2009 archive

tor on a vps

I value my privacy – and I dislike the increasing tendency of every commercial website under the sun to attempt to track and/or profile me. Yes, I know all the arguments in favour of advertising, and well targeted advertising at that, but I get tired of the Amazon style approach which assumes that just because …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/07/05/tor-on-a-vps/

wild xenomanic yiddish zebu

This post is an experiment. I have noticed from my logs that several different search engines index this blog. Ironically, the indexing has sometimes given me a little trouble when I have been searching for topics of interest to me (such as fixing the sony memory stick problem on my AAO) and my search returns …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/06/28/wild-xenomanic-yiddish-zebu/

jaunty netbook remix DVD iso

My daughter saw my netbook the other day and decided that she wanted UNR on her Tosh laptop to replace the 8.04 hardy I had installed for her (no-one in my family is allowed a proprietary OS – this occasionally causes some friction). Anyway, the old Tosh she uses (which has seen various distros during …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/05/12/jaunty-netbook-remix-dvd-iso/

acer aspire one – a netbook experience

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had recently acquired an Acer Aspire One (AAO) netbook. I chose the AAO in preference to any other of the netbooks on the market for two reasons – firstly it looks a lot cooler than most of the competition (particularly in blue – see below), but secondly, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/04/12/acer-aspire-one-a-netbook-experience/

bad science and worse

I’m a big fan of Ben Goldacre’s “bad science” column in the Guardian. He is particularly scathing about quackery and spurious medical science. His views of “Dr” Gillian McKeith in particular are well worth reading. Whilst I was reading one of his columns recently, I was reminded of another “Dr” who seems to get away …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/03/29/bad-science-and-worse/

the strong blue light

The 1TB Toshiba disk I bought a couple of weeks ago to upgrade storage on the slug has one big drawback in my view. Whilst the disk itself is fine, Toshiba have made the mistake of sticking a very intense blue LED on the front panel, presumably because they think it looks “cool”. Well it …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/03/29/the-strong-blue-light/

so what is a netbook?

Having just invested in an Acer Aspire One (which I’ll write about later), I also enjoyed this FAQ from el Reg. Nice chart.

Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/03/16/so-what-is-a-netbook/

a thirteen amp plug just won’t cut it

I normally read the register for its IT tech related reporting – and I enjoy it just because it is a wonderfully scurrilous rag. However, an article about the Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg’s “Quant”, which el Reg chose to call “Mary”, piqued my interest somewhat. I can’t quite make the arithmetic work out. To quote …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/03/16/a-thirteen-amp-plug-just-wont-cut-it/

upgrading the slug – a lesson in addresses

My ever growing DVD collection has been taking its toll on my disk storage. Despite the fact that ripping a DVD to PSP format typically shrinks it to between 300 and 500 MB, that still means that I have over 300 GB of videos on my PC. Add to that the OGG vorbis audio collection …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/03/01/upgrading-the-slug-a-lesson-in-addresses/

party like it’s 1234567890

Unix geeks the world over today celebrate the passing of unix time = 1234567890 at 23:31:30 GMT on friday the 13th of February 2009. Personally I’ll be asleep.

Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2009/02/13/party-like-its-1234567890/