are burning. Hopefully I'll be able to get in touch with them soon.

Sometimes it sucks to live in a "Sunburnt country".

And then you hear news that some of it may have been deliberately lit... Damn... the world is full of some utter trash...

Meme time!

2009-02-04T18:04:17Z

Due to the sudden influx of memes on my friends list....
THE MEME SHOW!

From khaiyrah :

I own and wear t-shirts featuring the logos of computer/operating system manufacturers. (IBM... Linux.conf.au...)
I am over the age of 22 and live with my parents. (Though technically I'll be moving straight back in when I get home from the UK)
3. I am, according to the medical definition, obese. (BMI is close to 25 these days, that's apparently just slightly overweight... I don't eat enough in the UK apparently!)
On an average day more of my human interaction happens on message boards or in blog comments than with actual other people.
I have ended real friendships over arguments about computer or product choices.
I very seriously and passionately try to talk people into buying or switching to my OS/phone/product of choice. (Well... it depends. I'm a very big Linux/FOSS enthusaiast, but still belive that there are right product for the right person. I still wouldn't give Linux to my Aunt)
I commonly use very specific technical jargon without considering whether or not the person I'm talking to understands it.
I hold an engineering or IT degree. (Oh how you taunt me so! One day! One day I'll graduate, I swear!!!)
I have made a member of the opposite sex sit and watch me play video games for an hour or more.
I play with my phone at restaurants. (I take my Laptop to the Pub! Beat that!)
Almost all of my jokes are actually just catchphrases or references to The Simpsons, Family Guy, Borat, or any other popular comedic film or show. (Alas, yes. I love a good quote. Though when I occasionally come up with something amusing on my own no one believes me...)
I have a medical problem that makes me sweat a lot.
I live or have lived for an extended period completely nocturnally, sitting at my computer all night and sleeping all day.
I generally do not leave my home if it's not necessary for work or food retrieval. (I go out to the Pub at least once a week with mates, help out at the Theatre and hang around the Uni labs more often than not. Far nicer than sitting at home alone all day.)
I have over 50,000 Xbox 360 Gamerpoints.
I work in electronics retail.
I generally am only friends with other Apple people/Windows people.
My sense of humor is more in line with 4chan than any other comedic source.
I hang out exclusively with members of the same sex.
I own and wear a cowboy hat, Kangol hat, fedora and/or bowler.
I am the dominant talker in most conversations I have.
I think the Star Wars trilogy/Star Trek series is the greatest thing ever put to celluloid and will argue all night about it.
When I hang out with my friends, we usually play Risk, Axis and Allies, Dungeons and Dragons and/or Settlers of Catan. (Yet I know what all of these are...)
I have a level 80 character in World of Warcraft.
I've dressed up as a video game character/manga character in public on a day other than Halloween.
I say internet acronyms such as LOL and BRB out loud. (Ocasionally...)
I own a sword, nunchucks and/or throwing stars.
I'm an obsessive collector.
I make my own image macros.
I really, really love my cat. Like, really.
I have corrected someone's spelling or grammar on a message board or in blog comments. (Only when people correct mine first!)
I have authored and obsessively updated Wikipedia entries about cartoons from the 80's.
I breathe through my mouth, mostly.
I've read all of the greatest novels ever published, all of which happen to be graphic novels.
I suffer from halitosis and/or a laziness-based aversion to dental hygiene.
I vote for politicians based on their stance on net neutrality. (It would make an impact, yes)
My dream girl has eyes the size of dinner plates, is part robot or, optimally, both.
I am a very active member of a private, invite-only BitTorrent tracker with extremely strict ratio/bitrate requirements.
I regularly ingest a large amount caffeine and suffer if I don't.
I'm convinced that I would be happier if I worked on the Starship Enterprise.
I do things for the "lulz." (Yeah. But I wouldn't usually put it that way)
I always have the last word in online arguments. Always.
I wear sweatpants more than any other type of pants.
I am a guy and I have a ponytail.
I believe that it's the rest of the world that's awkward and I actually have everything pretty much figured out.
I have a hard drive exclusively dedicated to porn.
I write letters to companies and consumer interest blogs whenever I feel that I've been wronged.
I'm married in Second Life but single in real life.
I read Gizmodo more than the New York Times. (Only because I can't really read the New York Times here!)
I am offended by this test! (Seen worse!)

11-20 points - Clearly I really need to work a bit to reach a truly epic level of social ineptness! ;)

From janusd :

Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 4.
...dazzled by a low fence of quiet steady flames that ran across a pro
Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you reach?
A pile of paper consisting of a delicate blend of lecture slides/notes and writing pad scribbles and other stuff that got about half sorted on Tuesday.
What is the last thing you watched on TV?
BBC News in the Pub on Monday. Watching the utter chaos that the snow causes. (That was all that seemed to be on)
Without looking, guess what time it is:
5:15pm
Now look at the clock. What is the actual time?
5:19pm
With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
The occasional door shutting down the corridor
When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
4:30pm. Coming back home after doing some computer work on the servers.
Before you started this survey,
Reading emails. Drinking a cup of tea.
What are you wearing?
Black cargo pants, long sleeve University cotton shirt and a jumper.
Did you dream last night?
Nope.
When did you last laugh?
With the guys in the server room. Making jokes about how bad our machines are. :p
What are on the walls of the room you are in?
The walls are painted this rather pale avocado green colour. Unfortunately we're not supposed to put anything on the walls since it'll take off the paint. Pin board is full of college accommodation information, pamphlets and a jotterpad of important notes. Above the windows are still one set of paper-chains from Christmas.
Seen anything weird lately?
Lots of ice that appears to have frozen in a thin layer directly over little potholes.
What do you think of this quiz?
Too long! I have at least another one to go after this one!
What is the last film you saw?
Uhm. The Princess Bride I guess.
If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy?
I'm not sure... Probably the rest of my HECS debt.
Tell me something about you that I don't know about
I used to do Gymnasics as a kid. Still rather flexible (I can touch my toes with straight legs!) and occasionally it disturbs people.
If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
Fix the really fucked up stuff in the world. Some days you can only shake your head...
Do you like to dance?
"Dance like a dweeb!" - Only when someone drags me out and forces me to have fun!
George Bush:
Will probably go down in history... Glad to see a change.
Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Emily or Emma seem to be nice names off the top of my head.
Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Michael or Stuart are good too.
Would you ever consider living abroad?
Sure. I've fallen in love with Scotland... as such it's certainly an option to consider. I could come out here after I graduate... Clearly much more thought needs to be put into that decision though.
What do you want God to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that!" and promptly vanished in a puff of logic.
Tag six people who might also do this in THEIR journal:
Six people raise their hands please

That's all for now folks!

"Maybe it's the Hamlet she just misquothed or the sixth glass of wine I just quaffed..."

2009-01-29T17:32:48Z

'Storm': A beat poem by Tim Minchin

Oh dear. This guy is really quite witty and lyrical.
Was at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival a few years ago. :)

"Grow up"

2009-01-27T12:44:45Z

Argh. Really feel quite out of it today...

We had fire alarm go off in the wee hours of the morning.... again...
2.25am.... This time there was also no power in the building... (At least I found a pair of pants, shoes and jumper to wear into the cold)
And again it was some utter ****-wit who decided it would be funny to set of the CO₂ fire extinguisher in the hallways
Cue sitting in the common room for an hour while we wait for the CO₂ smoke to dissipate...
... And then finally getting a lecture from the L&B Fire Brigade...

*grumble*

So now you have a bunch of grumpy students who are short on sleep, a bunch of grumpy cleaners who have to clean fire extinguisher discharge of the walls and the ceilings, a bunch of grumpy firemen who really have better things to be doing than attending ANOTHER false fire alarm and one really grumpy warden who has to do a bunch of paperwork and trying to work out who on earth set the thing off...

So if you're moving into any sort of shared accommodation... Leave the fire equipment alone... It's not bloody funny...
People like me will come along and give you one serious kick up the ass. >/

RAARRGH!!!!

(I could now go on about people also being utter grotts... Hell, you're all basically over 18 now... you shouldn't need your mother to clean up your mess behind you...)

Big Ideas (don't get any)

2009-01-25T20:03:33Z

Clever. I'm now tempted to build me a HDD speaker out of one of the several dead ones we have at home.

What's that falling outside the window sill?

2009-01-19T11:23:25Z

Hmmm... I'm not quite sure what that stuff outside is...
but if I had to take a guess I'd have to say it's just started snowing*...
(That or someone has got one damn big bonfire going outside)

* If I had to design snow, that's probably what it would look like