Warhammer 40k Purchases

Today I bought the latest White Dwarf (313), the Games Workshop 2006 Catalogue, and a pot of Chaos Black.

The latter has been depressing me for a good 3 days now; since I have every paint in the Games Workshop collection, including the Gloss Varnish and the new Matt Varnish, and I ran out of Chaos Black, the most used colour by almost all painters. I could have bought sooner, but I just couldn't be bothered. So for the last 3 days I've been making do with watering down the dregs of a pot.

Regarding the new White Dwarf, I'll likely edit this post later today with what I thought. One thing that caught my eye is the loads of very nice chaos scenery.

The Games Workshop 2006 Catalogue, is much like the previous year's, however there are a few nice differences. Again I'll likely edit this post later today with my thoughts.

Whilst buying these 3 items I finally got a look at and inside the new £50 army case. We're talking suitcase. It's massive! This I'd very much like.

Further 40k Development

Things are busying up for me a little in the Warhammer 40k department.

I've been reading and posting a good bit on the, TheWarp.net forum, a Warhammer/40k forum I joined on Christmas day.

There someone mentioned this light-hearted, worth reading article--Perspectives on Painting.

It mentions in that article posting online what you've got painted, no matter how trivial, to keep you at it.

Well I'm now onto painting my fifth Khorne Berzerker arm holding a bolt pistol and fifth shoulder pad, since I took up painting miniatures again after a 2 month break. I've also been making attempts here and there to get the back of some of their backpacks painted up a little bit more. In all these Khorne Berzerkers I'm currently painting, total 24 (3 squads of 8), and all 24 are near complete so I'm pleased.

After those, my World Eater painting consists of painting Khârn the Betrayer, 3 Aspiring Champions (shown in this blog entry), and 8 Chaos Marines that I'm currently thinking will be Possessed Marines, possibly with Daemonic Talons. These other 12 marines are all nicely cleaned-up, partially glued, and sprayed, and all ready for painting.

Cookies

I finally got around to disallowing all cookies in Firefox 1.5. Those text files web sites save on your computer to retain data about you--albeit usually harmless things like whether you're logged in to their site or not.

Have to say I like how cleanly Firefox does this. I just go to the obvious Tools-Options menu option and click the Cookies tab, then untick, Allow sites to set Cookies. After that I just click the adjacent Exceptions button and here I simply set my cookie whitelist.

The great thing is I'm never nagged about a site not being able to create a cookie.

Testing Flock 0.4.10

I'm currently looking into Flock (Flock 0.4.10 to be exact) to see what it's all about, and what it has to offer. Think next-gen Firefox basically.

I'll mention more later, but for now here's the article that got me interested in checking it out.

Firefox Extensions

In all the time I've used Firefox to browse the net, roughly two years now, I've oddly only now decided to look into the many free Firefox extensions available. I guess I was happy with the way things were.

Lately though (in Firefox 1.5), I've been wanting even more control. And over the previous 24 hours, I've been pretty amazed by the control these extensions are giving me.

AniDisable 1.1
With the simple click of a radio button, all animated GIFs are now just static images, allowing me to read forum posts with less distraction.

Adblock 0.5.2.056
So good you just shake your head, and like AniDisable, a real no-brainer to use. I can even simply right-click any forum signature image and select to never see it again. Truly this is a superb extension, and one many a person does not want you using.

NoScript 1.1.3.5
This is excellent, and frequently recommended by others. It blocks all JavaScript, Java (and other plugins). The problem is you really need to be web savvy to quickly get to grips with this. You need to know when something is supposed to happen, and that because it's not, whether to ignore, or grant some scripting access - to who, and whether permanently or temporarily.

StumbleUpon 2.2
Adds an extra toolbar to Firefox (which you can toggle on/off). Basically you click the Stumble button which will give you a site at random, on a subject you've said interests you, and has been recommned by others. If you like it you can click the thumbs up button. If you dislike it you can click the thumbs down button. You can also read what others have said about it, and post your own comment.

Whilst on the subject of Firefox, you may be interested in this article on the history of Firefox, from 0.1 to 1.0.2.

Google's Ranks in the Top 100 Most Popular Sites

Been meaning to mention this for a few days now, because it's of interest just how popular Blogger.com is--and being that they're part of the whole Google network how it relates to their traffic as a whole. On a side note, check how high Google.co.uk is. Considering AOL.com is rank 20, us Brits seriously dig our Google'ing!

Okay so in the top 3 most popular sites, we have:

1: Yahoo.com
2: MSN.com
3: Google.com

...and then continuing with all other Google sites in the top 100, we have:

16: Google.co.jp
17: Google.co.uk

29: Blogger.com

38: Google.es
39: Google.de
40: Google.ca

43: Google.com.tr

61: Google.fr

86: Google.com.au

92: Google.it

Warhammer 40k

For those who don't know, I'm pretty heavily into Warhammer 40k.

Or atleast I was until 2 months ago, when I finally got back online after a 6 month hiatus. The first time I'd basically gone a day without the Internet since 1998. So pretty harsh. The good news was, it was my first time with broadband.

Suffice to say this, with broadband's killer app: BitTorrent, has proven quite the distraction. Fortunately over the last few days I've got back to painting, even if it has only involved painting two arms and two shoulder pads for two Khorne Berzerkers.

Anyway I have three armies: my main (and huge) army of Imperial Fists; World Eaters; Kabal of the Black Heart. I'm hoping to eventually get some photos of them online.

Linuxgirlie

Meh. The perfect woman. Shame they're so rare.

Chill Out

Now, it's time, to chill out.

Google Holiday Logos

This is cool. Google holiday and event logos for the last 7 years.

Massive USB Flash Drives

Regarding what I was saying yesterday about my new 1 Gb USB Flash Drive, and how the next stage later on, would be a bigger USB Flash Drive I did some checking.

Currently, by the maker of my previous, 256Mb USB Flash Drive, there's the 4Gb Cruzer Mini, priced at US $319.99. Then there's the 8Gb JetFlash, priced at US $650. I found another 8Gb, priced at US $799.99, so consider that previous price tag a good thing.

In the land of the extreme, whilst not USB, and for Military/Aerospace use etc. (folk that can afford it) is the M-Systems 176Gb Flash Drive!

Bugs Web Game

Pretty cool web game. And original too.

Update 25 Dec '05: 91,150 is my best score so far.

LOL

I won't explain, just check it out.

My New USB Toys

Got a couple new USB toys today. The first is a 1Gb USB Flash Drive. Something I've been needing for a while now, since my 256Mb USB Flash Drive, whilst it served me well, just isn't big enough any more.

Every time I wished to quickly and conveniently move a 350Mb AVI programme, a 700Mb AVI film, or just basically the contents of a CD I was reminded that I could not.

The next stage will be another USB Flash Drive I imagine, because they're so handy, just one that can hold atleast a DVD's worth, i.e. 4.36Gb. This I won't require for some time though.

The second toy is a Goodmans GMP 315 (256Mb) MP3/WMA Player. At only 256Mb it's no iPod I know, but it does glow a nice neon blue, has a neck strap, and provides 10 hours of play time on just one AAA battery (whether it does or not is another story, and I'm doubting).

On the negative side, whilst the playback quality sounds fine--the maximum volume could be a little louder, maybe it's just that I'm used to big headphones, the buttons are somewhat fiddly, and the scrolling ID3 tag information is so blurred it hurts the eyes to read.

So what did I put on it? 41 Christmas songs of course! ;p

Two Ninjas & A Lion

Here's a blog post with links to three great videos. One showing crazy acrobatics, the other less crazy but no less impressive, and the third... er well two white dudes rapping about Narnia. ;o

My Firefox 2.0 Contribution

Made my first [Mozilla] Wiki post today, with my idea for a Search Service:User Interface Design improvement. Being that it's a Wiki and so anyone can edit parts of the document, I've included below my addition verbatim:

Search Box Context-Sensitive Menu, Go Option

Currently you can interface seemingly everything in Firefox with just the mouse, except for the search box where you need to press enter. Rather than a Go button taking up toolbar space, it would be handy to have the Go option in the context-sensitive menu.

Fake Photo Perfection

Came across this impressive Flash demonstration of just how heavily edited photos can be to make models and/or the rich and famous, appear perfect.

My Slashdot Story

Ah good ol' Slashdot, a site I've been visiting regularly for many years now. Anyhows, I finally got around to rejoining, since I've forgotten my old password, and have the vast majority of the time just visited anonymously without bothering to post comments. I couldn't recover my password either since the email address is no longer available to me.

[Update 21 Dec 05: Had another couple pops at my password and got lucky! A password and e-mail change later, and finally I can go back to my GeorgeFrancisco account. As in, Det. Samuel 'George' Francisco from Alien Nation.]

Anyway, an amusing thing I read just a moment ago in CmdrTaco's Journal (the site's founder) was:

"Since we reject 98% or more of all submissions, so the odds that YOUR submission just got rejected are pretty good."

Only once did I submit a news story, and it was accepted. At the time I remember it putting me in a very good mood, and now knowing of the 2% chance of a successful submission really does help feed the ego. :)

Groening Confident on Futurama Relaunch

Many fans found it odd that Fox had cancelled Futurama, and so in light of Family Guy returning because of high DVD sales, this news will come as little suprise to many.

Whilst it doesn't mean for sure it's returning I don't see why not. As long as they do it justice, it's guaranteed to be a success.

Photobucket

Irritated by Blogger's recommendation of Hello software to get images in your blog, that it sucks basically, I signed up for a free Photobucket account.

Now that I have better control over the images appearing in this blog, I'll want to add more, something it's currently lacking somewhat.

Gaim 2.00beta 1

Gaim, the open source, free, multi-platform, multi-protocol instant messaging client, is something I've tried a number of times in the past but was never happy with its buggieness as a substitute for MSN Messenger. That and not being able to dock it in the system tray like MSN Messenger.

Well fingers crossed this release of a program I haven't tried in quite some time, proves less buggy, and thanks to the impressive array of plug-ins Gaim readily comes with, I had it docking to the system tray with the tick of a box.

So why, personally, Gaim over MSN Messenger, a program that's served its purpose admirably for the last 2 years?

Whilst I use Microsoft Windows, which is anything but open source, this is because I want to easily play PC/Windows games, something I could do in my preferred operating system, Linux , with additional software, but it's easier this way.

That being said, just because you use Microsoft Windows, doesn't mean you can't still embrace the open source ideology. This I do by having the majority of applications on my computer be open source. That open source software is superior, and usually free, are two of the many perks.

Another advantage is that with MSN Messenger it would open Internet Explorer for my Hotmail account, the only time I'd ever use Internet Explorer. Now with Gaim it (shock horror) opens Hotmail in my default browser, Firefox.

Inventor of the Web Starts a Blog

Very cool. The legend, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World-Wide Web, now has his own blog.

It's a Wonderful Internet

Great piece of flash, for fans of the film and the net.

Orb Goes Cordless!

On the minor side, today I bought a 20" TV (my mother's Christmas present), but more importantly I also purchased a black and silver cordless mouse and keyboard! =)

It's the first time I've owned a cordless keyboard, or cordless mouse, and the mouse is optical, so another first for me.

The reason I've never bought either before, is that until recently I've always kept the mouse and keyboard directly in front of the monitor, but now I also like to be relaxing away from the computer when watching a video on it. So now thankfully there's no more tugging at the cables. I even have a wheel now. Something I didn't have on my previous bargain basement 2 button mouse. :)

Ideally I also need wireless headphones (I used to have a pair), since I like to watch videos nice and loud during the early hours of the morning. For the moment I have a nice pair, with a good(ish) sized cable, but wireless will be a lot more convenient with the mouse and keyboard.

Double Dragon

Ah Double Dragon, sweet memory lane. First at the arcade, then the Master System, then the NES, then the Gameboy, then the SNES, then the Megadrive. Never a dull-moment.

Anyhows here's a sweet page I found today.

Nvu, The Web Authoring Program

Nvu, the free, and open source web authoring program, based on Mozilla Composer, is a program I haven't tried since its first test release - 0.17 I believe.

Back then it was pretty ropey, but in need of a web authoring program that was free, preferably open source, and could perfectly validate my HTML, I happened across the fact this had reached 1.0 and decided to give it a go.

At only 6.6Mb, it downloaded in a snap, installed in an instant, and from first impression looks beautiful. Easy to use, and yet feature-packed, with a super clean interface. As for validation, it's the nicest I've seen.

China View

Found this impressive site that covers world news, but primarily news regarding China, and it's available fully in english.

What caught my interest was the headline, " China moves to No.4 in GDP rankings."

Fun USB Drives

I've seen these covered in a good few articles of late, but these are the best quality pictures I've encountered.

Wacky Korean Karaoke

What can I say. Great stuff.

My Name is Earl

Continuing with the list of recommended television programmes currently up to episode 10 of the first season, having already mentioned Surface and Supernatural, is My Name is Earl.

It's a comedy about a guy who moments after winning $100,000 on a scratchcard, gets hit by a car, resulting in the ticket being lost. In hospital he has an ephiphany and realises it's all to do with karma and plans to right the many bad things he's done in his life; which he lists on a piece of paper. His karma theory is then given credence by the fact it results in him getting his scratchcard back.

So each episode regards righting a wrong from this large list, with the scratchcard winnings allowing him to fund this massive venture.

What makes this comedy come alive is the people who populate it. Jason Lee who plays Earl Hickey is now chubbier, hairier, and generally more manly than you've seen him in the past, and Ethan Suplee (aka the guy in Mall Rats who kept staring at the magic-eye picture), who plays his brother Randy, is now thinner and more dishevelled.

Particularly excellent is Jaime Pressly, a relatively unknown as far as I know, who plays Earl's ex-wife, Joy. She has the whole white trash bit down perfectly. In fact the realness, or exaggeration of realness because it's comedy, is what makes this stand apart from many US comedies.

Centering a Blog Image

Since Xen asked about this and I had to investigate, I figured I'd mention how to center a blog image for future reference. Basically go to edit your post and enclose the thumbnail image (and its link to the full size image) with:

(p style="text-align:center")

...and...

(/p)

Replacing rounded brackets with HTML brackets.

Doom a Disappointment

Just finished watching Doom. Shock, horror, it's yet another computer game film tie-in disappointment.

Always some idiot director, idiot producers, and idiot executives think they know better than staying true to what made said game popular. 40% through this film I couldn't wait for it to end.

Nokarot's Badgerly Blog of Badgerness

It has nothing to do with badgers or carrots, and much to do with pie and weebls. It's Nok's blog of comeback!

Nok, like Xen, I should mention, is another long time online cohort. For the forum we all lurk at, check out Order-FM.

Amusing Pic

An amusing pic I just found on the net.

Paul's Blog of Awesome!

My online cohort Paul, better known to myself and some others, as Xens, has just started up his own blog of awesome to combat my work of amazingness.

"Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight!"

"Ancient Spirits of Evil, transform this decayed form into Mumm-Ra the Ever Living!"

"Thunder! Thunder! Thunder! Thundercats, Ho!"

Yep, he's a big Thundercats fan.

Supernatural Coolness

Whilst favouring Surface over Supernatural, another show currently up to episode 10 of Season 1, it doesn't diminish this shows coolness.

Okay so it's a little dumbed down compared to Surface and the plots and effects are amusingly taken liberally from other plots (The Ring, I know What You Did Last Summer, Candyman, The Frighteners) but the acting is acceptable, the visuals and camera work impressive, the plots engaging enough, and that black car, shot from all angles will never get old.

Surface Rocks

With Star Trek no more for the indefinite future, it sure is good to find quality television to fill that void.

Surface, still in its first season, with episode 1 having first aired on the 19th September, and episode 10 being the last to air on November 28th, with episode 11 to appear on January 2nd, is in my mind compulsory viewing for all Sci-fi fans.

There's something perversely captivating about watching each episode to advance in plot just the tiniest amount.

And as for the ending to episode 2. I won't spoil it by mentioning, but it's one of the most awesome of endings, you will ever see.

Bicentennial Man Revisited

When I watch a film I'll stop it and make a note of where I stopped. Basically the more sittings, the worse the film. This I've been doing for the last few months now.

Sadly of late this can mean a good four sittings for one film, easy. It often makes it feel like my attention span is poor.

With this being said I obtained a copy of Bicentennial Man, a film I first watched years ago and back then thought it suprisingly good, even though my opinion had always been high of Robin Williams, even after the awful Toys.

With a runtime of 2 hours 12 minutes it's noticably longer than your average film and even though this was now my third time I've seen it, my attention was held completely for the entire duration of the film.

Test Post

A test post. Actual blog content to appear within the hour. The net awaits hungrily. *rolls eyes*