Journal: August 2007

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By popular demand...
Sat 25/08/07 (Link to this entry)

I've received requests for a video of the mighty trebuchet in action, so here's an attempt at conveying the awesomeness of the weapon. As can be seen, it's a proper trebuchet design; this means a lot of care has to be taken over the loading of the sling if you want to get any kind of consistent results. For a pine-and-PVA miniature model, I think it does pretty well - even if my poor gluing abilities led to the crank falling off the other day :-/

It's quite fun knocking together videos like the above - one can see why Youtube is so popular. Finding suitable music was particularly fun (award yourself 10,000,000 points and a big bowl of jelly if you can name the movie!). It has at least given me something to do today, which was quite sad because Jay has now officially left the building - off to Oxford to move in with Maddy. It's going to be wierd not having him around the house. I suppose at least he won't be stinking out the toilet any more (I swear, the man lives on chilli and tabasco sauce...).

On my word, unleash plasticine
Thu 23/08/07 (Link to this entry)

I have been given a miniature trebuchet. Those who know me will recognise how good a present this is from my point of view, and how utterly bad it is for the rest of the world (well, for the rest of the world within a six-yard radius of my desk). I've been spending some time after work lately patiently building the war machine; doing it with no witnesses around seemed like a good idea, given the amount of trouble the "suitable for ages 7+" kit gave me :-/

I am tremendously pleased with how well it operates. It has a fairly consistent range of around five to six yards which, conveniently enough, is roughly equal to the width of our two-man cubicles at work. Indeed, the weapon's first combat deployment was a resounding success, resulting in Wilson being pegged right in the back of the head at the first attempt (don't worry, the plasticine ball's only wee so it doesn't hurt).

Siege weaponry connoisseurs will note that the trebuchet's design is the highly efficient wheeled version, the motion of which allows the counterweight basket to travel downwards in a straight line rather than an arc. There's something beautifully elegant about the way a trebuchet works; it's tremendously simple yet devastatingly effective (Wilson will attest to this). My sincere thanks go out to Tim, who is the man responsible for bestowing this great gift upon me. Everyone else: please don't blame him when I peg you from halfway across the office, he didn't know what horrors he was unleashing...

New version of Email Address Encrypter online
Sun 19/08/07 (Link to this entry)

As I promised in my last entry, I've now uploaded the latest version of my Email Address Encrypter program. Email Address Encrypter is a web development tool which masks mailto: links from spambots by using JavaScript. It's a handy tool for closing off another approach for the spammers in their seemingly endless assault on our inboxes.

I'm reasonably happy with this release; previously, the program consisted of a few text boxes and a big "Encrypt" button - now it looks more like a proper program. It takes a surprising amount of work to create even a small program like this and make it production-quality. My mind boggles when I think how much easier this would be as a script...

In the somewhat unlikely event that you're reading this and would find it useful, do go ahead and grab yourself a copy. It's completely free to download and distribute so don't hold back :-)

Video post
Sat 18/08/07 (Link to this entry)

It's a terrible thing when geeks get new toys. They have to play with them...

This kind of thing is surprisingly difficult. Evidence here...

Goodbyes
Sat 11/8/07 (Link to this entry)

I have to admit to feeling a bit crap just now. I've been pretty worried recently about the fact that pretty soon all of my best friends over the past year are going to be moving away. It's started this weekend, with Kim and James moving out of their house as I type this. James is still at work for the next two weeks, but he's going to be staying with family in Reading. Kim, however, is out of here as of this weekend - off to America for a well-deserved holiday with her sister before going back to uni. All this makes me a sad puppy as Kim and James have been utterly brilliant friends this past year :-(

We've been working hard and playing hard this week. It's been fairly hectic at work even though the new interns are taking on a lot of hard work; it seems like as soon as I free up some time, about three more things start vying for it. The same's true of the evenings; I've been out every night this week (including going out to a club last night for Kim's leaving do - scary but I actually enjoyed it!). Gotta enjoy it while I can... though as a result I'm bloody knackered and have spent much of today in a mindless stupor :-/

Edit: I forgot to mention - I'm reliably informed that the Lamborghini I snapped the other week was not a Gallardo as I thought, but rather the more fancy Murcielago. Cheers to Gus for the spot.

Of sunsets and broken PSUs
Fri 3/8/07 (Link to this entry)

No updates for a while due to two things: firstly, my PC's PSU decided to pack in during the week, and secondly, I've been pretty busy with other things. Among the more interesting things I've done is going to see the Transformers movie, which takes silly to a whole new level and then promptly leaves it in the dust as it attains ever-increasing levels of mind-blowing mentalness. It was very enjoyable in a cheesy, totally over-the-top way :-D

The photo above was taken during my ride home from work on Thursday, after I had stayed late to enjoy Sun's FY08 kick-off event with some of the new interns. I felt I owed them a bit of genial company, given that I was going to spend a large chunk of the following day boring their pants off with a lengthy storage 'TOI' meeting. I'm not sure we've ever gone over the two-hour mark for a TOI before, so either it was a really detailed lecture or I just waffle far too much. No prizes for guessing where the smart money is...

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