Crashed Pips - Computers, politics, emetic trash

Monday, December 31, 2007

The Crashed Pips Review Of The Year 2007

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — Jonathan Rothwell @ 20:19

I find myself faced with something of a dilemma. As it’s New Year’s Eve, I feel obliged to write a ‘year in review’ post.

Normally, bloggers make this a lengthy affair, and some have even made them in video with sound and pictures. However, I have not the time nor the facilities to do such a thing.

Therefore, I have spent much of the last few days searching for an answer to this: how is it possible to sum up 2007 in a few words, or a picture? I searched far and wide for an answer, but failed to reach a conclusion.

And then it hit me, around twenty-eight seconds before Deal or No Deal started on Channel 4 this evening. It is a simple and effective way of portraying the spirit of 2007, with a simple image and a four-word caption.

 2007 was Trash

So, with that small matter out of the way, it only remains for me to wish all of my readers a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.



Saturday, December 29, 2007

Thanks Netscape, and sod off

Filed under: Software — Tags: , , — Jonathan Rothwell @ 22:08

Netscape helped the World Wide Web to become prominent. In the 1990s. And, at last, this awful anarchorism is to cease development. What I find most amusing is that they claim that it is losing users to Internet Explorer - a browser whose market share is falling as Firefox (which sprouted from a port of Netscape’s rendering engine) and Safari (which has a completely new codebase) join it in the pool of browsers on the Internet.

But in its latter years, the loss of Netscape became something that we would not mourn - in an attempt to hold on to its users, it gained a ‘cool’ (bloated) new user interface, and could use either the Gecko (Firefox) rendering engine or the Internet Explorer engine.

Even worse, it gained stupid, automatic tools to search through Netscape’s portal, Netscape’s mail service, and just about every service they offered. They tried to control your Web experience in a similar way AOL does: yet, of course, people switched to better browsers. Which they could. Unlike with AOL.

All I can really say is ‘good riddance’.



Friday, December 28, 2007

Review: C All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , — Jonathan Rothwell @ 14:47

I originally got my basic grounding in the C programming language from C for Dummies by Dan Gookin. Therefore, when given the companion book, C All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies, I knew it was going to be a great help in brushing up on the language’s nuances.

The book is immaculately laid out, and is very easy to follow. The descriptions are very good as well; the book makes pointers less of a nightmare than most other programming books out there. However, I do think that it progresses perhaps a little too fast: however, as I’d read C for Dummies beforehand, I already knew my way around and could manage.

The book does have its faults: the return(0); form has now gone out of vogue in favour of return 0;, although to be fair Dan does address this on the book’s semi-official companion website. Either way, that’s hardly going to cause the compiler to cough up errors.

What I do have a problem with is the use of gets() beyond the first section. True, the gets() function is fine to do some learning with, but beyond learning about pointers it’s best to learn about the alternatives. While the website states that fgets() is an adequate alternative to stick with just for now (which it is) I recommend using Charles Falconer’s ggets(), a replacement for the untidy mess of fgets() and scanf(), which eliminates insecurities by doing bounds checking at the same time. Clicky

Overall, however, the book is very good, very informative and incredibly useful.

C All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies by Dan Gookin
ISBN: 0-7645-7069-2 RRP: £23.99 (UK)
C All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies is now available via the Crashed Pips shop in partnership with amazon.co.uk.



Thursday, December 27, 2007

Benazir Bhutto is Dead

Filed under: Politics, The News — Tags: , — Jonathan Rothwell @ 16:48

Ms Benazir Bhutto, the woman who did so much to try to bring democracy and peace to Pakistan, has been assassinated in Rawalpindi.

A very sad end to a great woman, in my opinion. God rest her soul.

Benazir Bhutto

1953-2007

RIP


Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user IFaqeer.



Review: Freecom Data Tank 800gB

Filed under: Reviews, Shop — Tags: , , — Jonathan Rothwell @ 13:02

Freecom Data Tank 800gBMy ageing iMac DV has a miniscule (by today’s standards) hard disk - it’s only 12gB. Ridiculous. And even with a fresh install of OS X, it was starting to fill up.

Thus came the computer’s salvation from being squeezed into a puny few megabytes to breathe - the Freecom Data Tank 800gB. Don’t ask me if ‘Data Tank’ is all one word - I don’t know myself.

Either way, the packaging was (as usual) a nightmare, with the disk being squeezed into a tiny amount of space between the cables and disks. However, eventually, it was out.

The disk is quite heavy, but has a surprisingly small footprint. Its casing is aluminium with black plastic on the front and back. There are two buttons on the front to be used with the driver software, and a glowing emblem displaying the drive’s default capacity (800gB) and which flashes on and off when the disk is being accessed.

Inside, there are two 400gB SATA disks working in a RAID array, which then connects to your computer via either USB2 or FireWire 400/800. And, yes, they used the ‘fake gigabyte’ - the true combined value is around 745gB.

Nevertheless, this is still enormous, and the drive works fine without any drivers. I can use software encryption on Mac OS X if I want to, and I have an Automator script which will back up my Users folder every evening.

The power comes from an odd-looking plug coming from the brick which hooks up to the mains supply. It does have the annoying habit of spinning down after not being accessed for five to ten minutes - and it takes around fifteen seconds to spin back up again. It is an annoying, but minor inconvenience.

Far more inconvenient is the stupid software - a rubbish Flash menu, linking you to the Freecom website to download some encryption software. While this menu irritates you, a pretentious and stupid video in the corner declares that ‘IT TOOK MAN TEN MILLION YEARS TO ACCUMULATE 11 EXABYTES OF DATA’. Shut up!

I ended up removing the disk (thank goodness for the eject key on the keyboard) and I intend to ceremoniously burn it on New Year’s Eve. OK, maybe tonight.

One other detail that I do like about the disk is the quietness of it; there is a minor hum from the rotating platters, and that’s it. You have to physically put your ear to the machine to hear the head moving.

Overall, I’m impressed: if you ignore the idiotic software and power-saving scheme, the device is wonderful. Bravo Freecom.

Freecom DataTank 800gB: £155.68

Score: 4.9/5

Contact: Freecom, freecom.com

The Freecom DataTank is available from the Crashed Pips shop, in partnership with amazon.co.uk.



Wednesday, December 26, 2007

NOTHING BUT Reviews Week

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , — Jonathan Rothwell @ 12:54

Well, good afternoon. I hope you had a good Christmas yesterday.

In their unparalleled (well, maybe paralleled) generousness, my friends and family have deluged me with books, hardware and DVDs, all of which give me something to do over the next few days of post-Christmas boredom. I shall have my work cut out.

Over the next few days, there will (probably) be nothing but reviews on the front page (hence the name of NOTHING BUT Reviews Week. And there will be many. Among the items I hope to review are

  • The QI Annual: ‘E’ by Stephen Fry, John Lloyd and co.
  • C All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies by Dan Gookin
  • E-Tales: The Best And Worst Of Internet Humour
  • Is It Just Me Or Is Everything Shit? by Steve Lowe and Alan McArthur
  • The QI Book of Animal Ignorance by Messrs Fry, Lloyd, Davies and co.
  • The Darwin Awards: 180 Bizarre True Stories of how Dumb Humans have met their Maker by Wendy Northcutt
  • World War II - in Colour
  • Freecom DataTank 800gB
  • Some Sort of Mikomi Bluetooth Adapter
  • Energizer Reading Light

(That said, I might give the last two a miss.



Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas!

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jonathan Rothwell @ 00:00

I’d like to wish all of my readers a very happy Christmas. Have a great day, and here is a thought I present to you as a pseudo-present: perhaps the reason why Father Christmas always asks for your name at the grotto is because he lost the disks containing the names, addresses and naughty/nice data.

Merry Christmas!



Saturday, December 22, 2007

The Crashed Pips Cliché Counter: Ed Balls

Filed under: Cliché Counter, Humour, Politics — Tags: , — Jonathan Rothwell @ 23:42

As I’ve mentioned on this site before, it always seems that politicians and spokespeople use predetermined phrases in all of their speeches. It invariably nettles me if I try to watch a report on Newsnight about Prime Minister’s Questions.

I recently came across the Downing Street YouTube channel, and the first thought that came into my mind was how infested it was with political clichés. You can see where this is going.

So, it is with great pleasure that I present the Crashed Pips Cliché Count-O-Matic 2007+ New Labour Government Edition With SmartLoad Checking Technology, or the Cliché Counter for short. Put simply, I’ll analyse a PR video, and keep a running total in the corner of how many clichés they use. It’s almost like a swear box, although the politicians are too busy using their public money to pay their parking fines.

So, here’s my first analysis - a rather interesting video in which we see Ed Balls stuttering, hesitating and clearly reading off an autocue littered with the words ‘invest’ and ‘progress’.

Enjoy.



Arrogant and incompetent

Filed under: Politics, The News — Tags: , — Jonathan Rothwell @ 15:10

Help me: I’m agreeing with Mike Huckabee on George Bush’s foreign policy…



Bah humbug

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — Jonathan Rothwell @ 14:20

It’s that time of year again. Yes, the decorations are up in just about every shop you could lay your eyes on, the adverts have been on for months and months and months, and you’re blinded by the stupid outside decorations on nearly every ex-council house you find.

Now, I’m all for the Christmas spirit, but something that perpetually cheeses me off about Christmas is the proliferation of the irritating songs. Not carols - simply the infuriating songs such as Stop the Cavalry, Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time, and Merry Christmas Everyone. You can’t escape them - they’re on the radio, they’re played as piped music in lifts and in shops, and worse still your boss then plays it to you in a vain attempt at an end-of-year party.

Of course, there’s also the cretinous spouting that Christmas has been overtaken by political correctness. No, the Winterval is not an attempt to replace Christmas. More and more office parties are held year on year, and almost all offices are decorated. As Stephen Fry said on the last QI of this year’s E series, it’s your fault for reading the Daily Mail.

Then there’s the tacky cards which don’t actually say ‘Happy Christmas’ inside, and the onslaught of perfume adverts. And, worst of all, bloggers feel obliged to write a ‘Year in Review’ post.

I don’t have a problem with writing such a post myself, but it is being consigned specifically to New Year’s Eve. And, if the perfume adverts, year in review posts, anti-PC brigade, Christmas specials on the TV, and the wrapping paper hasn’t infuriated you enough, the fact that for the past few years the Christmas No. 1 has been hijacked by the X Factor is enough to bring out the Scrooge in anyone.

Merry Christmas… ;-)



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