Did you like The Matrix? YES NO

This post of coming from the rendered pages of a Mozilla 1.1 browser. Now The Noble One turned up his nose at it, mumering something about netscape - and sure it is related to netscape but I have to say I like it, I like it alot. Why? for a number of simple reasons.....

1. It is much faster than IE on the Mac [win users might not find that]
2. It is lighting fast compared to netscape [last Netscape I used was 6.0 for Mac, even worse than 4.7 - if that was possible]
3. It is not by Microsoft - which as a Mac user really should be up there at number one.
4. Themes, and I found one that is very nice thanks.
5. Some pages which IE did not render properly or very very slowly now work in Moz1.1
6. Text is much sharper and maybe it is my imagination but...
7. The gamma is different making the colours much warmer, and closer to the way Win machines display it.
8. Includes an IRC plug in - which I think is very cool, even thought my irc days are long gone.

Dislike so far is that the blogger site still doesn't seem to work properly - although it works better than IE, which used to make naviagtion very difficult on long posts, and like netscape it just cuts off the toolbar favourites instead of giving you a little drop down menu for the ones that don't fit across your monitor - hmmm and I just noticed that it isn't drawing the post or post and publish buttons in blogger :( this is bad. I think it must be a blogger issue, cos I scrolled up and found them. Weird.

Praetor is happy :) Woo Hoo!!! Good work Praetor, great start. An exciting moment. w00t!! w00t!!

:) Something Funny :) there was something, but I can't remember what it was - something during Year 9 this afternoon, I'm sure, cos I remember walking to the staffroom thinking "got to remember that for the blogg" - but I didn't, heh.

I was going to write an Inside Out about it, but I can't be bothered - so I will just say that I am not happy with the stance of America that they have to invade Iraq. It just doesn't seem that when UK and other sensible people don't think it's justified then maybe it isn't. Plus, if the locals aren't calling for it then I don't see they have a right to invade - killing many civillans to outst a tryant without a clear answer for replacement from a country that hasn't attacked you just doesn't work for me.

And I feel that it is fair for the Arab nations to say, help with the Palestinian question before worrying about Iraq. Unfortunately Israel seems to have too much influence or control over the US and the US doesn't seem willing to do anything about the situation. They both seem to be difficult situations to resolve and if the US feels invasion is the solution in one case, then they should be equally willing to step directly into the situation in Palestine. Well, they're my thoughts for all it's worth. Not doubt very naive and uninformed - but hey, that's never stopped no one before ;)

The Register offers it's own view of the new Mac OS 10.2, Jaguar [although I found out that Apple Australia can't call it that because Ford owns the name - true].

It seems like a fair and balanced review - although the speed of opening a Get Info window makes me wonder what he has running - I have no delay on opening get info windows. I guess the important thing to remember is that his comments on the use of the OS represent HIS USE.

Browsing forums and various sites of mac users finds that most people find 10.2 IS quicker than before - more than stately though not speedy. In other summaries - installing takes way too long [1 hour], windows sharing and connecting works seemlessly, ftp on the desktop sounds cool, although some things don't seem to work properly with the buggest worry being CD Burining - the built in CD Burning software sounds like it doesn't burn cross platform CD's properly with some windows machines not opening folders past the first level - this is seriously bad news. I don't find IE seriously flawed and as noted elsewhere it adhears closely to the w3c standards [more so than IE Win] although I know that the Win version is certainly quicker than the mac version [but then shouldn't it be, after all it is very tightly tied into Win itself] I was intending to wait a few months for the initial bugs to be ironed out and still will.

!! g33k 3rlt !! I have to talk about this amazing service NOW - I can wait no longer - it's called zeroconfig, Apple call it Rendezvous and even have a very nifty logo for it. Begun in 1999 I will let the workgroup tell you what it is all about in it's own words... Allocate addresses without a DHCP server. Translate between names and IP addresses without a DNS server. Find services, like printers, without a directory server. Allocate IP Multicast addresses without a MADCAP server What it means is serious happiness to network admins - of course the control is less, but as the site says it allows for new services and in simple environments means that setting up a TCP/IP network requires not technical knowledge - this means that computers are another step along the road to being easy to use - as easy as a TV. And good one Apple, being the first major OS to support it - so far Epson, HP and Lexmark are also supporting it.

:( Nothing Funny :( no nothing funny happened today. Although just as the bell went one of the students asked me if I had a philosophy on life I thought was good - well it had been a torrid lesson with year 9 and it just completely took me off guard. I mean the battle of doing maths after a double of PE and just before lunch was just about over and I was worn out - when ZAP out of blue comes this great question. I took a deep breathe to answer and the bell went. The student said "ok, see you sir" and walked off. Weird.

Played V8 SuperCars on the PS2 tonight - won 2 out of three races in an AU Ford - both of the wins at Bathurst - go me!!! Xbox Boy wins the day :p

The graphics are ok with a few nice touches - but sorry I have to say XBOX is better in the graphics department.

Now this is a very interesting and beautiful page. Especially the bits that talk about standards compliance - after this I don't think I will apologise to people who can't get their page to work on a mac - if you are using w3c stuff and follow the rules it should work on a mac - if you make it just so it works in IE for Win then it may not be compliant and so may not work properly. PS. the page may not work in IE for Win.

Short of prison staff? This prison in Brazil has the answer.

As I said to The Noble One, this made me laugh :)

Bugs

You can tell it's been a while since I have spent anny decent amount of time outside sitting still. I forgot how many bugs there are. All these little flying things are, well, flying, around the place - I guess they are just enjoying the sun too - it mmost inconvenient when one decides to park itself on the LCD screen of the laptop. You sort of wait a bit, jiggle the laptop a bit and hope it moves on. When it doesn't you try and just give it a gentler push and hope it leaves - you don't want to kill it on the screen - cos I know I don't have any idea of what to use to clean dead bug off a Liquid Crystal Display.

It is indeed and beautiful day - made nicer cos I don't have anywhere near the stress I used to have. This 6 months off from all ministry will be great. I will get back into something at the end of it, but probably just try and limit myself to one thing at a time and do it as best I can. I had heard that many times before, but as I am now out of the multiple ministries I was in I can see how really I was not giving my all to each of them and bits of each suffered. Just hope I don't enjoy this too much :)

And then, I thought to myself - a book and the dr sounds nice - but a book, dr and the internet sounds better :) hi there - on MSN so have a chat too.

I hate it when blogger loses a post!

Yesterday was that Christian Democratice party election laucnch thingy - myself, The Noble One, semloh and the Tech Dude In the nifty Black Cloths Praetor, did the sound and data projector - the data projector was fine and considering the circumstances the sound came off ok with a strong finish. (: Something Funny :) I guess would be finding the anti wind thingy from the nice lecturn mic we borrowed from church just sitting on the road in the turning bay, of the loading area of the place where the launch was, about 1 hour after we had all left - the laughter of relief.

It is a nice, mostly sunny day here in tooney - I think I might just go outside and enjoy a can of Dr Pepper - don't believe me? Then take a look for yourself.

The Register notes that Microsoft is in a summer patch frenzy. Just to let you windoze people know. Update now.

(: Somethings Funny:) yep two funny things, one is a girl in my year 10 computing class who has decided, quite rightly, that I am Irish and so she asks me questions like, is it good being irish? and has comments about her irish friend and stuff. I just call her a racist [jokingly] and laugh to myself - irish, huh? Anyway I am irish in descent but that's all, and along ways back in the past too. Sometimes she is quite funny though, the other kids just tell her to shut up about the irish thing :) The funny thing is Rob's cam has changed - actually nice artsy look to the broken image there Rob - but the funny thing is what's written down in the bottom right hand corner - you will just have to look at Praetor Cam yourself.

A bit childish really and of course Rob has got it all wrong - Apple Roooool!!!!

Just got back from an Apple Education info afternoon. Very very nice - the highlight was seeing 10.2 in operation and hearing about 10.2 Server! and a new product for the geeks called an XServe RAID which allows for up to 1.68TB [14 drives] of storage in a 3U enclosure, 200MB sustained data rate, dual 2GB fibre - nifty.

OS 10.2 looks very cool - the most interesting part [since I had heard or seen most of it in the Keynote] was that the demo machine was a G3 PowerBook running at 400Mhz with 196 MB of memory and it worked fine - there was only one slight hitch in a power point presentation when it was transitioning between slides with a couple of images on it but otherwise very smooth. Programmes started up very quickly. Most impressed. Other cool news was being told that windows filesharing actually works properly - like the actual network neighbourhoods turn up when you say connect to server. Plus springloaded folders make a return and they work in all views - dekstop icons, finder window icons, list view and the panes view two - sweet.

OS 10.2 Server includes a lot of refinements which should make it easier to manage and also monitor - finally includes a graphical read out of usage of the CPU and throughput of the ethernet port - as well as a few other nifty features. Scored a free T-Shirt which is always a bonus.

I was going to wait until September but then I remembered that the last Penny Arcade had gone up in July and so here it is the latest Spot the Doc - a tribute to MacHall, another web comic [if you visit the website please note it sometimes has swearing, drug references and other adult themes]

And if anyone has any ideas for future Spot The Docs please send the ideas to me - I plan to release a new one each month.

(: Somthing Funny :) well felt pretty tired yesterday and today, not any real reason - except, well, maybe I actually need to get 8 hours sleep these days - today the only funny thing was two guys in my year 9 maths class. Normally they don't do much work, unless I harass them mercilessly - but today, they did all the work and even contributed, and at one stage one of them put their hand up, waited until I said yes and then asked an intelligent question - I hate to be so cynical but something is going on I am sure of it.

Anywayz in happy [that's a pun buddies] news I stumbled across this site -

which takes me back to days of long ago - not quite my complete cup of tea - I was more a hardcore German techno boy than this stuff - but it was a nice trip down memory lane - and no this does not make me a GAB! :)

And I have been a bad boy, this having nothing to do has made me lazy - normally I'd use The Paper for stuff like this - of course that is no more - so I have a few prayer requests - firstly for the HSC guys and gals in NSW - pray for calmness, hope in God and a strong witness, plus the hard work they need and kindness in the eyes of the markers - this years bunch includes The Noble One, The Dumpster and Leanne C - prayer for them by name [yes, it's okay God will know who they are!] And praise God The Praetor got a job - click that green thingy over there cos I am sure his blogg will have news about it shortly.

On a more serious note - news has trickled through of a sucide of one HSC student in the Fairfield area [not at my school] - I don't have all the details and in some ways they aren't important - unfortunately there will be more over the coming months, which we will never hear about - so include in your prayers the self-esteem of all the HSC students and that they will be able to put this exam in perspective and see that there is hope and life aside from the HSC - pray too for us teachers and the parents of HSC students that we don't make the HSC into more than it is and crush the hope of the students in our care.

Who is Prescott?

A site called barefeats has done some Real World Speed Tests new DDR Power Mac vs SDRAM Power Mac and found

To my surprise and chagrin, the new DDR Power Mac has no apparent performance advantage over the old SDR Power Mac running at the same clock speed. The 25% faster system bus seems of no help, either. Depressing. Scandalous!

posted in the interests of beating Rob to a posting on Macs - although this just backs what I said before, that the news was not interesting about the new Macs - although this news makes it depressing not just boring :(

Also includes reasons for why the speed gain aint there. Which makes for informative reading and builds understanding of how the chip quoted speed means so little in the world of real computing - other than a mines bigger than yours marketing boys toys comparison - but what we would do without marketing - oh yeah, every company would be like Apple....

Big Idea's Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie for those who remember the good ol' days....

To celebrate the new colour scheme and layout for the site I present to you a new Inside Out the first since Christmas last year - this one is about mp3's and is dedicated to all those people I know who steal music in the name of helping out the band they love by keeping the cold hard cash out of the hands of the evil record labels - oh yeah and the band doesn't even receive the pittance they would normally obtain - read it and please comment >>>>

Now you know why the colours of the blogg had changed [I had to work on the blogg section first] - yep, bjd.au.com now has a makeover - the colour scheme is a bit less painful on the eyes, a bit more subdued. So far only this page and the bottom bar has been done - slowly it will creep around the site. I hope you like it - it is inspired by one of the blogger templates - sort of [well two of the colours are anyway] - and I added a link to Rob's cam too - I hope you like it, please feel free to comment >>>

Hmmm, what's all this then?? Why have the colours changed???

And this just goes to show that the Marketing Departmant of Apple will be the first up against the wall when the revoltion comes - but then the corporate logo is "Think Different" - a cool article with Science, Sarcasm and Sucking Up all on the one web page - and all focused around Apple - what more could I ask for?

What's that? Yeah, huh, yeah, owning one would be nice!

Hmm interesting - the PS2 will be the first console online! The Register via gameindustry.biz notes that the PS2 will release their online offering 2 months before XBOX LIVE and a bit cheaper.

Nice move Sony - wait until the behemouth opens it's mouth with a date and then undercut them!!!

It will be interesting to watch this whole Sony MS thing over the next few years - XBOX LIVE is hoping that the inclusiveness of it will beat the Sony deal which will be done on a game by game basis - meaning that each developer will have to handle all the transactions and some games will be more than others in cost - where as XBOX LIVE has one sign on fee for all the games, with a standardised interface.

I dunno - all I know is the whilst the XBOX hardware might be better than the PS2 the PS2 has many more games. Around Christmas there will be a few more games I will be interested in for the XBOX but right now it's a bit of a narrow choice. I am looking forward to XBOX Live, but who know when it will be around in this land of OZ.

(: Something Funny :) no, nothing really funny happened today - most of the laughs were at things that you had to be there for. The weekend approaches and that is a good thing.

Supposed to be having lunch with Konchenko tomorrow, an elusive young friend of mine, I am looking forward to catching up with him and finding out how he is going - it has been a while and both of us being busy makes it hard to keep in contact properly.

Doing a crash run down to Nowra with some of the BB guys as they look at a possible camp site for the end of year Beach Camp - a flying visit that is for sure. But it will be a bit of fun and a nice drive on a Sunday - as long as the traffic doesn't drive me crazy.

(: Somthing Funny :) hmmm, well, Matt from Yr 7 wanted to know what we would be doing tomorrow - I said Maths and he laughed - does that count? In a sort of way it's funny how nice Year 9 are when they think that I might have made a mistake marking their test ....

Rob has posted a more detailed and reasoned response to the new Mac's - I'd read it and just as I finished The Noble One sent me an email which somes it up nicely:

Hi b!

just in case u hadn't realised... I think hell is about to freeze over, pigs are about to fly... etc etc.

these quotes came from rob's site: "And ok, I admit, I would really really really like one of these sitting on my desk". By these, he's refering to a *MAC* display!! "I really should stop beingn slack to apple because they do have really nice stuff."

Well, for a PC boy... I think Rob's starting to think Apples aren't all that bad!

I think that is a blog entry that should be saved... so you can use it against him at a later date!! lol!

I still must say that the Photoshop comparision is not surprising as Photoshop is fully optimised to use the dual processors and all the tricky Alti-Vec Speedier Things [and since A. adobe also optimise for Intel and B. this Mac is aimed at this market; this is a valid test - but as Rob says the price is ludicrous - in a matter of "bangs for your bucks" it fails - are they the sweetest machines with the most stunning out of box and day to day experience with an incredible GUI to boot - YES!!! Nice to see some sanity on the part of Rob - but may I had that M$ sux big time!!!! MACS ROOL!!!! ;p

Rob [that Green Logo over on the right takes you there] - posted news about the new Macs - well he got it all wrong - the new part wasn't the specs - which really still do nothing about the now very real speed gap between the PPC chip and Intel/AMD's option, although yes DDRAM is a new deal on a Mac MotherBoard the AGP graphics is not and as for no software since that is clearly there to inflame me consider me inflamed - since OS X [which is what will ship on them] is based on FreeBSD unix it has an impeccable pedigree which even Rob would have to agree - and if MS Office and almost all of the adobe line and all the macromedia line and almost all of the biggest latest games [even some of these simultaneous with the Win version] being avaliable for OS X doesn't count as being software then I guess Windows has no software and Linux probably can't even spell Software.

Oh, and as for what is the new part - then it is the cases. But even they aren't that new, cos Apple has spent the last month going from one site to the next issuing Cease and Desist Notices to them as they showed leaked images of the new casing. May I add that faster bus speeds are also new for the Mac MotherBoard but only cos they are now using more speedier memorary and graphics thingy's so even that aint new ;p

As for why Rob beat me - simply cos this isn't exciting Mac news - that is coming up on August 24 when Jaguar - Mac OS X 10.2 is released. Speed, beauty, truth and glory all for the princely sum of AUD$230. For what is technically a 0.05 upgrade, but is in reality a major upgrade to Mac OS X. I'm saving for it now.

Something Funny :) :: actually although I was keeping this in mind today I didn't end up spotting anything in particular. On the trip home I pass an interesting site which caused me to laugh - a small ute with very large water tank stuck on it's side in the tray. Times like that makes me wish I owned a digital camera. Otherwise it was an alright day - today is very much the hump of the week as I have a quiet day tomorrow followed by Friday which is ok except that it ends with Yr 9 computers. Today ends with Yr 9 maths just before lunch and then year 9 computers for the last two - and somedays it just aint pretty.

In some nerdy news the Department of Education finally sent our school the copy of Microsoft Office which works in OS X. This means that except for Dreamweaver I have no reason to use Classic at home at all :) and for work it means I could go to OS X for everything except for the remote desktop software which won't work at all in OS X even in Classic. I think that Dreamweaver / Fireworks MX will my Christmas present for myself. Well it is good news for me anyway....

I will try and get back into the "Something Funny happened today" posts - with a bit less to do I think I will cope better with the stress of work for the second half of this year - but the focus on looking for something funny at work will help. Mind you in the end, a focus on God and what he is doing around me is all that will really help - so I might just do that as well. That Jesus guy recommended it and he was a pretty smart bloke.

Yeah - this is funny - I believe I was laughing so much my buttocks fell off!! :) Gives the song a much better context and so much more meaning than the original.

Forbes.com: Will Apple Put Intel Inside? NO - and why would they. OS X on Intel would spell the end of Mac OS and maybe even Apple - now if they could just get Mot/IBM to up the speed on the PPC chips that would be sweet as will true 64 bit processing.

An UPDATE on the Worst Case Scenario, it's just a website and a TV show - houghdy and the houghdette has a copy of the board game - not just that but the *Offical* board game. I have been challenged to a game so one night I just might just go over there and get houghdy to get a photo of us all playing Worst Case Scenario!!! sounds like a hoot - lol

A very good friend of mine from High School Days Peter B and his wife Fiona have had their first child " His name is Ethan Alexander Burrows - born 10.45 am 12/8/02 - weight 8lbs 4ozs (3.755 kg for the metric minded-not a small baby!!) - length 20in (51cm) - he has some dark hair and darkish (blue?) eyes" = cool. I even got upgraded from the email notice to a phone call which was very cool too, although I didn't recognise his voice at first! It's been while. But then Pete and I have one of those friendships where you might see each other every 6 months, but you can quickly move onto things that matter.

We had dinner together at church last night as the service - it was great - a very festive evening and a good chance to chat with some people you don't usually chat with. Chensee sang a few tunes and we watched a video from one of the older members of the congregation who couldn't make it to the dinner. A good night. Some of us went to McCafe afterwards - and although I enjoyed my Latte following it up with a Super Sized Coke [well I was thirsty. Probably wasn't a good idea. Finally fell asleep about 1am this morning. Thankfully my double of year nine included a 45 minute test so it wasn't too bad a day. But I am tired so I might just try and get an early night.

is my blogg playing up again???

Added some [6] new links to the links database.

Yikes - it's offical, Halo 2 has been announced. XBOX LIVE support and The game itself is everything you loved about the original Halo, but with all the knobs turned up to 11 this time round. This is not a quickie "Halo 1.5" follow-up using the same engine. We are using a completely rewritten graphics engine which allows our artists to work in previously unimaginable complexity and detail. Anyone who thinks the original Halo stretched the Xbox's graphical abilities to the limit is mistaken. There are gorgeous new realms to be explored, and Halo 2 will take you there. There will be several new weapons in addition to the reliable old standards from the first game. Not to mention the new vehicles you'll ride into battle. Or the many new enemies you'll face. go an READ MORE and look at the lovely screen shots.

Ever wondered how to survive a croc attack, or a fashion emergency or what to do if your parachute fails to open or maybe how to determine if your partner is an axe-murder? then Worst-Case.com Scenarios is the place fo you.
strange but true - at least I think it's strange and you can click and confirm if it's true yourself - there is even a TV Show.

You will have noticed that things have been pretty quiet on the blogg since LDC ended about 3 weeks ago. I have been saying that it is because of blogger being down, and that certainly has been part of it ....

However I have been also busy doing some big thinking and reassessing the things I am doing and what i will continue to do.

I have decided to step out of Boys' Brigade as welll as take a break from all ministries for about the next 6 months and focus on a few things I need to work out, and to see where it is that God wants me to go next. I will not be leaving Toongabbie Baptist Church.

As you can imagine this has been a very major decision and has impacts on many people around me and so I wanted to tell people in the "right order" - and sorry to say that means that this public forum is the last place the announcement was made.

If someone finds out here and thought I should have contacted them personally, then I apologise now, I tried to tell everyone personally, but with many things on my mind and stuff to sort out as part of the hand over it is easy for me to have missed contacting someone that I should have.

The good news is that with more time to visit my friends, I might actually visit them and with less responsibities i might even get Spot The Doc up and running again - I am sure I will keep busy during this time, but I also want to take a rest for about 6 months before recommitting to anything. oh, and of course, my blogg will now return to normal.

:)

Now this is interesting - yep for U$82,402.02 you can purchase a copy of Mac OS X v10.2 for a PC Compatible system [hmmm, see what happens when the shelf packers go on strike - everything gets mislabeled and stacked in the wrong isle, unless Apple has something planned.....]

Two brief notes -

1. John Saffron's Music Jamberee was very very funny last night [Monday 8:30pm SBS] although not as good as others. Started with a "look" at Christian Music Labels - although didn't really go anywhere with it - this spun into Down with Jew'Town a Jewish rap group - I laughed very very much at this :) had interesting info on what the crazy rock star types demand on the road and then rounded it off with an interesting piece about how most Aussie Video Clip directors get paid nothing to make video clips - and when the band makes it big the Aussie guy doesn't keep the gig it goes off shore.
   
2. MacHall have put me in their archive of guest strips - I am third from the bottom of a list which appears to have been sorted in order of what they liked - oh well, my effort didn't really require much effort anyway. It will appear on the Spot The Doc website in the next week or two [Warning: MacHall rated MA15+ [L][S][V][D] occasionally anyway - you have been warned - and I don't endorse the nasty stuff]
   

The Register notes that The UK Electoral Commission has agreed to the registration of the MP3 Party, which aims to radically simplify British government and civil administration - strange but true. They rekon that complex systems of any kind are inherently dysfunctional. Therefore when social, legal and administrative systems reach a certain level of complexity they cease functioning, he said. The MP3 Party wants to apply this mathematical theory to politics and government. dunno who they rekon will actually look after the poor and maintain the roads and all that shared infrastructure that government supplies - but since these people steal what they want, they probably don't care anyway, they'll just steal what they need.

Oh, and the errors have disappeared from blogger at last :) so maybe regular posting will return.

Something you probably won't read in Praetor's Blogg is that he and his yonger brother and James had a round of xbox at my place last night while I had dinner at Pete's - John whipped Rob at Halo - then rob said let's go DOA3 cos I'll beat you on that - once John had finished 5-0 killing of Rob they went onto rallisport where once again James proved himself the master.