Thursday, May 29, 2003
I need to blog. It's been days, but what can I tell you?Days spend sleeping and nights spent downloading stuff and messing around in chatrooms.
Not much to read about, but great fun from my perspective.
Apart from my own chatroom, I've taken to hanging out a lot in #england on undernet. Truth is, I've hung out there for years, but have taken to having a slightly higher profile of late. #England being what it is, not everyone likes or even gets the place... it's a tough room, but great for keeping you on top form, chat wise... 'cause if you can hack it in there and get noticed, you'll have no trouble anywhere else.
Labels: chatrooms
Steve 9:07 PM [+] (0) comments
Monday, May 26, 2003
Kazaa Lite UsersSo, all this messing around with file share systems over the past week or so has made me realise people are really stupid.
Well, yeah, we knew this already, but what's frustrating is how people don't understand how file sharing works... or rather, how it should and could work.
The theory is, one person starts sharing a file to say 3 people, then once they've downloaded it from the first person, they should stay online for a while allowing others to download it from them, so you get a snowball effect, till there should be thousand of people sharing the same file, creating great download speeds.
That's how it should happen.
What actually happens is, 2 of those 3 people downloading the original file either go offline once they've got it, or remove it from their shared folder, meaning no-one else can get it from them, and the 3rd does the most stupid thing and renames the file. This means you have 2 people sharing what is basicly the same file, but with different names, which completely negates the whole point of the system. They're back at square one.
Duh!
People, if you're p2p users, do everyone a favour, stay online an hour or so after you've completed your download, and don't rename the thing. It might look cool to have your name on a file that's going round, but it screws up the whole system.
Labels: p2p
Steve 4:31 AM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, May 25, 2003
I've deleted the majority of the last week's posts.After reading various forums and seeing some of the heavy duty shit that can go down, I decided it was wise to not broadcast certain details in this blog.
If you're here looking for specific details on certain movie releases, that info is not here, (nor was it ever, I don't know what you're talking about) however... go check out the links below, you'll find all the information you need if you look hard enough.
Steve 7:02 AM [+] (0) comments
Friday, May 23, 2003
The Benway Guide To Downloading Movies (If you're not interested in such stuff, skip this post, it'll bore you senseless.)The first port of call when looking for a movie is always going to be Kazaa Lite closeley followed by MinMX
These are both fairly typical file sharing systems where you'll often find movies in mpg and avi formats. However, the movies you'll find here have usually been reprocessed by various movie sharing groups, and the quality can often be questionable. The speed of downloads can often suck too, as very often people just grab the movie they want and then remove it form their shared folder, meaning there are only a few people sharing the file, with thousands trying to download it.
The solution to both of these problems is to go directly to the source, obtaining the movie in it's original form (or as near to it as possible) as it was distributed by the group who first obtained it.
The first port of call is usually an irc channel, the details of which I'm not going to go into, as usually these files are split into about 50 rar files, which then need to be decompressed, rejoined, and have numerous other conversions done to make them work. I know how to do it, but it's a pain in the arse and not really worth the hassle.
So... the next place these files will so up, and a much more useful system is on BitTorrent.
This is a very clever and (I suspect deliberately) confusing file sharing system. Unlike Kazaa Lite or WinMX, there is no search facility, and to make things more confusing, the first time you run the program it will give you nothing but an error message, and appear not to be working. Pretty good for putting those who'd like to shut it down off the trail.
So how does it work?
First, you go to the link above and download the program. Next, you need to go the a website that lists live torrent files, the most popular at the moment being www.suprnova.org. Here you'll find a list of links to various movies, tv shows, software, games and various other files. If you have the bittorrent program, you can click on those links, a small file will download onto the temp files folder of your system which will automatically run your bittorrent program and begin downloading the movie or whatever file you've clicked on. If you don't have bittorrent installed, all you'll get is a webpage or file filled with rubbish that appears to make no sense at all. (Also good for putting off those who don't know what they're doing.)
What happens next is, bittorrent will allocate a space on your drive for the file, making it look like you already have it (this confused the hell out of me at first), and only then will it begin downloading, while at the same time uploading the same file from you to other users. This is rather an elegant system, as it removes the need for large queues as seen on other systems. Also, the more data you upload, the faster your download will come through (usually), which is handy for preventing people from hacking the system so they can download without uploading, and makes the whole thing more usable for everyone.
Now, assuming you've downloaded a movie from bittorrent, chances are you won't have an mpg or avi, but a set of .cue and .bin files ammounting to 1 - 2 gigs, which don't appear to do anything. At this point you can either burn then to a writable CD using nero or similar (I've never done this so can't go into the details), or alternatively, you can use vcdgear to convert them into mpg files which you can view with media player.
Other Useful Sites:
www.vcdquality.com has up to the minute reviews of all the latest movies that have been made available by the various crews and groups.
AVIPreview allows you to preview movie files from Kazaa Lite, WinMX and similar before they've finished downloading... handy for checking that they're not fakes or broken files. (This doesn't work with bittorrent.)
GSpot is a handy tool for telling you what video codec a file needs to be viewed. Very often a file may appear to not be working, when in truth you simply don't have the required codec.
MovieCodec.com is a good starting point for finding info about codecs, and has a large (if sometimes obnoxious) forum which can sometimes be informative.
Steve 11:06 PM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Personality tests as blog posts suck, but I liked this one, so nyah-nyah... I'm posting it.
What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla
Steve 6:37 AM [+] (0) comments
Friday, May 16, 2003
Woke up like a bear with a sore head and am in a generally grumpy mood today.Bystanders are recommended to stand well back and not poke their fingers through the bars.
Work on the new photo gallery is progressing, albeit rather slowly.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 6:56 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, May 15, 2003
Plans to do the new photo gallery today were delayed, but that's not a bad thing.Believe it or not, I have friends... hehehe.
So there I was, laying in bed when a friend phone's me up from her friends house, and asks if I'm up yet. I said I was still in bed... I mean, it was only 1pm. She asked if I was naked and I said yes. "We'll be over in a minute." Hehehe.
Needless to say, I was dressed by the time they got here. Only one woman in this world gets to see me in all my naked glory:-)
Steve 4:34 PM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
Some of you may have noticed that the photo album link in the sidebar is dead.Yup, imira, the site hosting my pics would appeared to have taken its toys and gone home. Booh!
Anyway, that pretty much answered the question of what I should do with the spare web-space I've had kicking around for the past few weeks. So last night I sat here wading through the millions (well... quite a few anyway) of photos sitting in my documents folder, sorting the wheat from there chaff... and there is SO much chaff. But yay, many cool and funky photos were also found, some that I'd completely forgotten about. Expect the new and improved photo album unveiling some time this century.
Steve 2:35 PM [+] (0) comments
Monday, May 12, 2003
Newsflash!Brigitte's booked in to appear in The Weakest Link. God help Anne Robinson.
They're recording on the 30th of May, though we don't know when it'll be shown on tv yet. More info as and when it's available.
Steve 5:28 PM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, May 11, 2003
What an excellent day out.Brigitte, myself, my sister Dawn, her husband Paul, and their daughter Shannon went to the Stoke Goldington Steam Rally, half way between Milton Keynes and Northampton. What follows is the story of our day in pictures... just click the links.
There was a funfair with many traditional rides and attractions, so first off, Dawn and Shannon went for a ride on a steam powered carousel. Next, Brigitte took Shannon on a rickety old helter-skelter. Shannon obviously loved it, while Brigitte's expression speaks volumes... hehehe. Paul and myself then got all manly and indulged in a spot of competative driving on the dodgem cars, which was a right old laugh.
The funfair duly explored, we then went and checked out what the rally was all about... Traction Engines.
As you can see, there was a lot of steam and smoke, and the smell was just amazing. I remember going to this rally as a kid, and even back then, I fell in love with the smell of steam engines. There's more than just traction engines though, pretty much anything steam powered had an example on display, like this steam powered car and this steam roller.
There were plenty of non-steam powered attractions too, with many classic forms of transport being covered, like bond bugs, horse drawn carts, classic motor-bikes and numerous military viehicles.
One of the larger displays was of vintage farm tractors, this one being very old and probably only just at the start of a long restoration, while this one looked like it came out of the ark. Notice the total lack of rubber tyres... you could tell where it had been, 'cause it dug up the grass everywhere it went.
After taking in all the sites, we went and bought some traditional locally made honey, and freshly made bread rolls, and then all headed on home.
Much fun :-)
Labels: photos
Steve 10:24 PM [+] (0) comments
Friday, May 09, 2003
Holy cow, was the chatroom ever jumping last night.The place has been ticking over nicely for the past few weeks, and we've slowly been accumulating more regulars... most of whom drop in at different times, often on different nights.
So last night, almost everyone was in, many at the same time, which made for some very lively conversation.
Who was in? trying to remember everyone now... myself (obviously) arry, KC, her two friends beved and MrKoyote... minnow, LittleJohn, BoaSnakes, csgraves, and JimmyD. That's not even considering the people who were in before I got online, so it's entirely possible MrJuggles was in at some point too.
All we need now is to get that little lot, along with Kylie, Mary and Netra in at the same time, and it'll be one serious party.
Labels: chatrooms
Steve 4:09 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, May 08, 2003
How is it my mum always manages to phone me when I'm either asleep or in the bath?I'm sure she's got hidden cameras in here.
Labels: annoyed
Steve 5:00 PM [+] (0) comments
Last night in the chatroom was rather a refreshing change. We had a visitor who's also a writer. Now there's nothing unusual in that... we get the occasional writer, artist, musician, or whatever dropping in from time to time. What made it refreshing was that he didn't ask me to read his material, he just joined in the conversation and was thoroughly good company.
It gets a little frustrating at times, when people assume that because I do the same thing they do, that I'm gonna be remotely interested in their work and want to check it out. I'm an artist, not an art critic, etc.
To be honest, I tend to think the last person you should ask an opinion of on some creative work is someone who's in the same business. Like... I do dance music, yet I think 99.9% of dance music is utter crap... so what am I supposed to tell some budding musician when I think his/her work sucks? "Sorry kid. That's shit. Why not take up bricklaying instead?"
Truth is... I'm just a selfish bastard. I want people to see/hear/read my stuff... everyone should... but I'm damned if I wanna see theirs.
Labels: chatrooms
Steve 2:23 PM [+] (0) comments
Wednesday, May 07, 2003
Being kinda high-profile on the web can be very trying at times, what with all the trolls, time wasters and people wanting a piece of me, but every now and then it can be really rewarding.Over the past few days I've recieved a few emails from various people... some just wanting to say they love my music or art, others thanking me for providing a portal site that's helped them find exactly what they were looking for, and one today asking for advice on a college project, 'cause they figured I was the most well informed person out there in that particular field (poor deluded person... hehe). I really do love getting stuff like that, and yeah, I am gonna help the college student if I can.
Last night was kinda fun. I was sat in the #england chatroom on undernet in the early hours, watching a few people taking the piss out of some poor deranged canadian twit, and joining in a little myself. I never need much of an excuse to wind up a canadian ;-)
Anyway... just hours before, I'd altered certain details in my software so that anyone curious enough and knowing the right commands would be able to find my webcam. I honestly didn't think anyone would do this, but during all the piss taking, one young lady messaged me out of the blue and asked if my cam was on. After horrifying her with my face on cam, we then sat and had a thoroughly enjoyable conversation, during which it turned out she has a blog. So, being someone who always enjoys introducing new bloggers to the readers here, here's Cori, lover of many things techie, and nemesis of sad bullfighter wannabes.
Steve 4:46 PM [+] (0) comments
Tuesday, May 06, 2003
I need to blog, but other than helping Brigitte fold sheets, and then realising it's all being caught on webcam, there's absolutely nothing to report.I'm not bored by any means, as chatting online always keeps me happily occupied, but for you, dear reader, it's gotta be like watching paint dry. There's some nice colours down at Homebase if you're interested.
Labels: blogging
Steve 7:13 PM [+] (0) comments
Sunday, May 04, 2003
Okay, silly chat snippet coming up.How to turn a conversation from classic literature to star wars in one line....
Cat^> ooh beowulf was hard
Cat^> although i think he couldn't have taken the red cross knight
Benway> was the red cross night related to the green cross man? he was hard when he put his darth vader costume on
Steve 6:58 PM [+] (0) comments
I'm not what you'd call a huge Madonna fan by any means, though I do have a lot of respect for her career achievements, her more recent music being very impressive.
So last night she was interviewed on tv by Jonothan Ross, and it was very enlightening. Here she was, a huge megastar, and quite obviously VERY nervous. I dunno... I just found that rather surprising. With a reputation for being a very strong woman, and probably quite hard to deal with... here she was showing that she's human, and answering some very personal questions in an honest and open manner. No attitude, no diva like bullshit, no giving it 'the big I am'.
Yup... very impressed.
I tend to view her as a bit of a female Bowie... forever changing tack, and while never being truly groundbreaking, they both have this knack of taking an existing genre and doing something really special with it. The question is, how long can she keep going? Bowie's in his mid 50s and still releasing great material. Could Madonna get away with it at that age? Should be interesting.
Labels: music
Steve 5:12 PM [+] (0) comments
Saturday, May 03, 2003
Ah well. Since I'm not spending the weekend as intended, I decided to get on with updating the chatroom.We now have a fully resizable, mac friendly, easy to access room... with new instructions and features for newcomers wanting to display their webcams. It may not be quite as elegant as the old system, but it's more functional, and that's what counts.
The link in the sidebar still works as an access point from here, taking you to the introduction page, and into the room from there.
Steve 7:43 PM [+] (0) comments
Ok... change of plan.
Having an already fucked up sleep pattern, even after going to bed early I was struggling to sleep, and then woken completely by a dumbass neighbour playing his music at full blast around 2am. Brigitte knocked on his door and after a heated exchange between the three of us, he finally agreed to turn the noise down, though made like he was doing us a favour. Twat!
The end result is, I still can't sleep and will be in no fit state to go to London tomorrow. Brigitte'd already said if I was too tired (which makes me grumpy) that I should stay home and she'd go alone... which is what's happening. No good me being there if I'm gonna be a grumpy git, especially when I need my sociable head on, being with her parents and all.
I'm not happy about it, `cause I feel like I've let Brigitte down, not to mention the fact that I was looking forward to going. I've made a concerted effort over the past 2 days to get my sleep pattern sorted so that it wouldn't be an issue, and it's all been fucked up by some stupid fucking moron who doesn't see anything wrong in playing music REALLY LOUD at 2am.
Steve 2:53 AM [+] (0) comments
Friday, May 02, 2003
Ahh... now that was a better day.Still nothing interesting to tell you. I didn't do anything noteworthy, just my mood's much improved and the headache's gone.
There won't be any new posts here till sunday night at the earliest, and that should be quite a corker. We're going to a narrowboat festival at Little Venice in London... staying with Brigitte's parents on their boat. Expect some pretty funky photos.
Steve 8:40 PM [+] (0) comments
Thursday, May 01, 2003
Most readers of my blog are probably blissfully unaware of the slanging match that's been going on in another area of blogdom. I haven't spoken about it here, mainly 'cause I don't have anything useful to add to the argument.To cut to the chase though, Eric got himself into a big fight through what could be called badly chosen wording, things got all out of hand... and I'm not gonna go into the details.
Anyways, the point of this post is that Eric is/may be calling it quits and leaving blogdom, and I just wanted to say something about that here, since comments are unavailable on his blog right now.
What exactly is it I want to say?
About what's happened there recently... absolutely nothing. About Eric though... I've followed his blog on and off for around a year now, spoken to him in batchat on occasion and it has to be said, despite his outspoken and (allegedly) troublesome nature, he's a thoroughly decent guy. His judgement may be flawed on occasion (but then who's isn't?) and he may be your worst nightmare if you get into a fight with him, but at the end of the day, I like Eric, and if he quits blogging, he'll be missed by me and many others.
Labels: blogging
Steve 11:38 PM [+] (0) comments
Ugh.
Rough day. Got overtired last night, chatting and searching for software, so when I finally crashed, I couldn't sleep. Getting 5 hours sleep and waking at 4pm is always guaranteed to leave me with a headache.
Oh fuck it. You don't wanna hear all that crap. What really happened is I had a wild party, 5 naked women in the tub, drove the Ferrari down to the beach, sat shooting the breeze with assorted movie stars and......
... then I woke up.
Ok, it really hasn't been that bad a day, I'm just bummed 'cause I can't think of anything interesting to write here, and I always get grouchy when I have a headache. That, and it feels like such a wasted day. I have lots of little projects in the pipeline, some good stuff at that, but waking up with an addled brain, I just can't think clear enough to do any of it.
Whine, whine, whine.... someone shut me up.
In conclusion then... good stuff coming, just not today. Now where did I park the Ferrari?
Labels: sleep
Steve 10:28 PM [+] (0) comments
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