Welcome to the News Page. Or more often, the ranting page, because nothing seems to make any logical sense. This is where I whinge about Sony, one of the banes of my life, (although not so much these days,) mobile ’phones, fizzing FaceBook, automatic software updates and Windows, the OSs I still need that were put together by the work experience kid. (And Windows 10 seems like it was done by the work experience kid of the 1st work experience kid. 
) Plus anything else that frustrates and ticks me off, which is a lot these days, as well as providing news about cool gaming related stuff that I’m interested in and willing to share with everyone. :-D There’s also other boring news about what I’ve been up to on certain days. I try to keep it trimmed to the last 2 years, except for a few minor things I want to preserve. If you get your butt down to the bottom of the page, you’ll find a table of my 5 most recently played games also. So strap yourself in, grab a pinch of salt, and be prepared for me letting off steam! Toot!
Monday, 1st Of June, 2015
Today’s current mood: 
• HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN? Or more importantly, do you know who he is? This chap is an “extra” in various TV shows and movies, and mostly always from Britain. He’s appeared in Harry Potter twice, Die Another Day, Hustle twice, Poirot: Elephants Can Remember (as the Crime Author Of The Year announcer), possibly in One Chance, Love Actually, Marple: The Blue Geranium, and maybe Bridget Jones’ Diary. I even enquired at ITV, but they didn’t know, and told me to try IMDb. Yeah well, like I wouldn’t have tried that already. He’s never credited for the shows he’s in, so it’s almost impossible to find out. I even scoured a casting website for extra actors once, trying to spot him. One site suggested he may be Edward Wills IV, but I don’t have any other proof that that’s true.
• Someone reckoned it might snow today, but it hasn’t. At least not where I am.
Tuesday, 12th Of July, 2016
Today’s current mood: 
• Did anybody notice that if you re-arrange the letters of Bill Gates, you can get “labels git?” Makes you wonder about those Windows stickers!
Friday, 17th of September, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (17:03) Sir Clive Sinclair died yesterday. He was 81. I knew him mostly from the computers he designed. Plus a pocket sized TV with a CRT.
Also Norm MacDonald went the other day too. 
• I ordered 10 mini SPDT toggle switches off eBay for $13 today, and I’ll use one for my new box of 8 L.E.D.s for under my desk. I cracked out my Canon camera, and noticed there is quite a bit of flickering from the L.E.D.s, so it might need a filter capacitor in parallel with the output of the bridge rectifier. Although, you can’t really see any flickering just by looking @ them. I’ve got a 1500 μF capacitor from my box of odds & sods, so that might do. I think it came out of a power supply years ago.
• (20:16) I added the capacitor I had to the proceedings, and after that, no noticeable flickering on the camera. So that smoothed things out. I wondered if it was still good, ’cos it’s probably 30+ years old. Although that’s not really fair, because I’ve older electronic gizmos than that.
• (22:22) If you like vintage electric gizmos, here’s a picture 
of an old transformer that belonged to my Dad’s uncle. (My Nana’s brother.) Check out that whopping great capacitor. Yikes. Uncle Ken was involved in a lot of electrical stuff, so his house had all these neat goodies. He made his own transformers, there was a complicated doorbell
dealie, he had train sets, a speaker system around the rooms of the house, including in the kitchen cupboards and even a real traffic light, that changed colours. All kinds of intriguing things. He even had this really old carbon filament light bulb, which he showed me back in my teen years, I think it was. I got a photo of it, after he died in 2014, but I think it got chucked, or something terrible. Plus everything was really neatly arranged and labelled in a professional manner, unlike my dodgy, slap-it-together methods.
Lastly, cop a load of these old model train controllers! They look like something out of Back To The Future 3. How old do you reckon they are? I think the train set was saved by somebody in the family.
So there you go; I hope some of you found this stuff of interest. 
Monday, 20th of September, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (14:43) La Poem have a new MV out for their song, Oasis. I thought it was pretty good, and it ended well too. Chuu from LOOΠΔ + Kim Yohan (of Wei) & Eric Bellinger did a song for World Vision called World Is One 2021, which was rather good sounding.
Wednesday, 22nd of September, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (17:18) I found out from IIG (— my site host —) that there’d been an earthquake (!) in Victoria this morning! It’s very rare to get earthquakes in Australia, because the country has no fault lines under it. Apparently what happened was the tectonic plate of the country hit the one of the Pacific region, or some such thing, and this caused some shift in pressure. Back when I was a kid there was 1 in Newcastle, but this was completely human made, because it was a result of mines collapsing.
• I got my switches today, so I’ve screwed one in for my box thingo of L.E.D.s for under my desk. I just have to wait for the glue to dry on the ice block stick that I put it in.
Monday, 4th of October, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (23:44) I’ve got a little something on the way, which I’m keeping a surprise for now. It’s not earth shattering though.
• Here’s a great new song: In My Space by Kim Woojin (of Stray Kids).
Thursday, 14th of October, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (14:28) My birthday tomorrow! Oooh yeah! Back to 25 this year. I’m still waiting on something to arrive, which should’ve been here by now, but anyway, I’ll let you know when it does turn up.
• Other famous people’s birthdays tomorrow are: Yoon Jong Shin, Dong Hae from Super Junior, Penny Marshall, Stephen Tompkinson, Tanya Roberts, Larry Miller, Mario Puzo, Princess Ferguson, P.G. Wodehouse, Bárbara Lombardo (who’s on the same year as me too) and Prince Christian from Denmark.
Friday, 15th of October, 2021
Today’s current mood: 
• (14:19) All righty — welcome to the best day of the year! Hee hee. And just on time, my order from Japan has turned up today! Yep, I got myself Hi-Fi POPS from Oresama! It came out in 2018, but I liked the samples I listened to of it, and thought I would get it. It cost a fortune, but if you live in Japan, it’s only about $27 or so, which isn’t too bad. (¥3000.) I got it from CD Japan, and their service was really good! I got a ¥500 discount for my first order, plus another discount offered later, because it was my birthday this month! Although I didn’t get to use that, since that was after I made the order.
Anyway, there are 12 tracks in total, and you can also get an alternative version of the CD, which comes with a bonus BD of the music videos, I suppose. But since I don’t have a BD player, I just got the CD on its own. The tracks are:
1. Hi-Fi Train
2. Ryuusei Dance Furoa (Meteor Dance Floor)
3. Cute Cute
4. Kirei Na Mono Bakari
5. Dare Mo Ga Dareka Wo
6. Mimi Moto De Tsukamae Te
7. Ne. Kamisama?
8. Trip Trip Trip
9. Hello Eve
10. Sweet Room
11. Wandadoraibu (Wonder Drive)
12. Ginga (Album Mix)
That’s translated of course from a lot of the Japanese writing. The audio quality is as you would hope, with no over-amplified looking tracks. I haven’t looked through the cover booklet yet, but I expect it’s filled with loads of great pictures. If you like Ginga, be sure to check out the DressUp Cover #1 remix dealie as well.
All the tracks are great, and most are quite upbeat, although Sweet Room is closer to a ballad of sorts. This is Oresama’s 2nd album, and I’d say their 1st one is probably worth a look too. Doramachikku on the 1st one is a pretty nifty track.
• (15:48) I had a look at the album booklet dealie, and inside are all the song lyrics, plus some nifty pictures as well.
Thursday, 21st of October, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (19:33) There’s some current problem with downloading archive files from my site, which I’m waiting to hear back about. ZIP & RAR files may not do anything from the links to them in certain browsers, such as Safari, or newer Mozilla based ones (such as Firefox or Pale Moon). If you have Opera or an older version of Firefox, or even Netscape installed, you may have more luck, or a download manager, like GetRight. Until I get an answer to the problem, this is the only solution I have for now. I wasn’t aware the problem existed until tonight.
Also, if you’re still going to my site at Beagle, that address will probably be gone by the 28th.
Sunday, 24th of October, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (15:00) The issue with downloading those files may have been to the server’s over-sensitive security settings rejecting certain browsers, but which ones was not made clear, or why it was limited to those types of files in particular. I was able to test it with Firefox 93 under Linux, and the problem didn’t show up, so if you have a more recent browser, it might not be a problem.
• Yeah, I think this will be the last year I bother with the Korean music. I’m not enjoying going through the preview videos each week, and just seeing cr@p after more cr@p. There’s no point if I don’t enjoy it. I may just check every now & then on groups & people who’ve had some level of consistency, such as APink, Red Velvet, maybe that Kim Woojin chap and La Poem.
Saturday, 30th of October, 2021
Mum’s birthday
Today’s current mood:
• (22:20) It’s about time for some news, and the best is my Inner Depths plug-in for Oblivion! If you know of my ones from Morrowind, then this is similar to that. I’m going to have at least 11 zones, each featuring mostly different enemies. I’ve started on doing all new, fresh bandits, with a much better variety than what you get in the game. While Oblivion (and even Morrowind), levels up your loot and enemies as you do, I want to take a more randomised approach, but with weaker enemies to start, and tougher ones at the end of all the zones. There’s also going to be a slight story to part of it, and a nice & special place to end up at.
Sunday, 7th of November, 2021
Today’s current mood: 
• (20:24) I’m still going with Inner Depths: Oblivion 1. I have 1 more zone to do for the locations. But there are more bandits to do, marauders, conjurers and vampires. Today I did more of the Undisturbed Crypt, as I called it, levelled lists of Daedra and various containers. It’s going to feature stuff from Shivering Isles as well, so you will need that.
• I’ve got 6 new videos of Korean pop MVs to check out eventually. I see Laboum has a new tune out. It’s been a while since they did something. But I’ve got a headache, and I feel knackered, so it might take a while to get to them. I need to check for new Japanese songs as well.
Friday, 12th of November, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (12:04) I finally remembered to update the Software Review Of The Moment page. I meant to do it on the 9th, but I’ve been so busy with my new Oblivion plug-in, I forgot.
Monday, 15th of November, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (22:52) Inner Depths: Oblivion 1 is getting nearer to completion. I added a tent to the fort, which is where you start, and you can store your goods safely there. Mmm, and that’s all I have to say about it for now.
• (23:33) I was watching a video last night about old stuff underground in some part of England, and one of the items was an Internet radio. That’s right — by a company called Internet, of all things! I decided to look up about it, and it was indeed correct. You might have trouble finding it, doing a search for “Internet Radio,” ’cos you’ll get all new, irrelevant results about new radios related to the Internet. But do a picture search with the model, S-1000, and you’ll find it. (Just type in Internet radio "S-1000" and you should get some pictures at a search site.)
Friday, 19th of November, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (12:49) Inner Depths: Oblivion 1 is done, by the way, and you can download it now. Just head to The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Page.
• Last night I was making up some flags with food. Although not all countries would be that easy. Italy was the best. I had basil, spaghetti & chopped tomatoes. For France, I had a blue steak, garlic and red wine. England was chips and ketchup. (That’s like St. George’s cross dealie. Not the whole Union Jack flag.) Japan’s sushi on rice, and China’s egg noodles on Sichuan chillies. Although you couldn’t tell the noodles too well, since the stars only take up a small portion of the flag. I think for Ireland you could have something in green, Irish stew and Irish whiskey.
• (13:38) I think Germany could be Black Forest cake, bratwurst and beer.
Saturday, 20th of November, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (14:47) Awww — Bart (the bear) died 6 days ago. He was 21. I only saw him in We Bought A Zoo & Game Of Thrones.
Tuesday, 23rd of November, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (16:11) Next month I’ll be having a collection of 10 mini “reviews” for my Software Review Of The Moment. Then I’ll probably do Windows 10 again for January next year.
Friday, 26th of November, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (21:51) I got some more bargain L.E.D.s from Phipps on eBay. $9.95 for 50 white L.E.D.s! (About 14 000 m.c.d. brightness.) Holey moley; you’d be lucky to pay less than 10 × that price in some stores. I’m not being given anything to promote this; I’m just pointing out a good deal. So, that’s just a touch under 20¢ each! Wooo! (Although they’re actually for Christmas.)
When I think back to the 1980s, you could only get regular, low brightness red L.E.D.s for that price. But then, they didn’t have white ones back then anyhow.
• (23:12) I found my old Tandy Doodads, Thinga Majigs, Watcha Macallits, Bits & Pieces catalogue from 1992, with its range of L.E.D.s. They did have blue ones by this year, but not at Tandy, unfortunately. The cheapest on offer were probably the 3 mm ones for about 50¢ each, but you paid like $1 for 2, since they only came in packets. The brightest they had was a 10 mm red L.E.D. of 5000 m.c.d. for $6.95. If you got a packet of assorted L.E.D.s, you were looking at about 20¢ each, and sometimes you got some really unusual ones in there, like triangle shaped ones, square ones and rectangle types. 
Friday, 3rd of December, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (16:38) I was hoping to find a lot more interesting videos of home made L.E.D. based clocks on the ’net, but I didn’t really find all that much. There was an interesting one in Texas, America, made completely of discrete components. (No I.C.s that is.) I’ve been wondering about making my own clock using green 7 segment displays. (8 segments with the points of course. ) Hmm. But I’d have to get some clock kit, because it’s beyond me to design such a circuit. Or get a free circuit diagram off the web somewhere. I’d just have 4 of the 7 segment dealies, with no seconds probably. You’d probably have 4 I.C.s to run the L.E.D.s, and then they’d connect somehow to… who knows what! LOL. And there’d probably be a crystal to keep the thing accurate, I guess.
• There was also some bull$#!++er on YouTube promoting these “battery-less” circuits for clocks, that wouldn’t have a hope of working. It’s like some of these other fake free energy videos that are just a con. So it pays to be careful what stuff you attempt to make, ’cos you might just be getting diddled.
Friday, 10th of December, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (16:15) F***king Microsoft has really hit beyond rock bottom. Promoting porn now?! Are you freakin’ joking?! I was just reading about it, and not only that, but mentions of it in e-mail people had received, stuff hosted by them, and in messages in Windows regarding their OS testing thing. The insider dealie. Was it somebody from the company who had a thing against them, or have they just gone completely off the rails now? I swear they’re going to just self destruct one of these days, when the majority of people have got completely fed up. Plus the 2-faced gits have been putting out more anti-competitive propaganda regarding Google’s Chrome browser, when their own Edge browser is based on it now anyway! How does that make sense?!
• Only 15 days to Christmas now! Hooray!
• I’m trying to get through the last of the Korean music video previews I got, just in case anything good comes along, so I can add it to my end of the year list. Then that’s it. I’ll have to put more effort into finding tunes from other countries, I think. China and Kazakhstan perhaps.
• (22:02) I’d be interested to connect up a whole packet of those 14 000 m.c.d. L.E.D.s from Phipps, and see if that would put out enough light to do my whole bedroom. That would work out to 700 000 m.c.d. brightness in total, which would be 700 candelas I guess. You could run the lot with just 5 ½ watt resistors. The total power load would be just 2 W, and you’d need a power supply capable of at least 1 amp. Maybe give or take a bit, depending on the component tolerances. (You’d be putting 0.4 watts of load on each resistor for 2 V, 20 mA L.E.D.s, according to my calculations. Tell me if I’ve gone wrong here somewhere!) If you ran the L.E.D.s a little underpowered, by using a higher value resistor than they needed, they’d probably last for 20 or more years maybe. Although it’s hard to predict it. As I’ve said before, I’ve had L.E.D.s that have literally run for decades, which are turned on pretty close to permanently. Although they aren’t high brightness ones. But THAT said, I haven’t had any high brightness ones that have ever failed either.
Anyhoo, I have another couple of personal, lower brightness projects to have fun with yet, which’ll be more like night lights, running on rechargeable batteries. I’m going to do something pretty, hopefully with quartz crystals.
• (23:04) Here’s a tip! If you’re looking for one of those plugs which you put into a light bulb socket, you should look for a “B22 adaptor plug.” In case you’re clueless, these were used more so in the earlier times of last century. They’re like the end of a light bulb, but designed to run other appliances up to 5 A. Of course, not for anything which needs an earth connection though. Did you know, they actually had double adaptors for light sockets too? Yep. Anyway, there seems to be a good source of the B22 plugs on eBay from Sri Lanka, which have a nice brown, bakelite appearance.
Saturday, 11th of December, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (19:50) On the 17th of September this year, I mentioned some old model train controllers. Head back up and see the picture. Seen it? Good. They were actually custom made by Uncle Ken, according to my Dad, from old full size tram controllers. His work allowed him to acquire all sorts of electrical equipment that was being sold off from peculiar places.
• (23:09) Here’s something interesting. Well, to me anyway! Tandy actually had an alarm clock with blue L.E.D.s, according to my old 1992 - 1993 catalogue. Although from the look of pictures on the web of it, I think it’s really a gas plasma display. They had 2 other clocks with green L.E.D.s which I’d buy right now, if I wasn’t 28 years too late to get them. Bah!
Monday, 13th of December, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (19:22) Things have been a bit iffy with Lavabit lately, with internal server errors, and other stuff ups, so hopefully they’ll soon get that fixed. In the mean time, it might be a good idea to send your e-mail to my other address, which you can find in the “Contacting Me Terms & Conditions” page.
Thursday, 16th of December, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (14:46) Next month, for January, 2022, I was going to have the Windows 10 review again for my Software Review Of The Moment, but I’m not in a very good mood regarding Microsoft. So I might have something else instead. I’d kind of like to take a look at BeOS, but I’m not sure if I could be bothered. Starting with an OS you’ve never used before means learning a lot of new stuff, and acquiring software, tweaking stuff no doubt and what not. Wasn’t it written for PowerPC CPUs to begin with? And then later an Intel CPU rendition? I wonder if that means the software was often done for both, like Mac OS X’s “universal binaries.”
Tuesday, 21st of December, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (13:46) I only noticed last night that La Poem have a new MV out for their song, Sunshine. That was rather great! Although I’m still inclined to like Oasis more.
• Only 4 days to Chrissy! Ooh yeah! And the freezer’s loaded up with nice cool ice blocks and 3 ice cream sandwiches this year as well.
Monday, 27th of December, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (19:11) Ooh — I hope everybody had a fabbo Christmas. It felt a bit rushed for me really, and maybe not as good as previous years.
• I will be having another table of my favourite Korean tunes for this year, but it might be at the end of January next year before I get it done, since I have such little interest in going through all the previews right now.
• I got my white L.E.D.s for Chrissy too, but they really do need their 3 V rating to be bright enough. I was going to run them on 2.4 V from a couple of AAA size rechargeable batteries, but they were too dull. In fact, one of my blue ones was as well. So now I’ll have to get another battery holder for 3 batteries, and knock the voltage up to 3.6. Although the joint where I got the previous battery holders on eBay is having a holiday until the 10th of January. I ordered some resistors too for a good price, but I’m not sure when they’ll be sent. They’re coming from Katherine in the NT, so it might take some time.
• Oh yeah, in regards to what I said on the 16th, I think BeOS programs were done in a “fat” style, from what I read, which means they had both Intel & PowerPC machine code, like Mac programs were often done. Although I think later ones were just done for Intel CPUs. Apparently only pre-PowerPC G3 CPUs can run BeOS in terms of Macs. As for me, I’d probably just run the Intel version via VirtualBox I guess.
Tuesday, 28th of December, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (14:40) Here’s a pretty nifty song I just found from 10 days or so ago: Mou Ii Kai by Mimi. I like the speedy feel of it.
• I’m pretty up to date now with the Korean music, after watching all the preview videos I had to do. But there wasn’t much worth mentioning. I thought I was going to see something good in one new song from Laboum, but that fell apart mid way through with some utter cr@p bit. Plus Oh My Girl had some really $#!+ new song too, which was disappointing, considering how they’ve had some really good tunes. Of course there are a lot of Christmas tunes right now, and that’s brilliant, but after Christmas, you don’t really feel like watching them again until the next one comes ’round.
Wednesday, 29th of December, 2021
Today’s current mood:
• (16:29) I did another program for Mac OS X last night & today. One that slides bitmaps up the screen for credits in iMovie. iMovie 6 does let you do credits, but just as text that you type in. I wanted a bit more flexibility, so I made my own program, and with bitmaps, you can have whatever look you like. I might offer this one to download, but I dunno if many people’d be interested.
• (23:09) Ooh yeah! 20 years of my web site next year. I’d probably only had it in action for a couple of months before I went overseas to Britain. I don’t think I have much planned though. Ha ha. So don’t worry about rocking up one day, and it looking bizarre all of a sudden.
Saturday, 1st of January, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:33) Happy new year!
• All right, it’s time for my table of all the best Korean songs I found during 2021! This was converted from an Open Office file I did during 2021:
As usual these are all my personal preference. I don’t care about sales amounts, other popularity levels or past success. After all, even some of my more favourite groups have had songs that just really stunk.
| 1. Your Ocean by Hoppipolla |
This one hits a good high point with the instrumental bit at around 3:20, and the dude with the cello is a nice difference to most band types of groups. It’s not a cheery song, but it sounds really good. It goes for about 4 minutes & 46 seconds, but the video has an extra bit at the end which has it go to 5 minutes & 24 seconds. |
| 2. Guardians by Sumi Jo & Rain |
This feels like it could come from some movie, and the video is all computer animated with some magical looking stuff going on. There are 2 main characters, who I assume are the guardians, and they have cyan-ish looking hair. The singing is quite operatic and impressive sounding, especially the really high note at the end. It would’ve been nice if it’d been at like 50 f.p.s., but I suppose you can’t have everything. |
| 3. Doom Doom Cha by Twin Girls |
I’m not sure what to think of this one. It looks like fun though.
It may’ve actually come out in 2020, but it was on a list for this year, so that means I only saw it this year too! |
| 4. Insomnia by Yukika |
This is kind of dreamy feeling and mellow. It’s not the usual thing I’d go for, but it wasn’t too bad. It takes quite a while to grow on you. The video’s another one of those ones that looks fatter than a pregnant rhino, and like you’re squinting through some slit. Although at the end there’s a mention that they used Ubuntu to make it, so I guess it’s good to see Linux getting more use. |
| 5. Sha Ru Ru by Park Minju |
Another trot kind of feeling song, if I’m correct. The link for this was a right pain to find, so here it is to the side. This is probably just there for being one of the best songs of the year, in my opinion. |
| 6. Feel Me Up by Ice Cream |
This is a pretty pleasant song, which has some cool bits of channel “panning” I suppose you’d call it, although I don’t know how well it works. I like the idea; I just don’t know if it sounds 100% correct. It ends well with a funky effect that sounds like something from a video game. And uh, how can you not like the name?!
This one took quite a few listens to grow on me, but I like it now, and I feel more used to that “panning” kind of thing. |
| 7. Ggoma by Tae Ho |
This is quite a bit different from the usual stuff you hear, and feels a bit more jazzy. Or something. |
| 8. Hello by Joy (of Red Velvet) |
This is a pretty perky song, and it’s nice to see Joy doing a solo tune. |
| 9. Challengers by Jane, Funtwo & Jack Thammarat |
This is a completely instrumental tune with 3 dudes playing electric guitars. It sounds like something which’d go well with the likes of OutRun 2 perhaps. I reckon the ending could’ve been a bit better and more satisfying though. That said, I really like it, and I think you need to listen to it a few times before you really enjoy it. |
| 10. Sneakers by Ha Sung Woon |
This is rather quite good. Quite perky and lots of views of his shoes. |
| 11. Free To Fly (2021 version) by Kangta |
This is kind of spacey looking. I never saw the original. I think it might have been in 2007, but I’m not sure of that. The girl’s smile is cute @ the end. (About 4:51) I think this has grown on me even more, watching it a few times. |
| 12. Left33Right33 by Miss T & Mr. BoomBox |
There’s that woman who was in Ppurr. I dunno who she is. I’ve watched this one a lot, so it should probably be one of the best on the list. |
| 13. Oasis by La Poem |
If you want something a bit more operatic, this is a rather good one. The chaps go up on the roof of the same building as Park Hyunho in Money Money Money. |
| 14. In My Space by Kim Woojin (of Stray Kids) |
This one’s surprisingly good, and this dude sure can hit a nice high note. The song ends better than My Growing Pains as well. |
| 15. Be Deep by Tae Jin Son + Wendy (of Red Velvet) |
|
| 16. Sunshine by La Poem |
This needs 2 listens I reckon. The La Poem quality of singing is out in full force, but at the moment, I’m still inclined to prefer Oasis. (#13) Maybe ’cos I’m more used to it, but I think it ends more epically. |
| 17. Part Time Lover by Gaho |
It took a bit of time for me to get into this one, but I must’ve sensed something good about it in the brief preview I saw, before I watched the whole thing. I’d say give it a few whirls & see if you like it. |
| |
Other Interesting Mentions: |
| One Day by Kook Kyu Hee |
This is a pleasant sounding song, plus it has a nice teddy bear as well. ^_^ |
| With Your Everything by Ben |
This is a promotion for a multi-player game that you’d play via the Internet, called Trickster M, so expect to see lots of imagery and videos to entice you in to playing it. Of course I’m going to do that, just ’cos I saw this. |
| In Hongdae by IGWI |
This is a nice, easy going song. The table looks really pretty too! So that’s a visual bonus. It’s kind of repetitive though with all the “ap ap ap” business. |
| Man & Woman / North & South Women (/ Something like that) by Twin Girls |
Twin Girls are back with another pleasant tune. It’s got a bit of that… what is it? Trot kinda feel? Something along those lines. |
| Love Day by Yang Yoseop of Highlight & Jeong Eunji of APink |
|
| The Hill Of Wind by ZanHyang |
This has a traditional kind of feeling to it. I’ve never seen one of those instruments with the pipes sticking up before either. It’s called a Bamboo Sheng. I’m sure there are oodles of people who knew that, but I didn’t until this one. |
| My Starry Love by Lim Young Woong |
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| Hush by Kim Sung Kyu of Infinite |
The bass is a bit strong in this one, and it’s too loud as well, so you might want to fiddle with your equaliser for this MV. It’s a strong kind of ballad style song, I’d say. You think the ending’s going to be a bit quick, but luckily there’s an extra bit that almost finishes it off well. It’s okay @ the end, but it could be a tad better. |
| Alley Captain by Springs |
The song’s not bad, and rather catchy for most of it, but the video looks really cheap. Like it was done on some old mobile telephone or something, ’cos it looks wobbly and cr*p. It felt like it had potential, but I think the song even could’ve been slightly better too. |
| Thank You by APink |
The group’s 10th anniversary song. It was pretty good, but I just couldn’t bring myself to really gush over it. I don’t think it had quite the level of impact as Dumhdurum from last year, plus it doesn’t finish well either. |
| The Day by Yun Sen Ae |
This is a bit of a ballad with an emotional kind of overtone, I reckon. |
| Shoulder Dance by Lim Seo Won |
This one’s worth checking out to see how great this kid is. She only looks about 10, but you can tell she’s pretty talented. |
| Don’t Say Goodbye by DooRi (of Venus) |
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| Amasia by Pyoapple |
I just like this one ’cos the chick looks so hot & cute! But that is a bit shallow. The song’s so-so. |
| Ppurr by HooniYongi |
This is an electronic dance kind of thing, I suppose. It sounds pretty good, but it doesn’t have a cheery feeling about it that I like. The Twin Girls also make an appearance in there, & maybe the other people are related to the genre too. I dunno. One of the other sheilas looked like somebody from Venus. |
| Je T’aime by Joy (of Red Velvet) |
This is a kind of one-take, out-of-the-studio sounding one. Joy sounding a bit more “live” and in person. The song name sounds French. It’s okay, but I like Hello better. |
| Stop by Minimani |
Some of this reminds of me of some other song, but I’m not sure what. It’s okay. I wouldn’t gush over it though. |
| Rain by ReVorn |
I like the dude’s voice in this one. |
| See You Again by Han Seung Woo (of Victon) |
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| Door by Kwon Eun Bi (previously of IZ*ONE) |
This is semi-pleasant, but the finish is cr@pola. Too many songs just have these sucky abrupt endings, and this is no exception. |
| Tick-Tock (Electronic Dance Music Version) by Shin Mi Rae |
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| Stereotype by STAYC |
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| World Is One 2021 by Chuu (of LOOΠΔ) + Kim Yohan (of Wei) & Eric Bellinger |
This is a song to help promote World Vision. |
| My Growing Pains by Kim Woojin |
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| Make It by 2PM |
Despite what looks like the world coming to an end, the most important thing for the chaps is that woman they find so hot. |
| Money Money Money by Park Hyunho |
This is a dance feeling kind of song, and it has a good kind of constantly moving vibe about it. |
| Bbeong by Jeongho |
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| Stardust by Younha |
This is a really nice song, which I may put as one of the best for the year. The break at 3:27-ish is a bit too long though, although I suspect that if you buy it, it could be different from the MV. |
| Sirius by Cignature (Live) |
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So yep! That’s my list for now. If I find any other songs I like that came out last year, I’ll add them on there. Please let me know if any of the links are stuffed as well, and I’ll see to fixing them.
• (15:47) Up next, the Japanese songs I made a list of during 2021. This has a lot of older stuff as well, but probably not more than 10 years old, I would say.
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This song seems more like it was from somewhere outside of Japan. It’s got a folk music kind of feel about it. Super worth checking out! It’ll have you back for more! |
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An olden style song that’s very perky and will leave you feeling great! |
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This is very pleasing in sound. It’s related to some Doraemon movie, I think. |
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This is absolutely amazing! The 1st time you hear it, it’ll blow your socks off! It just sounds so satisfying. It’s fast, perky and catchy. Wow wow wow! It’s definitely got a mostly computer generated / electronic sound to it. Like, instead of “regular” instruments. One of the dudes’ voices sounds a bit out of whack though. Like he can’t hit the right notes. |
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A traditional sounding song from Avex Trax. Super nice, and kinda classy too. This deserves a few watches. |
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This one’s got cute teddy bears! But some bad ones too. I think it’s to do with some show called Sleepy Princess In The Demon Castle. You’ve gotta love the dancing bed at the end as well. |
8. Peach by Otsuka Ai (Tomggg Remix) |
This one’s quite unusual, but I found it grew on me over time. Actually, I haven’t heard the original version either, so I can’t say how different it is. |
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10. Wake Me Up by TriEchoes. (A cover of a song by Avicii, and played on kotos.) |
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This one’s got a great, fresh, positive feeling about it, and the special effects in the background with the glowing stuff in the clouds and beams, look really superb. |
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18. Tajuu Rokou by Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra (Featuring Kawakami Youhei) |
The ending on this one’s a bit abrupt for my liking. |
19. Caliburne ~Story Of The Legendary Sword~ by Team Grimoire (from MaiMai) |
I found this one in 2018. I don’t have the link to hand. I saw a video of somebody playing the game with this tune, and really liked it. |
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From what I gather, this is their 1st song, and it’s also available in Chinese. It kind of feels like something Michael Jackson would’ve done. I think WARPs are also related to Avex Trax. |
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This is a real electronic / computer generated sounding tune, despite the more regular looking instruments in the video. Well, 1 guitar anyway. It’s got more of a synthesised sound, and this is apparently consistent to this group. It’s quite unusual and unique, and although it doesn’t end too brilliantly, I did find it kind of catchy. |
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This is a pretty good song, and it’s in English. |
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A rather cheery tune, which feels a bit like the style of Lovers, I think. |
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This sounds like something good for when you go off the rails. It ends well too. |
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Check out that truck in it with the chandelier! |
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Another great, old style song with a happy kind of feeling about it. Jasmine wants to make shoes, but her father’s lackeys try to bring her back home. She meets another girl called Jasmine, who looks like her twin, and they swap places. |
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This means Galaxy in Japanese, and the music video is like a comic book. It’s really cute though and has a bit of a story to it, plus the lyrics in Romajii. (That’s Japanese for Romanised.) After listening to other Oresama tunes from their MVs, I wanted to get the CD with this song on it. It’s from their 2nd album, Hi-Fi POPS. |
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This is basically Dramatic. A cartoony one from 2015, which I also only found recently. Well, I only found out about Oresama this year anyhow. This is from their 1st album, which is just called Oresama. |
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This is from Mahoujin Guru Guru apparently. I have no idea though. |
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This is a good looking one, and the train’s loaded with speakers on the front, and looks really nifty inside too. |
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The name sounds like a Sega console. The WonderMega was a combo of the Mega CD and Mega Drive. Anyway, the video has a bit of a retro vibe in some places. This is on the Hi-Fi POPS CD as well. |
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Another one from their 2nd album, which is also really good, of course! The MV starts off like something from a RPG, but this part isn’t on the CD. |
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This is pretty good. It’s not much of a MV — just the lyrics and some drawings, but I think the song’s enjoyable enough to make up for that. |
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Other Interesting Mentions: |
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The acrobatics are worth a peek on their own. |
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This is done with a quite strange cartoon, in which the girl seems to rescue an opposite of herself, or something. You might have to read up about this one to understand it. |
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This seems to be in English mostly. |
Sunday, 9th of January, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (14:41) I’ve got another “lamp” thing of sorts, made with more ice cream sticks, with 5 of my white L.E.D.s that I got for Christmas. I’m just using a 9 V power supply with 330 Ω resistors, which is ideal, since these L.E.D.s are rated at between 3 & 3.4 V. They’re definitely bright enough, and just testing it with 3 of them put out a lot of light. When I get all 5 in, it’s going to be strong enough for a bedside table light, I reckon. Not that I’ll be putting it in that location. Anyway, I’ve ordered a packet of 60 mixed acrylic flower “beads” off eBay, of varying sizes, and I’m going to drill out their 1 mm holes to 3 mm, then use them as mini lamp shades for the L.E.D.s & make them look pretty. Actually, it’d probably work better with 3 mm L.E.D.s, but the 5 mm ones should be okay as well. The pin spacing is still the same. I cut up a green drinking straw and put it over the 3 wire pairs closest to the front, to make it look a bit neater as well.
• I’d like to do a really big lotus flower out of L.E.D.s, but I think it would take an awful lot, and I’d probably need… I dunno… 75 of them or something, and like a 1.5 amp power supply to take the load. Could you imagine the light coming out of that? It’d be enough to light the entire room up, I think. I could use a mix of white, green, magenta and maybe yellow ones. But I’d probably want a big PCB to mount them all on, rather than using those little sockets, ’cos that would be too crazy.
• (14:55) I just did an image search on the web for LED lotus flowers, but didn’t spot anything like the idea I had. More along the lines of plastic flowers lit with L.E.D.s, rather than an outline of the shape of the flower made from individual ones. These ones look pretty though.
Tuesday, 11th of January, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (15:00) I finally found an old Dick Smith catalogue last night. Well most of one. I was hoping to locate an old copy for a while, but couldn’t find where I’d put them since we moved house at the end of 2012. Anyway, this one’s from 1993, so that’s 29 years ago, people! I wanted to get a look at what the products and prices were from back then, and this was quite interesting. Especially the computer related stuff. Oh, and mobile ’phones! So, for all those of you in the northern hemisphere, grab a nice hot chocolate with marshmallows, put your feet up and get ready for some more reminiscing. Or if you’re on my side of the planet, open up something cool & fizzy!
Compared with my old 1992 - 1993 Tandy catalogue, the Dick Smith one certainly has a different feel. Tandy of course were aimed at selling their own brands of products, where as ol’ Dicky seemed to stock more commonly known brands, like Sanyo, Sony & so forth. Plus Dick Smith was more about the components and kits of electronics. They also had a much bigger focus on communication radios, because Dick Smith himself was into this kind of thing. He even mentioned his licence thing of VK2ZIP in his Fun Way books. Anyway, one of the most expensive communication devices was the Yaesu FT-1000 Deluxe HF All-Mode Tranceiver, which cost $5995! This thing’s got more knobs than a hardware store, more buttons than a shirt factory and not only an analogue meter but a super wide numeric display as well of some kind. I don’t think Tandy had anything remotely like this kind of stuff. Dicko also had antennas, Morse code keys and all sorts of things related to communication equipment.
Anyway, they did have a blue L.E.D. this year, and it was listed under special types. “Normal” L.E.D.s were red, green, yellow & orange, and these were 50¢ each. But the blue one was $3.25! So this is what freaked me out as a kid, I think. Ha ha. Since it was 6½ × the value. Absolutely no white, magenta, cyan or purple ones back then. Plus, high brightness was limited to 1 in red at 1000 m.c.d. A bit different these days, that’s for sure. You could get a bulk pack of 100 regular low brightness L.E.D.s for $19.95, which would’ve been just under 20¢ each, so that’s pretty good. But these days you could get high brightness ones for that kind of price.
Let’s look at computer related stuff next. You could get a 4 MHz Z80A CPU for $5.95. That sounds quite reasonable, I would say. (The prices vary widely on eBay at the moment, from less than that to quite a lot more.) There’s another one here listed as a V20-88MHz, which was a high performance 8088 CPU replacement, and that was $19.95. But I don’t think that would be 88 MHz in speed, somehow. Not in 1993, and not for that type of CPU either. A 12.5 MHz Intel 80287-XL maths co-processor would cost you $299! Yikes. I think they became built in by the time we got our 75 MHz Pentium 1 CPU based computer in 1995. As for RAM, you could get 4 MB for $399! Wow, it sure makes me feel as though we take stuff for granted now, with computer prices.
A 16 bit Creative Sound Blaster card would cost you $499! Holey beep! It did come with a lot of software though, plus a microphone. There was also a Video Blaster for $799, which allowed you to capture video and get pictures, with a bunch of neat goodies… but dang! Whose hard drive could even store much video back then? It certainly wouldn’t have been the likes of DV quality. You’d probably record a minute and fill the entire drive if it was! For the same price, you could get a multimedia kit, which came with a CD drive, Sound Blaster Pro and 3 bonus CDs of software.
Over the page is LANtastic for Windows, which comes with a network card and cord for 2 PCs. The transfer rate of the card is 10 Mbits per second, which was probably mega fast back then. The price? $1199! Good grief! You could get a whole computer for that now, and not even need any extra networking goodies. For $559, you could get a 250 MB cassette backup drive, with a data rate of 500 KB per second. Thank goodness we have flash memory units now.
Here’s a funny bit: “Imagine receiving a large document at 300 b.p.s. — you could bake a leg of lamb while you wait.” LOL. But with this QuickComm Spirit 2 modem, for $649, you can go up to 57 600 b.p.s., and it also handled faxes. A standard floppy disk drive would cost you $129, and a “graphics accelerator” card would cost you $249. It only did 15 bit colour, and no, it wasn’t the kind of 3D accelerator card you’d get now, that worked with Open GL and all that — this just sped drawing operations up by up to 10 times. Various cables were about the only thing Dick Smith had for Apple computers.
They had a 2 button control pad for $39.95, which looks a bit minimal. Ooh, and a graphics tablet for $249. Throw away your mouse, they said.
In terms of software, the most expensive item was “The Microsoft Office.” Ah! They dropped that the business since then. And that was $849! Cha-ching! Microsoft Word on its own was $549. Holey macaroni! WordPerfect, in its pre-Corel days, was $495. Also for sale was Windows 3.1 for $169, Lotus 1-2-3 (for Windows) for $699, and some old Star Trek screen saver for $69! For a sodding screen saver! You’ve gotta be joking. Microsoft Money was $10 cheaper than that. Corel DRAW! 3 was $329, Geoworks Pro was $199 & Microsoft’s DOS 6 was $99. So yeah, those were the days when you could probably blow 10 or more grand on a computer setup.
Oh yeah, now where are those freaking ’phones? Like in America, they called them cellular ’phones in the catalogue, unlike mobile ’phones these days. These seemed to be more related to installing in vehicles too. There are no prices listed, so they must’ve been expensive, and you could also get loan ’phones, instead of buying them. You also got instant access to Telecom Mobile Net. Not Telstra back then, but old Telecom. And then again, was there even anyone else?
(Onto the next 3 pages:) Ah, the old Sharp EL-6073 Memo Master. I still have mine, and it was $29.95. The battery lasted for yonks in this thing. I only changed it once since about 1993. I had some girls’ ’phone numbers from school in mine. Although they’re probably not much use now.
If you wanted to really blow your cash at Dick Smith, you could get a Teletext Decoder Mark 2! It was a kit for $319, and if you didn’t have a VCR, you could pay $139 for another kit, which was a tuner module required for it. Holey penné! You’d have to be a real couch potato with a need for teletext to get that, and then make the thing yourself. The combined cost would’ve been $458. They already sold a 34 cm Telefunken TV with a Teletext feature built in for $499.
So if you want to know anything else they had back then, you can just ask me. Unless there’s a web site of old catalogues out there somewhere. It’s amazing what old catalogues get sold off on eBay. I guess people buy them for doing TV shows in the past, or for collecting or whatever. As I said back in September, my old 1997 Jaycar catalogue looks brand new, so it might have a bit of value still. Not a “dog ear” corner in sight.
• (19:02) Ooh yeah — I worked out a lotus design in Photo-Paint, and it came to 225 L.E.D.s! So, mmm. I don’t think I’ll do that somehow. I think it worked out to 4.5 amps of juice they’d need, but only 9 W of total power. Assuming I calculated that right. Although the 54 white L.E.D.s might have used a bit more.
Sunday, 23rd of January, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (19:11) I was going to have a look at my Sharp EL-6073 Memo Master 100, but its battery’s completely dead. Then I went to take a photo of it, and my camera’s battery ran out of oomph as well! It wasn’t meant to be. So I’ll need a new CR-2016 battery for the organiser, hopefully tomorrow. The previous one was about 29 years old after all. On the back it says it uses 0.0002 W of power. So that’s like 0.2 milliwatts, or 200 microwatts. It’s supposed to last for 2000 hours of constant use. The memory capacity of the organiser is just 1888 bytes, although numbers only take up half a byte in the number field. There are some interesting calculation tips in the back too, including how to do more complicated calculations, like numbers to the power of other ones, which isn’t something you’d normally think it did. For instance: (4³)². You just press 4 × = = × = & you get 4096. Although trying the same thing on the calculator in Windows here had the same result too.
One thing that was handy, was using the telephone function as storage for constants, so you could multiply by a number that was always kept, like for pi, or stuff for metric conversions.
• Yep, it’ll be the 8th of March that my site’s been on the web for 20 years. Although over 3 different ISPs.
Saturday, 29th of January, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (20:13) I was looking on an interactive map for Wuppertal in Germany, and later I decided to have a peek around the border of Belgium & the Netherlands. I was like: What’s with all these border lines around this town? It was like somebody had a fit drawing the map. It’s a place called Baarle-Hertog, and its divisions go back to the middle ages, and the borders of Belgium & the Netherlands are still all over the shop. It’s really hilarious! They all get along, but the borders are jiggling about in a crazy fashion, with markings across car parking spaces, into shops and along the side of a restaurant. Holey moley! It’d be a good attraction for its obscurity. It’s worse than that Llívia joint, which is part of Spain, but in France, or something.
Sunday, 30th of January, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (14:39) Holey moley! I just finished typing up the hand written stuff of my story, The 2nd 2 Year Holiday, which is about my grandparents. I started it in about February 1994, (when I was 13 years old,) and decided to start typing it up in mid 1999. Almost 23 years later, and it’s done! Struth, it took long enough. I realised about 9 years ago that I’d have to pull my finger out & get it completed, because at the rate I’d been typing it up until then, I’d be dead before it got finished. It takes up 1053 pages in typed form, and 1784 pages in my hand writing. (It has pictures as well.) Following that though, are probably another 1000 pages which I’ve only typed, and just printed out. I started writing it in Microsoft Works 3, then moved to Microsoft Word, when a friend of mine had it, then I think I had it in AbiWord, and then moved to Open Office, which I’ve used ever since. I made each file 100 pages, and I also did PDF files of them all. It feels a bit funny to have it done now. My pink clothes peg that I used to mark where I was up to, can retire at last. Of course I’m still typing up the new stuff — it’s like one of those soap operas on the TV that just keeps going & going.
Tuesday, 1st of February, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:28) This month’s software review will be back to Corel CHART at last. That’ll be on the 9th as usual.
• Um… dang… I forgot what I was going to write about. Oh yeah! I was reading about Oresama’s 3rd album last night, Continew World. You get 2 CDs and a 2022 calendar! The 1st CD is the regular new songs, and the 2nd one is the DressUp Cover remixes. Pretty sweet. I don’t think I’ll be getting it though. It’s pretty expensive getting imported stuff. Anyway, I think it came out about the 27th of October last year, which was after I got Hi-Fi POPS.
Thursday, 3rd of February, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (14:13) You can hear just about all the songs from Continew World off YouTube for free. Although certainly not at CD quality, but pretty good all the same. Yeah, so I don’t think I’ll be buying that one. I didn’t fancy some of the tracks I heard.
• Back on the 11th of September, 2020, I yacked about possibly doing an audio level display using L.E.D.s and a LM3914 I.C., but after going through the information on that I.C. again today, I don’t think it would be quite right for my use. It seems more aimed at L.E.D.s which are all the same, or of exactly the same brightness, and the ones I have aren’t matched in any way. The green ones are the brightest, probably followed by the magenta, the purple one is quite weak, as is the red, and yeah… you’d need different resistors for each one, to equalise them. Maybe you could do that with the LM3914 dealie, but I’m not sure. And being unsure about something is what I want to avoid. It just seems to mention using one resistor for controlling the brightness of all the L.E.D.s. I think I might look towards the Dick Smith Fun Way book method, despite it using more components. It has individual resistors per L.E.D., and uses a transistor to turn each one on. From what I read, those BC548 transistors can handle up to 100 mA, so that’s more than any of my L.E.D.s require. Anyway, I don’t think I’ll jump into doing that immediately. I’d have to buy a whole bunch of components for it first, probably a large PCB, and really, it’s not something I currently want to spend money on.
• I looked at a video of the 100 most viewed French songs @ YouTube last night. What a waste of time that was! How many viewers actually enjoyed them though?! This is why I don’t like looking at “best” songs and “top” levels and stuff, ’cos it’s based on other people’s opinions (which suck) and sales. I only want to see new releases with no prejudice on how good / bad the songs are. Then I can make up my own mind. But yeah, it is still so hard to find foreign music, especially from China, and even India. If you ask me, the Korean stuff is still the easiest to get. Even easier than English (and American) music. Let’s do a search for videos on the web, saying: new songs January 2022 — what do you know? K-Pop is the 2nd result, with more mentions below. If you search in other languages you get some different results, but not much. Then you’re expected to understand the language to find the music, which I don’t.
If you want to see a broad range of Korean music videos, one person from YouTube I would recommend, is DJ Digital, who does a weekly in case you missed it (ICYMI) video of newly released songs. It’s divided up into colour coded genres, so you can go straight to what you want. For Japanese, have a look for JPKRCH’s monthly top 40 picks, which usually have a couple of good tunes, and SK4 who puts out pretty regular new MVs as they find them, by the looks of it.
Sunday, 6th of February, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (22:15) Ha ha ha! Look at what I found in the old Dick Smith catalogue! This really made my night, what with all this other bollocks about so called “smart ’phones” these days. This one talks back too! So you’ll really get an ear full. So think about this, all of you mobile ’phone users. (Just click on the image to see it @ full size.)
Oh hey! The power button L.E.D. on my PC just came back on. My writing must’ve been a good omen. I always say it’s a good omen when it comes back on.
Thursday, 10th of February, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (12:59) Hands up who knows what a tattie-bogle is? I didn’t know either until I looked it up. It’s a Scottish scarecrow for minding potato fields. For some reason it popped into my head at some unholy hour of this morning, so I wrote it down on my note pad and went back to sleep. All I can think of, is that it must’ve been somebody’s user name somewhere. Like at eBay, DeviantArt, or on YouTube perhaps. I couldn’t find it in either of my dictionaries. In fact, I had to do a search on the web with suggestions to see if it’d come up, and when it did, I didn’t know what the results would be. Strange, huh? I wonder where I heard it.
• (13:12) Ha ha! I remember where I heard that thing now. It was a web site for a XBOX 360 control pad driver for Mac OS X. The bizarre stuff ya brain thinks up in the wee hours of the morning, laddy.
Monday, 14th of February, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (18:12) Flippin’ heck. I spent most of the afternoon waiting for Windows XP to check my 2ndary hard drive, after the Monkey’s Audio plug-in reported an error about a corrupt file I had playing in Winamp. After getting out my backup DVD, I confirmed it was corrupt with a “hex editor”, and that it had changed significantly. But the disk check didn’t report any errors. It just said: Disk Check Complete. Or something like that, and that was it. No log file or anything, even after waiting probably 6 hours or so. So if there were no bad blocks, or whatever, on the disk, how did that file get like that overnight or last night? I played it yesterday, and it was fine. Did something foul up when I shut down my computer? Usually if bad areas of any disk are discovered, Windows will add it to the Event Viewer logs. Like when I plug in my Cowon X9, it will say there are errors on it’s 2nd “drive,” but it’s just because the card slot is empty. But anyway, there are no hard drive errors (apparently). The date of the APE file was the same as my backup copy as well, so it wasn’t showing any evidence of (it) having been changed. Very weird.
• Anyway, I was going to check out some MVs from the Japanese duo, GARNiDELiA. The chick in it, MARiA, has a very intriguing look.
Tuesday, 15th of February, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:43) No issues today with my music, it would seem. The only other thing I can think of which might have caused some trouble, might have been This Is My File, but I wasn’t unlocking anything on my hard drive caddy. Probably only a flash memory unit. Perhaps I’ll avoid using it.
• I looked at a bunch of GARNiDELiA MVs, but I didn’t like much of their music. Mirai was kind of good, but it didn’t end the best. Aikotoba wasn’t too bad, and Otomeno Kokoroe, which I saw last year, was sort of okay. I think MARiA’s looks are more stunning than the music. She really seems quite mesmerising. As for Toku, who knows? I’m not interested in looking at blokes.
• (21:57) Australia’s a pretty big joint, so tonight I thought I’d get a map picture of the country, and then see how many other countries I could fit into the space at the same scale. Although rotation was required in some instances. In fact, you can get San Marino, Singapore, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Hong Kong & Macau all into Lake Eyre, and still have room to spare. (That’s in S.A.) As for the rest of the country, I fitted in Spain, Portugal, Denmark, North Macedonia, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Israel, Lebanon, Cambodia, all of Britain, the United Arab Emirates, both Koreas, Austria, Cuba, Nepal, Hungary, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Plus Jamaica into the upper part of Tasmania. And there was still a huge portion of S.A. free, which was taken up by the writing I used to point out the countries that’d fit into the lake. On the flip side, I should see how much of Australia will fit into Russia, ’cos that joint is humongous.
Thursday, 17th of February, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (22:44) I think we’ve all seen single & double cassette recorders, but what about triple?! I was looking up old Japanese TV ads today, and spotted one by accident, and yeah — there were quite a few made by various companies. National and General both had one, plus some company called Yorx, which I’d never heard of. Ah, I used to use cassettes all the time when I was a kid, but I haven’t used any for years unfortunately. I’ve still got a lot of them though, including ones older than myself, which my grandparents had. I remember when we used to record stuff at primary school, and the other kids’d be surprised by their own voices, but I was used to it, since I did a lot of recording at home.
A lot of my old ones wore out over the years, but I still have the remnants of my very first one; a light blue “Gaf Control” radio & cassette recorder combo. What a weird brand name. It was probably some generic thing other companies slapped their name on. One of the switches broke off, the transformer died with a flash from the power point, the tuning knob came off, the handle busted off, the door broke off, and I think the plastic for the tuning area came out too. I didn’t treat it the best when I was just a kid, I suppose.
Friday, 18th of February, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (16:17) Check this dude out: Dimash Qudaibergen, who I believe is from Kazakhstan. Tell me that’s not one of the highest pitch male voices you’ve ever heard. He’s like a boy soprano, except he’s a man now.
Monday, 21st of February, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:49) Ha ha! F**king WinRAR. I was just compressing 2 files, and the progress bar decided to go backwards! It got to 100%, then kept going, then jumped back to 80%. Eugene Roshal, my friend, you goofed on that one.
• I’ve been looking up a few other songs from around the world in countries I don’t usually look at stuff from, and yeah, that’s been a waste of time as well. It’s really hard to find something good. It’d be great if Oresama did a MV for Chewy Candy.
• Ah, I’ll be so glad when sodding Summer is over & done with, and we get onto mid-Autumn. The amount of storms this year, and @ the end of 2021, have just been crazy around here. Plus I hate the humidity as well. Last night was horrible. Thank goodness I don’t live in northern Australia. When I’m tucked up in bed in May with 2 blankets and 3 quilts on, I’ll be happy.
Wednesday, 23rd of February, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (16:22) I found a web site from New Zealand, which had some Philips radio & record player hi-fi systems very similar to the one my Nanna had at Coogee. This FZ886A model would be the closest, I would say. I think the Z in the model was specific to New Zealand, because I also read about other FX800 series ones, which must’ve been from Europe, perhaps. It made me feel a bit whimsical and longing to bring back memories of my early years, when I was about 3 or 4 years old. When you want to bring back something from your past that you can’t. Anyway, I wrote to the person who did the site, and perhaps they might have something interesting to say.
What’s interesting to note, are the 3 speakers. I knew it had 3! I just knew it. I was almost convinced I was wrong in recent times, by seeing another one with 2. I was right about the Philips Miniwatt valves and magic eye. That I worked out myself anyway. I wasn’t aware of the special 800Ω speakers though.
Friday, 4th of March, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:26) This month’s Software Review Of The Moment will be returning to the triple dealie of Cog + MacAmp Lite X + XMPlay.
• Here are a few more music videos I found recently, which might be worth a squizz!
» Believe by Rothy (2022)
» Sabotage by Ryokuōshoku Shakai (2019)
» Angle by Trio Ohashi (Yesterday)
» Swee2wink Love Letter by 2wink (2022)
» Bunny by Surii + Kagami Oto Ren (2022)
Saturday, 5th of March, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:02) Good grief — Shane Warne died yesterday of a heart attack in Thailand! Holey moley. I wouldn’t have picked that happening to him. He was only 53 as well.
Saturday, 12th of March, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:22) I was thinking of finally getting off my butt & looking at BeOS, but I’m a bit hazy about whether the professional rendition of version 5 is free to download. The personal edition is intended to be downloaded for free, but you only get about 512 MB or so of space, and you have to have Windows ’98 or Windows ME installed to reboot to it, or something. So that’s a bit iffy. (I think you must have the professional edition for Macs.) The pro’ version has its own bootable CD & installs on its own, which I’d rather do. Also, I read that version 4 is more stable. So what software there is and how much of it needs version 5 instead, is hard to say if you’ve never used it before. The earlier versions were made for PowerPC CPUs, including pre-G3 Macs, but the last version of BeOS was apparently only for Intel CPUs. Anyway, I only feel about ½ bothered to look @ it at the moment. I dunno about graphics acceleration either. I think it used OpenGL for stuff, but what video cards would it support? And would that work for this OS in a virtual machine?
Anyway, BeOS has a nice appearance about it. The icons are all kind of isometric looking. I dunno what’s available for it in terms of word processors, graphics programs and the like. It was aimed more at audio & video work. If the BeBox computer had a PowerPC CPU, and was released in 1995, the company must have been quick off the mark to do it, because that was the same year that Apple introduced the CPU. (It was designed by Apple, IBM & Motorola.) Then again, I suppose Sega were using them in 1996 as well for the Model 3 board.
Sunday, 13th of March, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (15:25) I’ve been trying to find that nVidia TNT demo again. The one with the lion & the penthouse / whatever it was. Who the heck knows what ever happened to it? It’s one of those things lost forever. I sent another message to nVidia, but whether they’ll reply is hard to say. I even offered to host it myself, if it isn’t humongous. That’d be pretty neat, if I had the only site to have it. It’s a pity it isn’t just on the nVidia web site with all their GeForce demos. For a moment I was beginning to wonder if it was for PowerVR cards, but then remembered that archived web site I read, which mentioned it for TNT video cards as well. Maybe it was a screen saver. But I’m pretty sure it was interactive, ’cos you could zoom in on the lion. Anyway, I’m currently downloading a driver CD “image,” which does have some GeForce demos, so maybe it might be on there too.
• (16:20) No luck with the 1st CD I tried. It was more to do with the GeForce 2, it seemed. It had the Grass & Toy Soldiers demos, but I didn’t spot anything like the one I’m after.
Tuesday, 15th of March, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (12:28) It’s my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary today.
• I finally found that lone piece of Bloodgrass in Oblivion, when I was playing it last night, in the Great Forest. I’d seen it years ago, and thought: “What’s this doing out here in the middle of nowhere?” Well it turns out that an Oblivion gate could have opened there, but it never did, because I ended the main quest before I ever went to that region. Anyway, it’s about half way between Ceyatatar & Fort Wooden Hand. If an Oblivion gate did open for you, (if you have the game,) it will make sense. If not, it just seems to be a suspicious sprout of it growing through a grassy covered rock. The location is approximately at X: -35747.14, Y: 38725.2 & Z: 6091.48.
Saturday, 19th of March, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (14:34) I saw a dude picking mushrooms in Oblivion last night. Honmund was his name. I didn’t even realise people went out picking anything, and I’ve been playing the game since 2006! Ha ha. It took long enough to notice this going on. Anyway, his AI dealie has him finding Clouded Funnel Caps on the weekends, if certain parts of the main quest aren’t active. Probably during the attack on Bruma.
At my Verdant View Manor, I have a horse stable, where I’ve stuck the unicorn from Harcane Grove. Anyway, it keeps trying to get back there, despite the gates. Last night I thought it was safely held in place, so I set off west to Ondo, and the horse comes zooming over me like it leapt off a mountain! Then it goes nuts, chasing after 3 deer! LOL! It wouldn’t stop until I killed them all. Then I could ride it back again. But dang — it took some damage from the jump. It must’ve leapt about 100 m or more.
Also, this horse up near where Honmund was, walked into a rock and just vanished! It must have “teleported” back to where it was supposed to be. It’s the Twilight Zone in that game sometimes. Speaking of which, the other day it decided to reset my play time back to 0. Probably around the 7th of this month. But really, I’ve just passed 1200 hours. Last night, I think it was. So that’s 50 days.
I kind of feel like making another plug-in, but I dunno what though. Maybe something with wilderness outposts for Imperial Legion guards. Then you could see them fighting more creatures. Plus maybe you could rest in the places and trade goods too. I should do a fun dealie with a staff that has a scripted enchantment to give somebody a bounty. If you can do that. And one to resurrect somebody. Although that’s kind of cheating on both accounts, if you ask me.
Tuesday, 22nd of March, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:19) So I did start on a new plug-in for Oblivion, called Cyrodiilic Outposts. Now there’ll be places to stop off at in the wild, where you can sleep, store things and be protected by the local guards as well. The game has all those ruined forts, but none of them seem to be in use by the “good guys.” Oblivion has barely any female members of the Imperial Legion, & possibly none at all. Although I think there is one sheila who’s related to a Dark Brotherhood quest. So I decided to have some sheilas in there. It seems there is female speech for when you get arrested and stuff too. This is something that made me wonder if it was why they avoided women guards. Another thing I noticed, is that NPCs are immune to the invisible border. (The boundary which stops you going into places like Morrowind, Skyrim, Hammerfell, etc.) One of my guards was coming back for a snooze, and he was in an area I couldn’t get to. There are actually path nodes out there in those locations too, because I think they’re automatically generated by some dealie in the Construction Set.
Monday, 28th of March, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (20:50) Ooh, Red Velvet have a new Japanese tune out called Wildside. It wasn’t quite what I’d go for, but some bits of it were okay.
Thursday, 7th of April, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (19:49) Yeah, um… Cyrodiilic Outposts is nearing completion for The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. I didn’t use anything from Shivering Isles, but I don’t know if that’ll necessarily mean you won’t need that expansion. I have to finish checking everything’s working fine with the guard patrols and other NPCs 1st, and add some more decorative stuff. But you’ll get 10 joints to go to. Most of which seem to be on the eastern side of Cyrodiil.
• I was thinking about how Morrowind seems to have more joinable factions than Oblivion too. Let’s see, what’d you get to join in Oblivion? The Fighters’ Guild, the Thieves’ Guild, the Mages’ Guild, the Dark Brotherhood, and I think the Knights Of The Nine, if you had that expansion, which I don’t. Plus there were some minor factions you got to be in for doing a handful of tasks, like the Order Of The Virtuous Blood, Knights Of The White Stallion and Knights Of The Thorn, or something. And there was a faction for the Shivering Isles as well. In Morrowind though, you got to join the the Fighters’ Guild, the Thieves’ Guild, the Mages’ Guild, the Morag Tong, the Imperial Legion, the Imperial Cult, one of the 3 Great Houses, (Hlaalu, Redoran or Telvanni,) the Temple & the East Empire Company (in Bloodmoon). Plus I think you got an honourary position in the Ashlanders, and I forget about the Twin Lamps. Maybe that too. You also had the ability to join with one of the 3 vampire clans, rather than just being a generic kind of vampire in Oblivion. Not that I ever did that either.
Monday, 11th of April, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (22:04) I was looking at a way to get interlaced videos into non-interlaced @ 50 Hz tonight. I recalled that you could do that with AVDemux, but it’s a bit buggy, and I had white parts of the video coming out in black! Then, I finally worked out how to do it with JES De-Interlacer. You can read how on my Computer Page.
I figured if I ever put any videos back on my site, I’d have them at the full frame rate.
Tuesday, 12th of April, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (17:20) Ah good! Things have been going even more right for me today. I finally worked out how to get FFMPEG to do that de-interlace method as well. Huzzah! I should be able to do that on both my Macs and main PC now. That will save a lot of room in terms of disk space, when compared with JES De-Interlacer. The general gist of the command line is:
ffmpeg -i InterlacedVideo.mpg -vf "yadif=1:-1" -vcodec mjpeg -r 50 -b 16000k -ac 2 -acodec pcm_s16le ProgressiveOutput.avi
You just change that -1 to 0 or 1, or something in the yadif part, if the field order is wrong. YADIF is just short for Yet Another De Interlace Filter. You could use a MOV container instead of AVI or a different codec instead of MJPEG too. I just did it like this for testing purposes with a DVD source. So there you go. This is another solution! And it’s the proper deal. It doesn’t just knock it up to 50 Hz and duplicate the frames. Each frame is different. I may add this feature to my AV-Friendly front-end program too, if I feel it’s worthwhile.
Wednesday, 13th of April, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:58) I’ve updated AV-Friendly to version 1.3 now, and if you have a compatible copy of Mac OS X, then you can run it. (It must support PowerPC programs.) If not, install one in a virtual machine! Ha ha. Leopard is suitable. I made it for my Power Mac and other Macs, so why not share it with other people who might be able to run it too?
I’ll have to check about distributing FFMPEG again. That is hard to find for older Macs, so if I can give out the copy I have, then that could be useful to some people who have an interest.
Saturday, 16th of April, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (22:13) I added 2 more Japanese MVs to this year’s page of them. I think I’m just going to concentrate on music from there @ the moment, unless some random thing comes along that I like.
Sunday, 17th of April, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (12:05) Happy Easter!
Friday, 22nd of April, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (15:22) Yeah, the fridge cr*pped out on Easter Sunday, after 35 years of faithful service. (Actually, it was going down hill maybe a week before that. And a screw fell out of it years ago.) This new one’s got electronic bits in it. L.E.D.s and little buttons to control the temperature. It’s a bit fancy. The old one just had a thermostat knob, and the light bulb. What more do you need? I’d be happy with a fridge from the 1950s.
• I just ordered a 2nd hand alarm clock off eBay for my “Shelf Of Light” as I call it, in my bedroom. I wanted one up there, so when I’m on my back with my headphones on, I don’t have to turn way over to see the one on the bedside table. It’s an electronic type one. Blue L.E.D.s & a radio as well. I won’t need the radio, but which ones don’t have one? I won’t need the alarm either. It’s got a 24 hour or 12 hour setting, so that’s good. I tried looking for new clocks, but a lot of them are just weird, and gimmicky with stupid features I’d never use. They even have ones with USB ports on them. WTF would you need a USB port on a freakin’ clock for?!! Computers already have a clock built in. What would you be transferring from it?! Plug in your keyboard to adjust the time or something. And some other ones are these ridiculously huge clocks that would light up the whole room. Plus ones with projectors. What the fudge? Gimmicks, gimmicks, gimmicks! I don’t need all that B.S. I almost thought of making one myself, but it probably would’ve cost more. I’d have to track down a clock circuit off the ’net, buy four 7 segment displays, maybe a PCB, the I.C.s for it, a power supply, a box… You start to get the picture of the costs piling up.
• There’s an Ayleid joint in Oblivion that was never put in, from what I can see in the Construction Set. I don’t remember the name. The outdoor cell is named for it, but all that’s there, is an Ayleid well. If nobody’s created it, or it wasn’t part of Knights Of The Nine, I might take a crack at it one day. Otherwise, I’ll just leave it.
I hope none of my places from Cyrodiilic Outposts conflict with things from K.O.T.N., but as I never bought it, I dunno a great deal about the extra stuff. Apart from that tower up near Bruma way.
Sunday, 24th of April, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (14:28) That Ayleid joint that was never done for Oblivion, was called Ulkanen, in the Tamriel cell name. But somebody’s already made a plug-in that adds their interpretation of it.
• After I ordered that clock radio 2 days ago, I decided to look up other old models from the 1970s & 1980s. One that was surprisingly feature packed, was the Realistic Chronosette-237 from Tandy / Radio Shack. This was more like a nicely done radio & cassette recorder with a clock thrown in, rather than the clock being the main attraction. It had stereo microphone inputs, a headphones socket, tone & balance control, and even an auxilary connection to which you could also probably use as an alarm, going by the rotary switches. It also had a L.E.D. to say when it was recording and a counter for the cassette as well. If you do an image search for it, you should pick up some nifty pictures. It’s got a nice look about it. As for that snooze button, you wouldn’t want to be too off your face trying to press that from your bed, or you’d hit one of the other 6 buttons in the region.
If you want to see some more classic electronic clocks, and one that was more like electro-mechanical, check out this American site called Electronics USA.
• I’ve been thinking about doing that level display doodad again, to put near my computers. But I still dunno if I want to spend the money on it yet. If I go back to the LM3914 I.C. based design, I may get some cyan L.E.D.s, which should look nice. There’s a place in Australia selling 3 mm ones on eBay. I think I’ll have 2 inputs as well, and use RCA sockets for everything audio related. They last better than those phono ones.
When I could get off my butt, I’ll have a browse for some other circuit designs too. One I got was from a video I watched of somebody soldering to a LM3194N I.C., in a basic set-up, and if that works, then that would do. I don’t need anything too fancy.
Monday, 25th of April, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:27) Hooray! I finally went up to level 38 in Oblivion last night, after something like 12 years. (Although I hadn’t played it between 2013 & 2021.) My Hand To Hand skill going up is what did it for that last notch. I guess I can get training again now. That was another thing you got diddled with, compared with Morrowind. You could train as much as you liked in Morrowind, not just 5 times per level. Plus trainers had 3 of their best skills to teach you. Plus you could fortify a trainer’s skill using a spell and they’d teach you something else.
Anyway, I also went back to Fort Strand, and found a whole bunch of armour, and a sword, which I must’ve left there years ago. I could’ve sworn I’d been back through that place in recent times. Bjalfi The Contemptible was still there, rotting away, and magically, his weapon, Rockshatter, had returned to his corpse. So I just took it again, and then realised you can’t drop it, because it’s a “quest item.” But I completed that yonks ago, so I had to look up its form ID in the Construction Set and undo its quest status. (SetQuestObject 00014EC2 0) There are actually several versions of the weapon, based on what level you are.
• (14:53) Yesterday, I found a nice looking power amplifier by Akai from 1980. The model UC-W5. It had a level indicator that looked like a vacuum fluorescent display / gas plasma display / one of those styles. The pre-amplifier which went with it, was the UC-A5. It has an auxilary connection, but nothing that says for a CD player. Because CD players didn’t exist then, that’s why. It was a couple more years later. Has the division between pre-amplifiers and power amplifiers faded, would you say? I thought most of them were just the one thing these days. I remember as a kid, going to the Sydney Hi-Fi store at Penrith, and was stunned by the prices of the equipment in there. Maybe it wasn’t right for the area, or perhaps people just didn’t want expensive audio systems, and so they closed. Maybe now’s a good time to collect older audio equipment that’s being sold off cheap on eBay, so you can finally get the chance to grab something you missed out on 25 to 30 years ago. And there were some really nice looking pieces of equipment too. That nice aluminium look to the knobs and cases, I currently find very appealing. I like looking at those kinds of things on the web, but I dunno if I’d really make any purchases, because I probably wouldn’t use the thing. I already have other audio equipment from the past which doesn’t see a lot of use.
Tuesday, 25th of April, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (12:22) I was watching Black Adder 2: Money, the other night, and didn’t realise that the bishop was the same guy that played that German guy in Indiana Jones & The Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Toht, apparently. Ronald Lacey’s his name. So he had a red hot poker in both those shows.
Oh good heavens! He was in Z Cars as well. Who wasn’t in that show?
• Oblivion’s been acting a bit weird again with its bugs. I’ve had a couple of instances in recent times, where 2 of an object appears in an enemy’s inventory, when really you only get one of it. I dunno what that’s about. Also, it still has the nasty habit of getting stolen items mixed up. Stuff that’s marked as nicked, sometimes loses its stolen status when you stick it in another container, and last night items that weren’t stolen became stolen, because the next item down the list of the same type was. In Morrowind though, you couldn’t even tell. And I think sometimes whole object types became stolen if one was, or something. At least in Morrowind, you could sell stolen items to anyone, except the original owner, who’d nick ’em back.
Saturday, 30th of April, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (20:06) I ordered 100 cyan L.E.D.s today for just $7.50! What a bargain! They’re about 500 nm on the colour wavelength dealie, so that’s probably closer to turquoise, rather than exactly on cyan. 490 nm is probably more cyan-ish. But anyway, I did want them a touch more on the green side, so they should be ideal.
• I’m still working out what I’ll do about my audio level display. I got some new prices (off eBay), and it’s come out cheaper so far than what I worked out 2 years ago. Although adding in the power supply & box may push it closer to $100. I found some dual gang potentiometers from China, some aluminium knobs and the LM3914 I.C.s as well. The rest I tried to find from here in Australia. Well, for my test list anyway. I haven’t bought anything apart from the L.E.D.s yet. Actually, I might get a bread board first, before I start soldering, so I can test how things’ll work, and if I’m on the right track.
Tuesday, 3rd of May, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (20:06) Check out this digest movie for Heesey’s new CD, 33. (Double 3.) Apart from tracks 1 & 12, I liked the rest. You can hear the tracks on YouTube as well. Only One Love Song, which is track 6, sounds like something from out of the 1960s or something. Especially with the “bup shoo wuddy” business. Other recommended tracks:
9. Samba No. 9
8. Thunder Gate Shuffle
10. Super Hyper Ultra Extra
11. Infinity Of My Groove
2. Rock ’N’ Roll Survivor
3. Double 3
J!T!T!T! from one of his other albums is great as well. Especially if you’re in the mood to check out a big collection of electric guitars.
Saturday, 7th of May, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (12:23) Ooh boy. My main PC didn’t want to start up properly this morning. Although it’s obviously fine now, since I’m typing this. It didn’t even beep, so something was wrong. I tried loosening and tightening the video card, and after that it was okay for one start up, but then not again later. It tried it again, and blew out some dust with my compressed air can, and now it’s all right. Maybe the cold temperature overnight and this morning caused something to shift a bit. I dunno. It was running pretty warmly yesterday, and it’s never done something quite like this before. I hope it doesn’t die. I’m too dependant on it!
Monday, 9th of May, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (20:52) I got my cyan L.E.D.s today, but I also ordered some ice blue ones tonight, which I think might be closer to what colour I want. (Which are of 490 nm wavelength.) The cyan ones are more of a bluey-green. They’re really nice though, all the same.
They’re probably like this colour, where what I’m after is more like this.
Anyway, you should see some of the other stuff this store has! Long L.E.D.s, 8 mm hexagonal ones, oval ones which look like ice blocks, and even flexible silicone strips, which I asked about. They have a whole stack of tiny L.E.D.s inside them, it seems. They’ve also got square, rectangle and ~1 cm square block kind of shaped ones too. It was like being a kid in a lolly shop checking them all out. The place is based in Queensland, so if you’re an Aussie & want to shop locally for L.E.D.s on eBay, check this joint out.
Wednesday, 11th of May, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (12:41) All right — I ended up ordering a 5 pack of LM3915 I.C.s yesterday. I watched a video on how the LM3914, LM3915, & LM3916 integrated circuits all work in the same kind of circuit, next to each other, and after more reading, I felt the LM3915 was more appropriate for my level display dealie.
Today though, I ordered a bread board, so I can chop up some bread. Ha ha! No, just kidding. It’s to put components into for testing purposes. I want to test out one of my new I.C.s first, and see what happens before I start soldering stuff. I have 2 variations of the final circuit to try as well. I’m wondering if I should use my purple L.E.D.s, since they’re not so intense. Although, I still have to see what these ice blue ones are like. Maybe if I put a ½ watt resistor of a few kΩ in series with the common connection of the L.E.D.s it might reduce their brightness, and at the same time take some of the load off the I.C.’s internal current reduction dealie.
I read at multiple places that the LM3914, LM3915 & LM3916 I.C.s have gone out of production by the original manufacturer, National Semiconductors, but you still seem to be able to get 3rd party ones easily enough. There was a LM3909 I.C. as well, that Dick Smith had for flashing individual L.E.D.s. I only ever bought one of those, and it was probably close to 30 years back.
Saturday, 14th of May, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:19) My LM3915N I.C.s turned up yesterday, which was quick. I’m still waiting on the bread board & ice blue L.E.D.s. I did find one box on eBay, but I think it clips together, so I might re-search for something with screws. I like the look of the aluminium boxes, but as it conducts electricity, I think I’ll stick with plastic.
• Last night I found some pictures on the web of my Nana & Pa’s audio systems. They had a Briconic quadraphonic record player & radio, which also had inputs for 2 cassette recorders, using those DIN type connectors, or whatever they’re called. I think the radio must’ve been for AM only, since there doesn’t seem to be any band changing option. It had 2 headphones sockets — 1 for the rear speakers, and one for the front ones. I remember the speakers my grandparents had as well. They had the smaller back ones on wall mounted shelves, and the big front ones on the floor. I reckon it was probably from the 1960s or 1970s, since quadraphonic stuff faded out after that. I’m pretty sure it used transistors. I don’t think it would’ve had valves. Anyway, something snuffed it, and Pa dismantled it. All that’s left are the buttons and the front panel, which I have. These were the kind of radio buttons that give their name to the ones you see in various computer programs. Pressing 1 would pop the other ones out. It basically had a spring loaded bar, which would cause other buttons to disengage from their pressed status.
Anyway, after that, they got a NEC M-255, the model apparently is. I reckon it must’ve been in the late 1980s or around 1991, because they got their CD player (a Sony CDP-190) around that time, and the old Briconic system had no inputs for that kind of thing. As for the NEC doodad, it had a record player, 3 band radio (FM, AM & SW), & double cassette players. There was also a level display with red square L.E.D.s, a 5 level equaliser, & 2 microphone inputs. You can look it up on the web yourself, but it’s pretty hard to find.
As for Briconic, I’m pretty sure they were an Aussie company. I don’t know how long they lasted for. If they are still around, well struth, I haven’t heard of them again.
Wednesday, 18th of May, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (14:44) Some time ago I was looking at the back of the dunny rolls packet, and thinking that Sorbent should do a thing like the intro to The Pretender: There are toilet rolls among us. Paper with the ability to wipe anyone’s backside. In 1952, a corporation known as Sorbent isolated a young toilet roll named Jarod and exploited his softness for their butt holes. Then one day, their toilet paper rolled away.
Plus, some company that makes cotton buds could have a cute drawing on the packet like this one that I did some time ago. 
Maybe it could be for a special kids version perhaps.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Japanese have some cute bathroom related products.
Thursday, 19th of May, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (17:10) My new ice blue L.E.D.s turned up today! They probably are closer to a good cyan, and not overly saturated. So in certain conditions, you could almost mistake them for a white L.E.D. with a blue tinge. They’re rated at 2.8 to 3.1 V, and on a button battery, they’re very bright! If I put them into my level display circuit, I think I’d want to reduce their brightness significantly, so I can look at them and not have my eyes blown away by up to 20 on at once.
• I’ve also been reading up more about the LM3915 I.C. today, hoping some of it would sink in. My main concern is the heat level. With 10 L.E.D.s lit @ once, these integrated circuits apparently get quite hot with a large amount of current being drawn. A lot of people recommend L.E.D.s of only 10 or so mA. The strange thing is, that even regular low brightness L.E.D.s at Jaycar, years ago, were rated for 30 mA, and my new high brightness ones are only about 20 or so. The resistor at pin 7 is supposed to be a reference for how much current the I.C. is to set for each L.E.D. So, if I increase that to a higher value than the typical 1.2 kΩ resistor shown in most examples, will that reduce amount of heat as well, or should I use a 1 watt resistor in series with the common connection of all the L.E.D.s? The thing is, these ice blue L.E.D.s that I want to use are really bright anyway, so if I can cut back their brightness and save some heat from the I.C. then it’s a 2-in-1 bonus. The specification data for the LM3915 says that the current drawn out of the reference voltage pin, which is number 7, determines the L.E.D. current. So surely using a higher value resistor would reduce the current that’s drawn. Perhaps something like 3.3 kΩ would be better.
I did a test of the L.E.D.s in a basic circuit with a 9 V battery, using a high value resistor like that, in my experiment box thing, and it was a lot more dull. Although the values don’t work in quite the same manner with the LM3915 I.C.s. When my breadboard turns up, I’ll be able to do some tests.
Tuesday, 24th of May, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (12:55) Ooh! I was just watching new Japanese MV previews, and found one by Dreams Come True, and it’s a sung rendition of the original Green Hill Zone music from Sonic The Hedgehog. Check it out here. If you don’t like that one, there’s also a computer animated one as well, but you’ll need to look that up yourself.
Tuesday, 31st of May, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (20:39) Next month’s software review will be an updated dealie of Winamp 2.8
• I added screen shots to my Titlers Page, so you can see what they do now. Well, most of them.
Wednesday, 1st of June, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:57) You can now download FireWorx, Video Titler & Hypno-Shapes 2 from my Titlers Page! Hooray! But if you want any others, you’ll have to ask me still. And yes, please do write in and let me know what you think.
• (21:53) My capacitors & resistors arrived today, so I was able to get on with my level display circuit testing. You need a diode in the circuit for the 1 µF capacitor to be charged, and it’s this capacitor which keeps the L.E.D.s steadily lit, which is paramount for the “dot” mode. One problem is that the diode’s voltage drop causes pretty much no activity with the L.E.D.s unless you crank the volume to full, so I’m going to try adding a transistor to boost the sound level. Ideally anyway! I think I got a bit in over my head on this one, but anyway, I’ll keep going. You can add resistors in series with the L.E.D.s, not just to take the load off the LM3915 I.C., but to reduce brightness further. Although the more L.E.D.s which come on, the more of them go dim, so it may be necessary to use 10 resistors — 1 per L.E.D. — instead of just 1 for the lot. I didn’t see any issues with this on my bread board. But I’d have to order more resistors to do that. I had it cranked up to like 22 kΩ to get the brightness down as well. Those new ice blue L.E.D.s are just insanely bright, and I have to look at them straight on. At least if I do that, I know I’ll be protecting them from being run at too high a power level, and the I.C. from taking on their load.
Anyway, when I’m done, I might release my take on the circuit, which will be guaranteed to work! Although don’t get me to explain it! I’m not an electronics expert. Just a dabbler.
Friday, 3rd of June, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (20:56) I decided to get some LM386 I.C.s and try them to amplify the audio to my LM3915 I.C.s. I’ll need 2 of each for stereo. I’ve seen other circuits using these for such purposes. I tried various things with single transistors, but I don’t think they have enough oomph. At least the ones I have.
This is my volume level for listening to music with my noise cancelling headphones, so you can see that I don’t have things cranked very high out of my computer, and that’s why I need some more grunt to the input of the LM3915 dealie. Although during the day, I use my normal headphones, which do require more amplification from my compo, so I need to control the input level with a variable resistor.
Yeah, so when I get this sorted, I’ll maybe make some new page on the site and give out the circuit diagram. Hopefully with some level of explanation.
Wednesday, 8th of June, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (15:38) Here’s another pretty shnazzy looking amplifier — the Pioneer SA9800 from 1978. What’s a little different, is that the volume knob works in an anti-clockwise fashion to make things louder. I looked these up on eBay — you could still be paying around $2000 for one in top condition. So it must be a very good quality model to be getting that price after 44 years. Apparently, these weigh in at 18.4 kg! Holey moley!
• Tomorrow — the Winamp review again, as I said. Hopefully I won’t forget.
Friday, 10th of June, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (16:37) I ordered a bunch more electronic goodies off eBay now that I have my level display circuit finalised. My LM386 I.C.s turned up yesterday, and after a bit of a headache of working stuff out, I got there in the end. I got a 100 kΩ dual gang variable resistor & aluminium knob from China, since that was cheaper. Some of those knobs are a rip off price from here. One knob for like $12 or something. F**k off! I know it was 22 years ago, but in the 2000 Jaycar catalogue, you could get a large black aluminium knob for about $3.
What else did I get? Oh, a 3PDT toggle switch for $7.65, (which is pretty reasonable,) a 9 V 660 mA PowerTran switch mode plug-pack style power supply for $28.70, with the postage cost, 25 more resistors for $2.80, which is just okay, and 20 I.C. sockets, since they came in packs of 10. (18 pin & 8 pin.) I still have to get chrome LED holders, but you can’t seem to get ones with rubber insert pieces like Tandy used to have. They just seem to be one brand now with a plastic “grip” piece. So long as it does grip. Plus 6 RCA sockets, which I’m also having trouble with. Jaycar used to have a 6 way panel mounted set of sockets for $2.25 or something in 2006, but do you think I can find anything like that on eBay, or for that price? No-o-o-o-o! It’s all rip-off prices. I really would’ve thought there’d be loads more of them. I’ve been trying to buy only from Australia, ’cos I don’t want to pay any f**king Get Stuffed Tax on overseas items. The freaking government. They’ll only waste it anyway. Ooh, and I still need to find a decent looking box. I don’t want this project looking like a cheap pile of junk. Plus I still have to order a 2.1 mm power socket. You know the kind. The ones with the central pin.
Mmm, so I’ll show you my circuit diagram once I get it nicely drawn up, and perhaps I’ll have a sub-page off the Gadgets Page of electronic doodads. Other circuits you can make for yourself. I might add a chaser circuit and a L.E.D. flasher, and how to make a regulated power supply as well. But yeah, I’ll only stick to what I know, because I’m certainly not an expert in electronics.
Monday, 13th of June, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (23:33) Almost 2 years ago, on the 22nd of July, I said: “I was trying to work out what this show was that I saw years ago with this chick in it, whose name I don’t know. I think I have a bit of it still, on a video cassette somewhere.” Anyway, I tracked down who she was. It was Belinda Cotterill, and she was in Over The Hill with Georgie Parker. I dunno how old she is, but probably a few years more than me.
• This morning in bed, my Sennheiser PXC 480 headphones stuffed up. On the right side, it started up this kind of feedback sound, like when you put a microphone too close to the speaker of the amplifier they’re both attached to. I thought: “That sounds funny.” It was lucky I’d woken up to pause my CD player. So I dunno what happened. They’re okay now. I really don’t want to have to fork out over $200 for another pair.
Tuesday, 14th of June, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (12:25) In sad news, Philip Baker Hall died 2 days ago. I saw him in about 7 various shows. Seinfeld, Air Force 1, Ghostbusters 2, The Truman Show, Rush Hour, Psycho & The Rock. Well, he got to 90, so that was pretty good.
Thursday, 23rd of June, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (16:32) I started the soldering today for my audio level display gizmo. I got the 4 I.C. sockets done in a flash. It was working out the best positions for the other components that took some time. Once I could no longer see straight, and things were getting a bit dark, I threw in the towel for the day. I’ll do some more tomorrow. You really need good lighting to see what you’re doing. Anyway, I pretty much got all of the left channel stuff done, so now I just need to look at that and duplicate it for the right side. I’m still waiting on stuff to arrive from China though, plus my RCA sockets. I still need to order a good box for it all, but there aren’t many big ones on eBay, like 20 cm in height, and a lot of them are a rip off in price too. Oh, I said that the other day, didn’t I?
Unfortunately the metal L.E.D. holders I got depend on the L.E.D.s to have a “skirt” / fatter piece of plastic at the bottom. But with the ice blue ones I bought, these don’t have that, so they just slide straight out. I figured the hole in the top would be slightly smaller than 5 mm, to prevent that, like the old Tandy ones used to be like. Luckily the plug-able header, polarising thingo sockets I’ll be using, will hold them in.
I’ll need something like 32 holes in the box. 20 for the L.E.D. holders, 4 for the switches, 6 for the RCA sockets, 1 for the power socket & 1 for the variable resistor. Ooh, and maybe another 4 small ones to bolt the PCB to. I should use PCB spacers but that’d be more to buy.
Hopefully I can keep the length of the wires to the L.E.D.s below 15 cm, to prevent any of that oscillation business that the LM3915 I.C.s are sensitive to. Apart from them, there’ll be 3 or 4 wires to the PCB for the bar mode switches, 4 from the variable resistor, 2 from the power socket, and 3 from the RCA sockets. There’ll be 2 pairs of input sockets, with a switch to select which one you want, and in parallel, will be the output sockets, which also run to the PCB for the circuit to monitor the sound levels.
• I got a world map from 1924 last night, and one from 1820! (Off the Internet.) There sure were a lot of differences. In Western Australia, the 1820 one mentioned Edels Land & Lions Land. I didn’t know about that. Lions Land looked around the Margaret River region, south of Perth, and Edels Land looked to be around Geraldton. Plus it said New Holland of course, which I knew it used to be. India was Hindoostan, Korea was one country of course, but spelt as Corea. Then Persia, instead of Iran, the Russian Empire, which says about the Government Of Yakutsk, or something, and Tungusi. I think Finland was even part of Russia once, and it just says Lapland. Oh yeah, Siam, instead of Thailand, & it also has: “Papua Or New Guinea,” which is also like that on the 1924 map. Plus Sumatra, instead of Malaysia, and America didn’t seem to have anything like the states you see now. There was a bit in the middle which said Assinpoels, and bits about where the various Indians were.
Around where Abkhazia is, it says Circassia, and then Georgia underneath. In a more recent atlas we have from the 1980s, it doesn’t even mention Georgia. Or barely anything separately in the USSR, as it was @ the time. If you look up Georgia in the index, it points to the state in America. Greece didn’t seem to be mentioned on the 1820 map either — it seemed to be combined with Turkey. It does say Usbecks, for where Uzbekistan is, and Ethiopia, as it is now, seems to be there on the 1820 map, but Abyssinia on the 1924 map.
Mmm, so if you’ve done geography all your life, all this is probably like: Yeah, yeah, yeah… But I found it a bit of an eye-opener in places. It’d be interesting to go back to like 1720 maybe, and see a map from even further back.
Friday, 24th of June, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (16:46) Day 2 of the level display soldering today. Here’s the incomplete circuit board. I still have to add the larger filter capacitor yet, plus all the off-board stuff. The L.E.D.s, switches & sockets. As you can see, I’m using extra resistors for each L.E.D. to ensure a more consistent brightness. If you just use 1, the brightness of all of them goes down, the more that come on. Plus, they’re of different values as well, because the L.E.D.s are of different brightnesses. I’ll be using ice blue (490 nm), turquoise (500 nm) and magenta. The magenta ones are actually weaker in brightness, but they’re still pretty bright all the same. Ooh yes! I still have to put in the integrated circuits, but they’ll be done last thing, pretty much. The transistors at the bottom are just acting as diodes, since I didn’t have any decent little signal diodes. They (— the transistors —) seemed to work fine on the bread board.
Those leaning capacitors aren’t under stress or anything. They’d only fit in next to the I.C. sockets on a bit of an angle, so they were quite comfy. Then I soldered them in. I was using Blu-Tack in some instances to hold stuff. I trimmed all the wires 1st before soldering, which made it neater. I’ve had the 4 dark blue (10 µF) capacitors for years, so I hope they’re still okay. I don’t even remember where they came from. Somebody gave them to me I think. Maybe 23 or more years ago. All the other stuff is brand new.
I still have to order a box, so I can complete all this. Of course, when I do, I’ll let you know how well it works and if I ran into any issues. It was fine on the bread board, so it’s the same circuit here. This is neat compared to the wires going all over the place on that thing as well!
Tuesday, 28th of June, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:30) Oh my gosh! Mary Mara who was in Nash Bridges drowned 2 days ago! That’s really sad to find out. She was 61.
Friday, 1st of July, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (17:41) My box from Jaycar turned up, so tomorrow I’m going to start drilling to complete my level display doodad. I got a UB2 sized Jiffy box in the end. I’m probably going to put the PCB on the front cover in the centre, with the L.E.D.s on either side, and that will make things much simpler, and keep the wire length short too.
• I’ve been thinking about offering some animated flags from Art Of Illusion. I dunno yet. They mostly just spin around, but I did some with other spinning elements too, like the Korean flag, with the central blue & red piece turning. They’ve mostly been for personal DVDs of mine, and saying: The following content is from this country. That kind of thing. But I don’t want to take requests, because there are just so many flags, and some of them are a bit too complex. Especially San Marino. The leaves, the ribbon, the crown, the castle towers and stuff. All the ones I’ve done since probably last year some time, are South Korea, Japan, Germany, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Belgium, Austria, Britain, Thailand & Abkhazia. I’ve also done non-rotating ones of Iceland, Switzerland & America (/ USA).
Thursday, 7th of July, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:16) I noticed another weird thing in Oblivion in my recent playing. If you have a summoned Dremora Lord, then paralyse your enemy, then pickpocket them while they’re down on the ground, this somehow offends the Dremora, and they start attacking you!
• On Saturday, my Software Review Of The Moment will go on to my titler programs (part 1) again.
• (20:11) I was looking for new MVs as usual, and thought I’d check out Loveade by Viviz. I thought: “Gee, that chick looks like Eunha from GFriend.” But clonk me on the head with a rolling pin! Because: Duh! It IS her! GFriend’s contract came to an end last year, and now SinB, Eunha and Umji have become this new trio.
Apparently Baby Soul was the only member of Lovelyz who wished to renew their contract.
Thursday, 14th of July, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:43) I’ve almost finished my audio level display… thing. Circuit thing in a box. I just need the variable resistor to turn up from China. It must be coming by a boat, it’s that slow. I had other stuff from there turn up much sooner. Apart from that, all the other soldering is done. The PCB is bolted in and it’s looking fairly good. Not quite as good as a flash Marantz amplifier, but not as cheap looking as my ice block stick boxes that I made before either. I’m a touch nervous that it won’t work, but it’s the same thing as I did on the breadboard, so it should.
• I was playing Oblivion again last night, as usual, and the same thing happened with a bandit as that scalon that didn’t collapse when it died. The body just sort of froze there. That’s twice in recent times, and it’s never happened before. Even when I reloaded the game, the bandit was still standing. When I cleared off elsewhere, and came back later on a horse, he’d fallen down.
• (23:33) Damn. My Power Mac G5 just cocked up again. It froze the other day trying to load Mac OS X Leopard, and tonight it froze again while I was checking the system error logs. (Not that much of it is understandable unless you work for Apple.) It’s not even doing the grey screen thing where it tells you to restart it. It just stops, and the fans do that kind of safety thing by going full blast. It’s running okay at the moment. As for what the issue is, it could be anything without some kind of report on what’s up. I might run that test CD again tomorrow. The Apple hardware check thingy. The hard drive data cable is a bit stressed looking in the case, but I don’t know if the hard drive suddenly being disconnected would cause a full system freeze up. You’d think it would at least panic and report it. I got some dust off the motherboard, but that may not’ve done anything. I read a thing where somebody said one of their CPUs vanished from the Activity Monitor! Yikes! How did that not stop their entire computer?
Well, it may’ve lasted me 6 years, but it is 17 years old in total now, which is a long time for a computer.
Friday, 15th of July, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:18) I’ve got the Apple Hardware Test CD running on my Power Mac G5 now. It’s up to the RAM check but it’s not done anything for a while. It says it may become unresponsive. I’ll give it until 14:00 or so, and see what happens. What’s odd, is the L.E.D. in the mouse has gone off too. The logic board (/ motherboard) passed the test, apparently. I remember when I ran it before in 2018, when I had that issue with the “airport” card, and the RAM test took an age. I think it was about 2 hours. I dunno.
• (13:46) Dang. Something screwed up royally! The USB lost all power, so my KVM switch box turned off, meaning there was no signal any more to the monitor. It seemed to happen around the time I plugged in a 2nd mouse. Something’s screwy, that’s for certain. I held in the power button, and it turned off. Then I turned it back on, and it started fine. I’m running the quick test this time, but I think we can conclude from the extended one, that something’s severely wrong. Damn.
• (19:09) No-o-o-o-o-o-o! It looks like my Power Mac G5 is well & truly dead. It just kept getting worse as they day went on. I tried cleaning the RAM contacts, but it made no difference. Plus I also checked the video card, but it was fine. That is something I never want to have to try & put back in a 2nd time! It was a real pain. Later on, the computer started making strange tones! Not the usual “DONG!” sound, but “boop boop boop” kind of noises. It turns out these are informing you about the RAM / CPU being iffy. 1 noise is no RAM, 2 is incompatible RAM, 3 is no good banks of RAM, 4 is to do with the boot ROM & 5 is a dead CPU. I was getting the 2 & 3 ones. I also learnt that the sticks of RAM have to be in pairs from the centre out. So the 2 inner slots must have a matched pair, then if you add more RAM, it’s the next 2 slots out from the middle and so on. Anyway, I think it must be the motherboard, because I tried swapping the RAM around, and surely all the sticks can’t have died.
• (22:35) What a cursed night it’s been. I cracked out my newest portable hard drive to get the backup copy of my iMovie project I’d been working on, on my Power Mac, and for some reason, part of it couldn’t be read. 
So, I dunno if my Power Mac, in its kooky state, made some mess of the file system last night, or what. So I had to get the drive out of the Power Mac, which was a right chore, stick it in my… what is it? Dock thingy, and then connect that to my MacBook to get the project off there. I verified the other portable drive, and it said nothing was wrong. So who knows? My iMac G5 couldn’t read it properly either. It started reading fast, and then trickled down to nothing. What do you make of that? Why didn’t Mac OS X have a fit when it was writing the stuff? Maybe the drive’s a con. “Oh yes, it wrote fine, it wrote fine, uh huh, uh huh.” There goes the data down the potty.
Friday, 22th of July, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (17:52) I dunno if something’s up with my MacBook now, but getting iDVD to process my iMovie project that I was working on when my Power Mac failed, is taking WAY longer than usual. Ordinarily, it would take about 3½ hours to process a 1½ hour DVD. It’s jumped to over 5 hours to go now. What the fig? There’s nothing CPU specific, surely, about iMovie projects. Although, even JES De-Interlacer has been running about ½ the speed as my Power Mac. It’s like the MacBook’s CPU’s gone to half speed or something. I put on iStat Pro, and it says the fan’s running fine. I wonder if it’s related to that SMC reset thing I did, when the battery konked out in 2020.
• (19:20) On further reading, it may be reducing the CPU speed because the battery’s failed. This is so it doesn’t take too much power from the power supply. I wasn’t aware it did that. This is the 1st time I’ve had it do something so CPU intensive in years. I don’t think my HP laptop computer does that.
• (20:00) Yeah, I’ll have to see how fast my iMac G5 is at processing iDVD projects. It’ll probably be about the same as my MacBook @ half speed. I can always run a test and cancel it. I’ll have to get a 2nd hand 2008 model Mac Pro or something. They’re around $500 or so on eBay, and I don’t want to fork out any more money at the moment for stuff.
• Oh yeah, I got my audio level display doodad together, but the capacitors seem to be knackered. I should’ve known better & not used ones from 20+ years ago. So today I removed 3 of the 4 of the old ones. I’m going to bypass the other one, without having to de-solder it, since it was just a matter of cutting another wire. Then next week, I’ll hopefully have fresh replacements. What a pain! Yeah, the left channel was showing up as worse than the right, even when I swapped the plugs. Then it was fading away, so to me that points to old capacitors losing the ability to hold a charge.
Saturday, 23rd of July, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:42) The DVD I was doing, was number 13 in a series, and the unlucky number struck hard again last night! Just after I’d copied the IMG file to my main PC for burning, I backed up the iMovie project from my MacBook and then turned it off. Then I figured I’d better backup the iDVD project too, ’cos I forgot it. What happened? The sodding hard drive packed it in! It wouldn’t start up again from it! I couldn’t believe it! First my Power Mac’s motherboard dies, and now this! I put the Mac OS X Leopard install DVD in to my MacBook and ran Disk Utility, but nothing else even showed up! Just the DVD was listed. F**K! I took the drive out and tried it from my dock doodad, and still nothing. I also tried it today with my iMac G5, and it showed nothing either. Luckily I have a backup drive for my MacBook, which I copied back in 2015 or so. So I’ve put that in there now. Struth in a booth with no roof! What a torment. I dunno if I’ll back this drive up again, ’cos if my MacBook’s only going to run at half speed with the dead battery, it might be time to let it rest in peace. I might aim for the Mac Pro perhaps. But that might not be until next year. Unless something affordable turns up on eBay, and I can wangle it for a combo birthday and Christmas present. Mac OS X Snow Leopard came out in August 2009, and that was the last revision of the OS to run PowerPC programs. Sodding Apple and their lack of compatibility. Anyway, I think this might be the last Mac I get for a long while. (The potential Mac Pro.) I might go to emulation of the operating systems then with PearPC or running the Intel ones in a virtual machine, or something.
Yeah, I doubt I’ll have another period of my life where I have 7 working computers. Although that’s now down to 6.
• (16:05) I cracked out my HP laptop PC earlier to see if it was running at the full speed, since I think its battery’s a bit stuffed, and it was. Well, the DirectX diagnostics thing said it was at ~1.7 GHz. Then again, it is a different computer, so maybe only Apple do their laptop computers with CPU speed crippling when the battery fails. Anyway, the poor old clock was a bit fast — 9 years and a month fast! It’d gone on to August 2031! Holey beep!
• I got my Power Mac G5 to stay on long enough to recover a few files off it. But then it snuffed it again. Maybe it’s a heat related fault. Anyhoo, I think I have most of the important stuff off it. And I can still read that hard drive, unlike my sodding MacBook’s one. I mean it’s not even partially stuffed. It just threw in the towel like the 1st one did in 2012. Instant death and no hope of recovering anything. I need to get some huge SD cards or flash memory units (— like 500+ GB each), and backup a 2nd copy of everything on my portable hard drives. I just don’t know if I trust them for the long term. I’ve got a flash memory unit that survived the washing machine, so they can’t be too cr@p. I think it’s when you use them all the time that they die. But for long term storage, with the occasional read and write, they probably last for yonks.
Friday, 29th of July, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (17:07) For those of you with an interest in The Elder Scrolls, I’ve started on Inner Depths: Oblivion 2 now. Well, 5 days ago. I’ve done about 5 main zones so far. I’m going to get all the structural work done first before I start doing levelled lists, enemies and so on. The initial joint you go to, is a small castle, down the hill from Hame. It will be taken over by bandits. I plan to give the NPCs schedules as well. Although there are some “blocked” areas I might have to take into consideration.
I had to crack out my ¼ sized sewer tunnel again from I.D.: O. 1, since parts of the sewer don’t always line up too well. Plus I had to make a copy of a sliding door, which had Forward & Backward animation names. It seems they need to be labelled Open & Close for doors to work. So I did that in NIFSkope. I also have an idea of doing this “Daedric Cube,” which will operate slightly like the Horadric Cube from Diablo 2. In Oblivion, you have 3 grades of gems: Flawed, normal and flawless. So I thought you could put a couple of lower quality ones in the cube and have it magically make them the next quality up. But of course, it won’t end there! Those gems need a purpose, and with some other feature, you’ll be able to get enchanted arrows which correspond to each type of gem. Plus some other choices, if I can think of something.
Saturday, 6th of August, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (22:50) I finally completed my LED level display today. That bread board was throwing me right off with its loose connections by the end, and had me questioning my choice of resistors. In the end, the 470 kΩ ones were right. They turned up in the mail yesterday.
• As for Inner Depths: Oblivion 2, I did sod all of that today. I’ve got all 20 vampires done, and 7 marauders. There are going to be at least 106 new NPCs in this one, 100 of which are randomly picked from the levelled lists. They nearly all have travelling routines, so conflicts will arise with enemies! Not conflicts to stuff up your game in any way — conflicts of fighting each other. All the main zones are complete, but they still need decorating and having containers of loot added.
• Swing by to my DeviantArt gallery for some 50 year old photos from my Dad, one of which is an old lighthouse in Sydney which no longer exists. It’ll be his birthday on the 14th too, and this year, he’ll be 75.
Wednesday, 24th of August, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (12:50) So, I discovered a nasty bug in Oblivion yesterday, which should be no surprise, considering Bethesda’s famous record of game kookiness. For all I know, a whole bunch of people already know of this. Anyway, after much testing and trying old saves, it would seem that pretty much any take-able item which was created with a new ID by an ESP file, and “placed” in a visible manner, will be deleted by the game if you drop it in an exterior cell. (That is, just about all the ones where you can see the sky.) What a bummer, ’cos I have such an item for Inner Depths: Oblivion 2. Items which are newly created though, and placed in containers, don’t have this problem. The thing is, I can’t put my item in a container, because it has to have a reference name that a script targets. Plus it has to be set to a persistent reference. So yeah — what a pain! Other items which are specified by the master file (Oblivion.esm), don’t have this problem at all of course. They probably would’ve noticed it anyway.
Thursday, 25th of August, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (14:12) I might have said this before, but if you stick an earphone in your ear, then you must stick an iPhone in your eye, and then cover it with an iPad.
• Inner Depths: Oblivion 2 should be done soon-ish. I’m going to play through and test stuff in a jiffy.
Friday, 2nd of September, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (17:15) In case nobody noticed, I made a new page for that video I have of Sonic & Sally @ Sega World, which my Dad recorded back around 2000-ish, give or take a year. Maybe take a year or 2, more likely. I’ve been trying to see if I ever put it on 1 of my video cassettes, but it hasn’t shown up yet. I’ve got dozens of them — a lot of which have no writing to say what’s on there. So I’ve been trying to make the effort to write down the various stuff. Then I accidentally erased a couple of seconds of Shania Twain at the 1998 Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, because the protection tab was still present. So I broke that off, and another video’s one too. How quickly I’d forgotten about such things, since I haven’t used a video cassette in probably 11 years. Thanks, LG, for putting the record button right above the fast forward one.
• Inner Depths: Oblivion 2 was done the other day as well, if you didn’t notice. Head to the Oblivion review page and grab it up!
Sunday, 4th of September, 2022
Today’s current mood: 
• (17:38) Well, I had some luck of sorts. Dad looked up his files and found that Sonic & Sally video on a DVD. It was recorded in January 1998. So at least I have a specific time for it now. The difference though, was that Dad was talking during it. Only a little bit. I used VLC to record a MPG file, and then, using a combination of VirtualDub & FFMPEG, I was able to recombine the audio stream from my other copy, back to the new one, since the length was the same down to the frames, pretty much. It does look nicer at 50 f.p.s., but I’m not totally convinced that the quality is any better. Anyway, I’ll upload the new one, I guess. It is a bit darker looking, because the older one was actually brightened up.
Tuesday, 6th of September, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (15:39) Here’s a new picture of a few old electrical items I have in an old ice cream tub. I was looking up pictures of vintage transformers last night. As usual, I got images of the freakin’ toys, which I don’t give a rat’s butt hole about. Anyway, I found a photo of a door bell transformer, and it reminded me of my Nana’s aunty, who had one for her door bell. It was just screwed to the floor in her lounge room. I thought: “You’d want to have the primary side connected to the door bell button, or the thing’d be using power all the time.” It was pretty big too, from memory. Maybe 12 cm high. Anyhoo, I went on to looking up door bell transformers then, and came across a door bell that looked almost exactly like a relay I have. And that’s the top part of my picture. So whether somebody had adapted it to be a door bell, or this one I have was once too, I dunno. The difference is, there’s no gap on mine, in the lid, for a bell piece. (That’s the lid / cover on the left.) But it would vibrate, if you had the switch connected in series with the coils, because it turns off when the power is applied. I don’t even know where it came from. I thought it was from my Nanna’s place at Coogee, but perhaps not. The relay coils are rated at 250 Ω, and they’re connected in series. You probably want about 12 V to get this to turn on. I tried it with a 9V battery, and it did nothing.
At the same time, I also found my old B22 light bulb plug. That’ll save me ordering more from Sri Lanka. This one was made in England. Now if I make my own L.E.D. based lamp, I can use this to plug it into the socket on the ceiling. Next is a 240 V rated door bell button. Who knows where that came from? It says: “A.C. ONLY” on it. Would it really matter? 3rdly at the bottom: Check out that monster of a switch! Now that has some serious connections! (Plus it has 2 sets. So it’s like a 2P3T thing but with about 4 contacts all changing at once with 2 more at the top doing stuff. Holey moley!) My Dad got these years ago from a surplus store in Sydney. They were out of telephone exhange joint. If you need to switch multiple things at once, these bad boys are ideal. Where do you see switches these days with all those connections? Lastly, one heck of a relay too! This was from the same shop, apparently. This has 5 connection points just for the coils! There seem to be 2 on this, or 1 with a central connection. And they’re rated at 2 kΩ each. (The digital multi-meter I tested it with said 1990 ohms, so pretty close.) Check out all the switching connections too! And there’s a pair of them! You just don’t see stuff like this in your electronic stores. Dad also used to use these back in the day as point changers on his model railway. He replaced them all with ones made specifically for the job though a long time ago. These seem to work fine on 12 V, but if you’re running a lot, you need a tranformer than can handle a good load, like 2 amps or more.
• Anyhow, yesterday, I looked at my big transformer, which I think was in my Nanna’s old Philips record player. The one I’ve mentioned in the past. I worked out that the red wires are 1 secondary winding, and the black ones are the other. And they’re both about 6 V, connected in series to make 12. I thought the black was one side, and the red was the other side, so they could be phase matched, for wiring in parallel or series, but apparently not. That said, I dunno why it has 2 separate windings of the same voltage. Maybe they kept the valve heaters separate from the light bulbs? My Dad’s uncle dealt with it, while I was a kid, since he manufactured transformers, and I think he lopped off the higher voltage connections from it. I was aiming to put it in a new box. I mentioned this back in January, last year. I’ve been looking on eBay, but I must be looking for the wrong thing as usual, because the line up of electrical boxes is just very limited and weird. I want to get a voltage regulator too, and run some electronic things off it. It fluctuates all over the place otherwise.
• I’ve got an old selenium rectifier somewhere too, out of a model railway controller, or something. That might be interesting to try fiddling with again one day.
Friday, 9th of September, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (12:15) I’m sure everybody knows by now that, sadly, Queen Elizabeth #2 has passed on. She was at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. It was either today or late last night by our time here in Australia, but the 8th over there anyhow. I’m not sure the exact time. It’s almost hard to believe, because she was like a part of our lives in a way. Not necessarily somebody you thought of all the time, but she was somebody who was always there. We’ve seen other rulers who’ve died, but probably none who’ll make as great an impact on the world as Queen Elizabeth. It’ll be strange to think of a “King Charles” now. He was always Prince Charles. For new kids being born, that’ll be something they’re used to now. It’s going to be pretty tough for him initially. First to lose his mum, and then having to face becoming a king. What will happen in regards to Camilla? I dunno if she was even permitted to become another queen. I don’t think that would go down too well with some people. If it was Princess Diana, she’d’ve been made the Queen in a flash, I think. Over at IMDb, they still have him as Prince Charles. Maybe they’ll change that soon. I guess once the crowning ceremony has taken place.
I guess there’ll be a huge ceremony in England for the Queen. She was their longest ruling person in history. All that malarkey about people saying she was going to step down never happened either. She went right to the end.
Monday, 12th of September, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (16:06) I’m going to be doing a L.E.D. “sequencer” for my birthday. Or around about that time. This time it’s going to use a 4015 I.C., which is a dual 4 bit shift register, and you can do a nifty piling up kind of effect, rather than a chasing dealie. Actually, you can do some spiffy patterns, if you can work out how to set the bits. I’m going to use the 555 timer again, like in my other chaser circuits that I made, plus the Toshiba ULN2803APG I.C. to take the load.
Wednesday, 14th of September, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (15:05) All right! Here are 9 of my L.E.D.s all in a row, as I tested various resistors to try and get a good consistent brightness level between all these colours. (Click on the image to see it bigger.) The rainbow got a bit chromatically out of order at the end there too. So we have regular blue, ice blue, turquoise, green, yellow, orange, purple, red and magenta. That purple one is a queer LED. It looks really bright from that angle in the picture, but in reality, from the top, it’s the weakest of all of them. (And no, it’s not a frosted type either. They’re all colourless & clear.) Perhaps the camera’s responding to UV light coming out of it that I can’t see. I dunno. For the magenta L.E.D., I used a 4.7 kΩ resistor, for red: 560 Ω, purple: 390 Ω, orange: 560 Ω, yellow: 560 Ω, green: 22 kΩ, turquoise: 22 kΩ, ice blue: 22 kΩ and 10 kΩ for the blue. Of course I don’t have every single value of resistor in my drawer, and these values won’t apply to everyone, because L.E.D.s vary from brand to brand. The total amount of current, according to my multi-meter, was 40 mA, which was lower than I thought. That was off a 9 V battery.
Apart from the ice blue and turquoise L.E.D.s, I got the rest from Phipps. My prototype circuit boards turned up from them today too, which was quick. Only 2 days. I’m still waiting on transistors, the CD4015B I.C.s, and some perspex. But I have to wait for my birthday next month for assembling stuff. I still have to order some PCB spacers and a power plug. One of those 2.1 mm central pin ones. On top of that, I still have to decide what I’m going to do about my old transformer, and re-boxing it into something nicer.
Thursday, 22nd of September, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (15:43) It’s funny how you get these sites saying about FaceBook apparently tracking what you’re up to, even if you don’t use it. Just do what I did and block ’em entirely! That’s the easy solution. If you have a browser extension like Block Site, (for Mozilla browsers,) you can black list every site you don’t want to load.
• Be aware of fake e-mail from FaceBook too. I got one the other day claiming to be some aid to helping you log in, but it’s really some loop hole people are using to try and gain access to various accounts. Who targeted my address, I couldn’t say, but they probably get other people to do it for them, possibly to prevent themselves being implicated.
• I’ve been looking for more inspiration in doing something arty with my L.E.D.s, and those vintage Aerolux “electric flowers” are on my mind again. Somebody really needs to bring these back! I’d have one in every room! It’d be good if you could shape your own L.E.D.s, but the closest thing I saw to that was some chap making resin moulds to go over them. Anyway, stick around for next month, when I should hopefully have that new “sequencer” thing done.
• I also took a bit of an interest in some apparently “retro” I.C.s; the MM5387 & MM5314, which are pretty much an entire clock. Apart from a few external components, including the 7 segment displays, and buttons, the rest is nearly done for you. So that might be a project to attempt in the future. Maybe next year some time.
Friday, 23rd of September, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (15:28) If you like vintage electronic clocks, here’s a really interesting one, which I found yesterday! The Russian Elektronika 7-06M. If you saw a picture of it without knowing the date, you might be mistaken into thinking it was something new with L.E.D.s, but nope! Those appear to be some kind of nifty vacuum fluorescent tube things, each with 7 dots. I’ve never seen ones like this before. Rather than using a single V.F.D., they’ve gone for these dotty tube things. Perhaps they could be replaced more easily.
• (22:45) I went looking for transformer cases on eBay, and got the ruddy toys again. Holey cow! “Metal project case” is a better search under industrial supplies. But they keep coming up with these AWFUL blue coloured things. They’re probably well made, but why that colour?! Eugh! Why not a deep rosy pink, or black, white, grey or a murky green? As it is, they look like something out of the 1950s. Yeah, so I finally measured that transformer of mine, and it is quite big. About 12 cm × 10 cm × 10 cm high. You can put 3 little plug-pack transformers in their case, side by side in that space. And that’s just the width! All up, you could probably get about 9 or more in that 3D volume. So I need a case a few cm bigger to get the other stuff in there, like the PCB of rectification and regulation components. I’d also like to add a volt meter, plastic windows and maybe a L.E.D. or 2 to light it up. A little bit of presentation, you know! I’ll have to weigh it too. I reckon it could be 1.5 kg perhaps. Hmmm… it’s probably going to cost a bit to do though. I reckon it could pass $75, meaning it’s a labour of love.
• (23:49) So yeah, here’s a picture of the old thing, plus some writing to point out what’s what, if you didn’t know. If anyone knows what the numbers on the left are, let me know! I’m pretty certain it’s the Philips one from my Nanna’s old record player & radio, so it might be a Philips specific thing. Anyway, you can’t say too much more about a transformer really. I’ll just leave it in this wooden box until I’m ready to move it to its new case.
Saturday, 1st of October, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (12:47) Yesterday, I was reading a little bit about the Japanese trio, Perfume. Apparently they’ve been going for about 20 years, and if so, that would make their youngest member, A-Chan, only 13 years old at the time. Personally, I think most of their music’s quite weird, but I do like their presentation. They always seem to have proper looking music videos & not some half-@r$€d amateur looking thing around somebody’s bedroom. I also like how they have closely matching clothes, and you can almost always pick who’s who from their hair as well. They always seem to have the same hair styles. I like their outfits in Time Warp, so check that out if you have time.
Monday, 3rd of October, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (21:59) While I’m focussed on dealing with electronic things and transformers, I decided to have a snoop inside another one I’ve had for years. My grandparents gave it to me along with an old View Master dealie. (If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically a gizmo you look into to see stereoscopic images on film, which are mounted in a circular carboard disc.) The transformer just provides 6 V for the light bulb. But on opening its base, what else did I find? Multiple connections suggesting it came out of some old valve based appliance. It had a connection marked “C” for common, then 4 V & 6 V. Next up were 3 connections for 2 out of phase 385 V… uh connections. (D’oh. I said connections twice.) So that winding would’ve been 770 V from end to end, but with the central “tap.” You usually see that with valve equipment, with the 2 ends of the winding going to a rectifier, and the single output from the (rectifier) valve being the positive, with the negative connections in the circuit going to the chassis and central point of this high voltage transformer winding. Anyway, it also seemed to have 3 primary winding connections for variations in voltage, and another 2 at the end which looked like they said 5 V and 2A, which seemed a bit odd. But yeah; I have no idea what it came out of. It’s pretty large as well, but it’s mounted on a block of wood.
If I’m correct about the one above being the Philips one I think it is, it probably would’ve had a winding for 45 V as well, because the valves for the audio output had heaters that ran on this voltage, rather than 6.3 V. UL84 is the type they most likely would’ve been. (Based on a similar model I have the schematic diagram for.)
Sunday, 9th of October, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:28) I got a good shock in Oblivion last night. I went back to the Shivering Isles to get some more Withering Moon for Reflect Spell potions, and ended up staying longer than I thought, while I looked around the Dementia side of the land. I went down to Vitharn way, and Xiditte, and then headed further west. As I went along, a map icon popped up on the compass in the light beige colour. I thought: “Holey beep! A place I haven’t found?!” And I think I’d just been thinking that it’d be nice to find some joint I’d never been to. Well then I did! Corpserot Passage! The funny thing is, I’d been pretty close by it before, but obviously not close enough to the map marker. It turns out to be one of the prisons for the Shivering Isles. Unfortunately, you can’t explore it all, because roots block your path. Well, unless you get sent there. I got some good loot from it though. Wow the grummites were being a pain last night. They seemed to be everywhere. They’re like the goblins from Cyrodiil. Just painfully hard to kill off. They seem to be excellent at blocking and knowing exactly when to strike and overwhelm you with hits.
Monday, 10th of October, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (12:51) All right! Last night, I was playing Oblivion again, and I got myself a new Perfect Madness Bow made from Cutter, since I picked up a matrix In Corpserot Prison. It’s better than my Bow Of Storms, or whatever it was called. The Daedric one. So I’ve put that into retirement on top of a wardrobe. Then, back on Nirn, I went to sell some stuff, and got my Illusion skill up a notch when I charmed the person. But more importantly, I finally reached Master level of Mercantile! Woooo! It took long enough. So now, anyone you can trade with, has an extra 500 gold pieces, on top of any investments you made as well. So that’s like 1000 extra gold for them. I presume you can still do investments now too. I’d have to check on that.
I’m 1/5 of the way to going up to level 43. Only my Blunt & Hand To Hand skills can be increased further from my major skills.
Wednesday, 12th of October, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:10) Dang. I think my secondary hard drive for my main PC really is having issues. I put my usual music on, and I got an error message pop up from the FLAC decoder. That made my heart sink. I had problems like this before, and thought it was related to an unlocking program I got called “ThisIsMyFile,” but I haven’t used that in ages. So I got my backup hard drive out, and yep, the file had changed. I ran it by a hex editor program, and it showed the 1st mismatch. So I ordered a new ~1 TB “surveillance” hard drive off eBay. These ones are supposed to have a high reliability for writing actions. I got a Western Digital Blue one again, which is the same as the one I have now, apart from the “surveillance” designation. *Sigh.* I’ll have to copy the older one to it somehow as well. I might put the new drive into my 2018 PC and plug the caddy into that as well, and just do it that way. Then swap the new one over with the one that’s in my caddy now. So long as it isn’t the caddy that’s got issues. The weird thing is, no other files seem to be corrupt. Maybe I play the same music too often. There haven’t been any errors reported to Windows though. Usually if a drive had bad sectors / blocks, you’d get a red error message in the event viewer. I’ve got them for improperly inserted SD cards and a dodgy DVD I had, so you’d think it would show for this. I dunno. The other thing is, you can’t check its S.M.A.(A.)R.T. status, because seemingly that can only be done if it’s connected directly to the motherboard. Anyway, I think it’s about 7½ years old, so it’s probably due for replacement.
Sunday, 16th of October, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (16:27) No hard drive yet. It’ll probably be this week.
• Tomorrow I should start on the soldering of my new L.E.D. “sequencer” circuit. Yesterday, which was my birthday, I set it up on my little bread board, and it ran fine, although the start position was offset by 4 L.E.D.s. So it was just as well I noticed that. I could change the inputs to the ULN2803APG I.C., but I can just leave it and make the L.E.D.s connect to the right pins anyway. That’ll save me changing my printed schematic diagram, and causing confusion. So L.E.D.s for #1 will connect to pin 14, then 2 = 13, 3 = 12, 4 = 11, 5 = 18 and so on until 8 = 15. I know what I’m doing anyway. I printed out a “grid” of dots at actual size for the circuit board, so I know what co-ordinates all the L.E.D.s have to go to, and how I’m positioning the 3 I.C.s as well.
• I found out about a show from 5 years ago called Babylon Berlin, which is a German TV show. It sounds rather intriguing. It’s set back in the 1920s and early 1930s from what I gather. I don’t understand German though, so it’d have to have English subtitles, and I think it’s on some pay TV station overseas, so my chances of seeing it are probably slim. Unless they do DVDs of it with subtitles.
Monday, 17th of October, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (20:27) I got a bit of soldering done today. Up until my eyes wore out. On the left is a sample of how the thing will animate. But you’ll be able to adjust the speed.
My new hard drive hasn’t turned up yet, but I have a feeling it might be tomorrow, so more soldering may have to wait until Wednesday. At least I won’t be doing much in the way of drilling this time. There’s only one socket, and it’ll be on the end of some long wires. No switches, big potentiometers or LED holders to deal with either.
Thursday, 20th of October, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (18:57) Today was my 4th day of soldering for my happy face doodad. It’s taking much longer than I expected. I’m still waiting on my replacement hard drive to rock up, so I may or may not get more soldering done tomorrow. It’s mostly just lengths of wire to measure out, cut and solder in now. Most of which are on the back of the board to keep the central area looking neat.
Saturday, 22nd of October, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (23:25) My new hard drive turned up today, (— yes, on Saturday —) so I spent most of my time copying my other one to it. Then this evening there were storms, so I had to stop a couple of times. While the storms were happening, I got a bit more soldering in, so tomorrow will make 7 days of it. Just a few more wires to go, and it’ll be done. I just have to finish connecting the L.E.D.s in parallel horizontally, and then the cathodes vertically on just one side for the matching ones that come on together from top to bottom.
Monday, 24th of October, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (22:05) Hooray! I finally finished my L.E.D. sequencer thingo. With the perspex front, and protective cardboard rear. That’s to protect the wall when I hang it up. What’s mildly interesting, is that the purple L.E.D.s on the upper level (3rd row from the bottom), are slightly more red. I can only assume it’s a variation in the current limiting resistor over the one for the lower pair, and that has something to do with the colouring. In fact the yellow ones will go quite orange on a low amount of juice. Anyway, it worked pretty close to perfectly when I 1st tried it, except for the upper blue L.E.D.s not coming on. (5th row up from the bottom.) It turned out a blob of solder, I thought was a complete blob, actually had a microscopic gap in it. After a re-melt with the soldering iron, it was fine. The white L.E.D.s, as I think I said before, are connected in series. 4 groups of 3 in series, making the total 12, allowing for 3 V each off the 9 V supply. Although they’ll go up to 3.4 V each. Because I reduced the brightness of the other L.E.D.s to match the intensity of the purple ones, the white ones really stand out.
• (22:53) The 12 white L.E.D.s only draw about 26 mA or so of current. I just did a test with my multi-meter in the exact same way they’re connected on the circuit board. So that’s not too bad. I dunno how much the whole thing uses.
Tuesday, 1st of November, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (13:32) I’ve just completed another house plug-in for Oblivion. This time it’s called: Ayleid Mansion. It’s located on the Orange Road, south-west of Bruma, and there’s even an entertainer who juggles and dances. Plus a cleaning woman, and 2 other shop keepers. It’ll cost you 39 grand, but you get a pretty impressive joint, with lots of display space in the Grand Gallery, and there’s also a transportation room too. I’ll upload it soon-ish, so keep your eyes peeled on the main page for when I announce it.
• I’m also thinking of doing a mesh fix pack, which will allow for some corrections to the meshes in the game. Stuff I can fix that is. There’s that weird one in the forts with the bits that are transparent, some of the Ayleid metal work could use higher level thresholds on the alpha channels, and there was something else too, but I can’t remember what! Anyway, as this won’t need plug-in files to work, I can update it at any time, and you can choose what meshes you want, and don’t want. Somebody else might’ve done a similar thing, but you can always choose from mine or theirs.
Wednesday, 9th of November, 2022
Today’s current mood: 
• (13:51) I knew things were going to be weird today. I had a whole heap of trouble with eBay. 2 or 3 local printing supply shops have just up and gone from where I live, so I resorted to the Internet to get a new yellow toner cartridge. You had to send a message to the seller on eBay about which colour you wanted, but the sodding send “button” (if you could call it that) didn’t work! So I logged out, and went to try Firefox 93 in Tiny Core Linux, and nothing! The site didn’t even load! Every other site I tried did. So I tried Pale Moon in Windows 7, and the same thing! It said it couldn’t establish a connection to eBay. All the other sites I tried worked. And this was all prior to logging back in of course. So I dunno what’s figged up with them. I had to find the ’phone number for the shop (outside of using eBay), and call them. Although I got the wrong number at 1st, and found somebody else with the same name. Anyway, I got it sorted out in the end. Plus, eBay seems to have their dates back to front. They had some offer that was supposed to expire on the 11th day of the 13th month this year. I don’t think so.
• (23:46) I found a song from Armenia tonight, and the “video” was just a still picture. But it had an interesting looking church. So I thought, all right — let’s see if I can find it. And it was no worry! A few minutes later I knew its name, and then found it on the map, and when it was built. The place is Marmashen Monastery, which is not far from the border of Turkey. It was built between 986 to 1029.
• Here’s a video I found of somebody playing Inu No Osanpo, that NAOMI dog walking game. If there was a Dreamcast version, I wonder if it would’ve been possible to play it with something like the fishing rod…
Friday, 11th of November, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (19:14) I figured out what was up with my 2018 PC not loading eBay from Pale Moon or in Firefox 93 under Linux. It was Microsoft’s fault! LOL. Basically, if it wasn’t for all the sneaky back door accessing of sites on the ’net when you run Oblivion, I wouldn’t need to block I.P. addresses in the firewall program thing. Apparently eBay must’ve somehow fallen into one of the ranges of addresses I specified. The send button ended up working again today anyway.
I decided to pull my finger out today & decide on what stuff I want for this transformer project I’m going to do after Christmas. It’s going to be a pretty loaded power supply! (Not that kind of loaded, or overloaded!) I found a seller on eBay with a good range of (panel mounted) volt meters, and then I just need one for amps. I also need a small circuit board, 7809 voltage regulator + a heat sink, maybe something like a 4700 µF capacitor, and the box. I have pretty much everything else. It’d be nice to light up the meters with L.E.D.s, but they might be hard to mount. I was going to have 2 L.E.D.s lighting up the transformer itself, just to be flash, but I don’t want the thing glowing like Las Vegas. It should be subtle.
Saturday, 12th of November, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (16:37) I took my old transformer out of its wooden box today at last. It only needed to have the primary winding wires de-soldered, and the rest was in terminal strips. (So, out with the screw driver.) Wow it felt heavy to lift out with just my thumbs and index fingers by the bolts. I put it on the scales, and it came to 2.8 kg. If you threw that at somebody’s head, you’d probably crack their skull. It’s just a big chunk of metal. Anyway, it’s probably a touch smaller than my initial measurements in the box it was in, so it should fit fine in a new one I spotted on eBay. There’s no brand written on it anywhere. But it looks pretty similar to another one in a New Zealand Philips radio & record player combo thing, so I’d say it is the one from my Nanna’s old audio system from the 1950s. The primary winding wires are a little short, so I’m going to solder on some new, longer ones, cover them with heat-shrink tubing, and run the new ones to a terminal strip, which’ll be bolted to the case. That will prevent any damage to the transformer if the cord gets pulled on. But I will be using 2 plastic cable clamps in a “S-bend” of the cord, so it’s nicely held in. The whole project will probably cost around $80, so a real labour of love for something you could buy from the shops for much less, and in a much smaller box for a lot less weight!
I also tested the primary winding resistance. It’s only about 200 & something ohms, but then a new transformer I have is only about 1 kΩ. Plus I had it running recently, so I know it’s working fine.
This picture is the side that was facing the bottom of the box, which you didn’t see on the 23rd of September. It’s pretty plain and to the point. It’s been sprayed with some kind of silvery looking paint. The metal’s iron, I’d say, since it has patches of rust. The part around the windings is like a thick paper.
Wednesday, 16th of November, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (22:42) I was watching One Foot In The Grave — The Affair Of The Hollow Lady, which is episode 3 of series 5. In the credits they had the woman in the hospital as Edna Monterel, but it’s just Doreen Mantle’s name, with the letters rearranged. They even have a page for her at IMDb.
Thursday, 17th of November, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (15:38) I just tried another couple of MVs — one from France & one from South Korea. Nope. Both cr@p. I never have any luck with French music anyway. I shouldn’t’ve bothered with the Korean one, especially after last year’s mediocre line up from there. This year’s album of the year is definitely shaping up to be 33 from Heesey, I reckon. Nothing else really pulled me in that much to see what the rest of the tracks were like, and the fact that I liked the majority of the album too, makes it the winner for me. That said, it was only this year that I found out about QU4RTZ, and I really liked a lot of their cheery, cute, upbeat songs. Very much what I’ve been looking for! It’s a pity they didn’t have any official MVs. It was only because of an unofficial one that I found out about them. What is it? The Love Live series or something? Some computer game? I have no idea.
But the year isn’t over yet, so I guess something else impressive could still be coming too! On the whole, this year’s had quite a lot of great songs. I’ve mostly been focussing on Japan, but I have found stuff from a few other places too. If you haven’t had a squizz, pop on over to my list of music videos for this year.
• The box for the transformer above turned up like yesterday, or Tuesday, or some time. It’s going to be a bit more of a squeeze than I thought, but it should be fine. The voltage regulators and capacitors turned up today as well. If I do a L.E.D. for the meter, I might have to glue it in place, or use a terminal strip to hold it.
Friday, 18th of November, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (14:57) I’ve got 2 MP4 files being converted from the same source, in the same manner, on my MacBook and my iMac G5. Even with my MacBook running at half speed (since the battery’s stuffed), the iMac G5 is only about 86.6% as fast. So at 2.1 GHz, it still can’t beat the Intel Core 2 Duo at 1 GHz it seems. (The iMac G5 has a single core PowerPC G5 CPU, in case you missed that elsewhere on my site and had no clue to begin with.) The RAM might be slower too in the iMac. I dunno. I wish my Power Mac G5 was working properly. It’d beat them both in the MacBook’s current state. I’ll have to save up for a 2nd hand Mac Pro, and put that to use. As long as it lasts for several years.
Sunday, 27th of November, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (14:41) If you want to see something impressive, check out these chain reaction videos! The Blue Marble and Magnets & Marbles. These are at 50 Hz too, so they’re nice and smooth.
Sunday, 4th of December, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (12:32) Here’s a car you don’t see much. (Unless you own one.) The Pagani Zonda C12. Hasn’t Horacio Pagani been spotted in Monaco? That’s where this is, back in May, 1999 — the year the car 1st appeared. I can’t say it IS his car, but it’s certainly one of the 1st Pagani Zondas. These are from a video my Dad got when he was there that year, near that snazzy casino.
I was watching a video last night by this chap called Doug DeMuro, about the Pagani Zonda S Roadster. The guy went into every brain numbing detail about it, but it was interesting to learn a few aspects I wasn’t aware of. He said the one he reviewed was only one of very few in America, and the 1st one he’d seen for real. I’ve only ever seen one at the Sydney Motor Show. That was a S rendition of it, in yellow.
There was a black Jaguar XJ-220 at Monaco that night as well, and that car is pretty rare too. If you have Need For Speed 2, you’ll know it. I actually found out about that Doug chap while looking up about quirky cars, I think, in 2018. And I spotted his one about that Yugo from Yugoslavia. Then the other day I watched one about the BMW Isetta.
• (15:15) Actually, after looking at a video of the Motor Show from 2008, the Pagani Zonda S that was there, was the Roadster one as well. It had the open top, and it looked like it said Roadster above the radio. I dunno how much it was worth here in Australia.
Monday, 12th of December, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (14:19) Yeah, this year’s been pretty great, music wise, if my page of best MVs for this year is anything to go by. At least up until maybe August. I felt things kind of dwindled down in the stuff I liked though. It’s been a bit like 2019 with the Korean music. There seemed to be a big gap after July (that year), and I was wondering if I’d ever hear anything good again. And it isn’t just from Japan either, this year. I’ve been looking at music from other countries as well, but I mustn’t be picking the right stuff. That said, I was glad to find out about Heesey (this year), as well as QU4RTZ.
• I’ve started decorating the Christmas tree, but I don’t usually do it all in 1 day. The old lights are still working, thank goodness, which are older than my Mum. So they might be about 80 or so.
Saturday, 17th of December, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (15:26) Ooh! Almost Christmas! Just 8 days to go! For anybody who’s feeling generous, (such as rich readers from Dubai,) here are some pressie ideas you can send me!
• QU4RTZ CDs from Japan
• A flamingo neon lamp thingy
• An Aurora plasma ball from Canada
• A 8 GB or 16 GB SD card
• Some 500-ish GB flash memory units
• 33 from Heesey
• Some new regular (non noise cancelling) headphones from Sennheiser
Yep, those items would be good.
• (16:24) As for what I said on the 3rd of October about my Nanna’s old Philips record player & radio combo thing having UL84 valves, that’s probably not true after all. It would seem that the models here may have used an Australian only valve; the 6BH5. But it says it’s a RF / IF amplifier, so that might not be right either as far as powering the speakers. And this one has a 6.3 V heater.
• (18:12) Actually, after further reading, it’s the 6M5 valve, which was used for the output on similar audio systems, and it’s apparently equivalent to the EL80. So this should explain why my transformer seemingly has no 45 V winding, which I was inclined to think, based on the similar New Zealand models. Philips must’ve made a lot of circuit variations for similar models. This Grand 177A is the closest model I’ve seen to my Nanna’s record player + radio. What you can’t see though, since it’s shown from the left, is the volume knob embedded in the right side of the cabinet.
• (19:26) I’ve been looking through more Philips RadioPlayers, as the company seemed to call them, and found the Beethoven 178A, which looks even closer to my Nanna’s one, I think. Especially since this has a magic eye valve. Plus, if you go to the 7th image, you can see the side mounted volume knob. Holey moley! It’s been nigh on 40 years since I saw the real thing. This one has the correct record player — the AG1000 — but I’m not sure about that central knob. This was a pretty expensive piece of equipment at £204.75 in Aussie money back in 1955! My Grandpa always bought my Nanna the best stuff though. If it was this model. But something very similar, if not.
Wednesday, 21st of December, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (19:00) Yesterday I completed a 3D rendition of the Philips Beethoven 178A, and you can check that out @ DeviantArt. It took about 3 days to get it done! But my computer only took 37 seconds to render it.
• It’ll be my Nanna’s birthday on the 23rd. If she was still around, she’d be 120. Kashiyuka from Perfume has her birthday then as well. Except she’s 86 years younger.
• There’s a shed load of pressies under our Christmas tree this year, so it looks to be a good one. I ordered some heat sinks for my transformer project back in November, but they never turned up! I got my money back, and the 2nd lot I ordered (from somebody else) turned up yesterday, so that was good. Just in time to make it under the tree.
• I haven’t found any more decent songs lately. Maybe something good’ll turn up @ the start of next year. Maybe too many performers’ve gone on holiday.
Thursday, 22nd of December, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (22:54) I think I’ll call it quits for hoping for any more decent music videos this year. All the good stuff’s probably being held back for next year. It’s also everyone cashing in on Christmas now too. I like some traditional Chrissy tunes, but like my Mum says, after Christmas, you don’t fancy hearing them again.
• As usual, I won’t be doing anything on the ’net on Christmas Day. No checking e-mail or anything.
Tuesday, 27th of December, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (16:13) I soldered in the main components for my new power supply today, to a mini PCB, as you can see to the left. I’m going to get the transformer in the box first, before I put this in there with it. Anyway, I did test this circuit to the left, and it was pretty good! I had my plasma ball transformer, which has a 15 V AC output, so I tested it with that. The multi-meter said 8.92 V, so pretty close to the 9 V rating of the regulator. The diode on the right is there, just in case. It’s to suppress any remaining charge from inductive components, like relays or motors that I may run on it. They may not affect the voltage regulator, but I wasn’t too sure. It’s obviously connected with its anode to negative, or it would just virtually make a short circuit.
So, for those of you who don’t know, from left to right, we have the bridge rectifier, filter capacitor, 7809 voltage regulator, a small value ceramic disc capacitor, and the power diode. I’ll also be adding resitors for internal lighting with L.E.D.s. I was going to have one for the meter, but light doesn’t go through it from the back, sadly.
• Click on the picture on the right to see the circuit diagram of the completed dealie.
It’s got more bits than the one on the Electronics Circuits Page too. It’s supposed to use a 0.1 µF capacitor on the output side of the voltage regulator, but I didn’t have any, and 0.022 µF was the next best thing. It still seems to be functioning correctly.
Friday, 30th of December, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (20:09) I’ve been doing electrical and electronic related things all day, just about. I just put a new plug on the soldering iron. The old one’d cracked, and if you weren’t careful, you could touch the prongs from inside the power board, so I didn’t want to risk that. Before that, I tested a rocker switch with a neon, which was fine, fixed my headphones again, and earlier I was drilling holes in my new box for my power supply project. Plus enough filing to last a lifetime.
Anyway, I tested my cable clamps, and I think I can get the cord to hold fine without any S-bend shape. I’m going to run it from the front left corner, to the front right corner for the 1st clamp, then have a 2nd @ the back. Then it’ll connect to a terminal strip, from which I’ll run the other wires to the switch. I should have some pictures when it’s done.
Saturday, 31st of December, 2022
Today’s current mood:
• (19:17) Day 3 of the box drilling. So, this is the box I got off eBay. Like nearly all the sellers on there, they’re pretty much these water resistant things, ’cos they must think everybody wants to mount them outside for some reason. Another thing I can’t figure out is all the strange attachment points in the bottom, and what they were intended for. Especially the ones on the left and right, which have brass pieces for bolts. I had to use a mini, spinning, cutting tool to slice the left one off. The holes you see in the base are for the transformer bolts. The square hole is for the window I wanted, the rectangle one at the top of the picture is for the power switch, the messy one on the right is for the meter, and the oval one near the hinge, is for the fuse holder. Other ones in the bottom are for the circuit board, terminal strip & cable clamps. I also put some air holes on the sides. But I won’t be running it all day long. Just a bit in the evenings, probably.
Yeah, so I was drilling, cutting, filing and even melting this thing to get the holes I wanted. I need some kind of LASER cutting gizmo, I reckon. As for the L.E.D.s, I’ll just be having an internal one, in ice blue. That was a real shame that the meter didn’t let light through it. It would’ve been really nice with one of my turquoise L.E.D.s.
On the whole, I probably should’ve got a better box, like some small PC case. This wasn’t really the masterpiece I visualised. It’s more practical than anything.
Tomorrow: Soldering, and attaching the stuff to the case. I’m going to use some string for the circuit board, but most other stuff will use nuts and bolts. The power switch is pressure fitted with sideways clips, the fuse holder has its own nut, the meter has built-in bolts, and supplied nuts too, and there should be some nuts & bolts in the garage for the terminal strip.
Sunday, 1st of January, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (23:45) Happy New Year!
• I spent most of today assembling my power supply. I ran into quite a few hurdles along the way, unfortunately. I still have to put the plug on for the output, but the main part of it’s working. You can check out the interior. Naturally you wouldn’t run it, exposed like this. I’m not happy with the packing tape as extra insulation for the primary winding wires, so I’ll replace that with thicker heat-shrink tubing, when I can get some. I’ll have to desolder the wires to slip it on though. I did use some electrical tape 1st, but it had lost its stickiness, and just half peeled back off. I really wanted to avoid sticky things. I also had to enlarge the hole for the meter. It should’ve been done as a 4.9 cm hole from the get go, and then had the bolt holes drilled next to it. I really did that the hard way. The transformer is resting on 2 pieces of wood, because otherwise the outer winding would be under pressure on the bottom of the case. I used a dentist’s mirror last night to confirm it had a gap.
Monday, 2nd of January, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (15:34) I won’t be doing a list of best songs for last year on this page, because I’ve already done them on The 2022 Music Videos Page. I still have a bunch of videos to check out from last year, so more may be added to the list at any time. That goes for any other pages in the past, if something crops up which I didn’t know about. Be sure to check the Music Page for tunes without videos as well.
• (18:14) I tested my new power supply with the L.E.D. sequencer which I finished on the 24th of October. It worked perfectly! It used up to about 180 mA with all the L.E.D.s on. You could see the meter’s needle going up & down as they went on and off.
Getting back to the transformer itself, I think it has the two 6 volt windings, because the rectifier in the Philips “Beethoven” 178A had a directly heated cathode. (So the heater was connected on one side, to the high voltage output.) It was a 5V4G. So perhaps it wasn’t suitable to have the light bulbs connected to that as well.
• Well, I have 17 more MVs to check out soon, from various countries, so I’d better get on with that!
Tuesday, 3rd of January, 2023
Today’s current mood: + 
• (14:14) Ah, I’ve got so many music video previews to finish up watching from last year. It’s getting a bit tiring and dreadful to have to face them. I’ve got 3 more weeks of stuff to watch from November, 3 more from December, and 7 whole music videos I got today. I just speed up all the preview ones when I find something cr@p. Which is most of the songs anyway.
• I ordered a box / packet / some kind of thing, of 530 pieces of heat shrink tubing yesterday. So I’ll never need to buy that again! No more spending now!
• I’ll add the 2023 music video page to the site when a song that’s great from this year appears. I’ve got a bunch from Vietnam to check out, but I don’t usually have much luck from there. It’s probably going to be mostly Japanese stuff again this year.
Monday, 9th of January, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (12:19) It’s 60 years ago this year that the compact cassette was 1st revealed. It was invented by Lou Ottens, who I believe died a couple of years or so back. He worked with Philips, and was also behind the creation of the compact disc, which was actually invented in 1972! Can you believe it?! But it took 10 years for them to be something you could buy. It’s hard to believe they go back to just over 40 years in terms of public availability. I wonder if the 1972 invention had them storing 650 MB of data, because that would’ve been humongous for back then. Even in 1982, that would’ve been a lot. Then of course, they went up to 703 MB later on, and that’s pretty much still the standard for blank ones you can buy.
• (15:22) My perspex, heat shrink tubing and a SD card for my Canon camera all turned up in the mail today. So, I was able to complete my power supply project with the window on the front. I also redid the wires for the primary side of the transformer, and got rid of that awful electrical & packing tape. I was hoping to use 4 nuts and bolts from my box of PCB spacers to hold the perspex window on, but they were too short! So I just used some string for now. One of the great and more overlooked items in the electronics industry. In any case, the whole thing isn’t overly visible anyway, because I’ve put it behind my Dreamcast on my shelf of game consoles. Now it’s within reach of my latest L.E.D. sequencer. It was supposed to be a bit artistic and fancy looking, but it ended up rather plain and just functional, as you can see. Ah well. Later, I’ll make up a multi-adaptor, with about 4 plugs and 1 socket, so I can plug more stuff into the power supply. As long as I don’t go beyond that 1 amp limit.
Saturday, 14th of January, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (22:07) Last night I thought I’d try making up a circuit with a microphone for my main PC. I found 2 electret microphones in my box of left over components, and I still have 2 unused battery holders, so something powered by a couple of my rechargeable AAA size batteries seemed like a good plan! If you want to read more, head on over to the Electronic Circuits Page.
Monday, 16th of January, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (14:46) I think my ISP’s been wiped out. Or something between them and myself. Apparently there’ve been floods and loads of rain up in Queensland, where they’re based, so maybe that’s the issue. So if you’re reading this, things are back to normal, obviously.
• It was predicted that it might be 24°C today, but I think it’s been hotter, really. I woke up at 8 something o’clock this morning, and was roasting. I had to fling all my bed covers and stuff off. Ah — come back, Winter! I want it more like 8°C.
• In case you missed it, I completed making that microphone circuit, and I recorded a sample sound file, which you can listen to here, if you want to know how well it went. Some web browsers may play this directly, but you can save the link if you prefer. Anyway, I thought it went really well! You could hear everything. My fans running, a little screw I dropped next to it, and other stuff. Although in the sample sound, it’s just me reading a tongue twister and my PC’s fan.
• (18:19) I hope I’m not going to have trouble with my credit union again. I seem to have to keep nagging them to send my quarterly statement, and they can never get their $#!+ together. I suggested that somebody added it to their “to do list.” Now I get some weird e-mail from them, asking to talk to me on the ’phone about it. What is that about ever? This is the reason I gave the Condomless Bank the finger, because they said they could send you a statement whenever, and they never stuck to it.
Wednesday, 18th of January, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (0:07) I’ve been looking up early CD players tonight. Some interesting ones to check out, are the NEC CD-803 from 1982, the Hitachi / Lo-D DAD-1000 and Philips’ very original CD-100. I also found out about my Nanna’s National Panasonic RF-507 radio. It was a bit older than I thought. 1978, it says. I thought it might’ve been from the 1980s. Another radio I got more information on, is my STC (Rambler) Transistor 7 from around 1960. I got it at a garage sale, next door to my other Nana’s house, back when I was a kid. Mine’s a grey model. It has a different power & volume knob shown to this one though. I think this person’s one’s been replaced. If you go to the ad for it, you can see the gold centre version, which is the original knob.
I’ll have to get my Mum on the case to finding a Stromberg-Carlson radio which my Nanna had as well. And possibly an old (reel to reel) tape recorder my Mum had as well.
Thursday, 19th of January, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (16:11) I’ve had it with that f**king Transport Mutual Credit Union. I’ve told them I’m going to close my accounts with them, apart from my term deposit one. They just will not give me my statement. The stubborn c*nts just want me to use some freaking web site of theirs to do stuff, and I keep telling them I’m not going to do it that way. I already agreed to change to e-mail from the paper statements, and now they want to change things again! They could never get their $#!+ together and automatically send the statements either. I had to remind them every 4 months. So I’m going to change to another credit union and see if they can serve me better. Hopefully without any weird surprises or inconvenient changes that only suit themselves.
Saturday, 28th of January, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (22:20) I’ve got another plug-in in progress for Oblivion at the moment, which adds more loot to the castles of Cyrodiil, and the Imperial Palace. While there are loads of containers in the castles, a lot of the loot is pretty worthless, and these places should have lots of expensive goodies. So with some level of subtlety, I’ve been adding new containers with more expensive, respawning loot. Not just stuff that comes with the game, but other items I’ve made too. New gems, more booze, ceramic ware, and some expensive metal bars as well. It’s early days yet though. I’m also going to recommend my “A Little More Access” plug-in, which will let you back into the top levels of the Imperial Palace after the Thieves’ Guild main quest is over. Since all the stuff you’ll be acquiring will be stolen, I also aim to add a fence to purchase it, since in Oblivion, traders somehow magically know what your stolen items are, and won’t touch them.
Friday, 3rd of February, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (0:17) My Castle Riches plug-in is now available from the Oblivion review page. I completed testing and tweaking it, so it should be good to try out. If you ever fancied more loot in the castles, which is actually worth something, this could be for you! There are close to 50 new objects, including over a dozen new gems, Dwemer artifacts, vases, metal bars, jewelled eggs and 4 new varieties of booze.
Thursday, 9th of February, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (0:25) The new software review is uploaded. Although, it’s the multiple small programs this month.
• I was pondering making an intercom for the house. This one looks pretty sensible. I’ve got 3 of those LM386 I.C.s already, and this is a single battery design too. There are some slightly odd circuits out there which need batteries in both ends. Those little 57 mm 8 Ω ¼ watt speakers seem a bit hard to get off eBay in Australia. I’d have to get some from China, I think. Or maybe something a bit stronger. Those LM386 I.C.s are usually for powering 1 W speakers. There’s no buzz feature for this intercom as you can see, (assuming you can understand it,) but that’s not paramount really. Dick Smith’s intercom from Fun Way 2 had what looks like a 2 transistor pre-amplifier and a push-pull amplifier stage for the output, but with 3 transformers as well. (Two 1 kΩ to 8 Ω ones and a 3 kΩ matching one.) This has a buzz feature as well, by making the amplifier work like an oscillator through positive feedback.
Friday, 10th of February, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (13:53) I was reading that back in 1990, apparently only 1% of the population of Australia had a mobile ’phone. Now though, it’s around 90%, with some people having MORE than 1 mobile ’phone. (Struth!) It’d be interesting to do a survey to work out why so many people have them now. Plus, do people feel they need one, do people enjoy having one, or not? Have people given in to peer pressure, thinking they should have one? Do you find your ’phone to be a nuisance? Do you find other people who use them to be irritating? Have the ones with included cameras made people lazy about getting a real camera? Do you prefer to use your mobile ’phone rather than a proper, fixed position house telephone? How much money do you spend on your ’phone(s)? What did you pay for it initially? If you want to write in with your thoughts, please feel free! And if you’re from overseas, that’s okay too.
I’ve always found it hard to understand why anybody would actually want to use a mobile ’phone out of any sense of desire. I wouldn’t want people ringing me up and bothering me while I’m out. I can understand if it was for business purposes, like if you were a doctor, or involved with the stock market and stuff like that. The other thing that’s odd, is how palm top computers, like the Palm brand ones, seemed to fade away, yet current ’phones’ve become more like PDAs than anything else. Is it the ’phone feature specifically that’s the primary attraction, or just better company promotions?
Plus if you’re with a mobile ’phone company, would you be willing to pay me $500 000 or more to use one? Send in your responses, people!
Thursday, 16th of February, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (16:26) I hope there are a few more QU4RTZ songs this year. I’m not keeping an eye on what’s happening with them to really know. But if they’re done, it was great while it lasted.
I finally watched a MV by Nicolae Guta (from Romania). He’s this chap who seems to have new video out every day or 2. He was different from what I expected.
Apart from that, I also watched a bunch of utter cr*p MVs, which were a huge waste of time. Some of the stuff is either so offensive or just completely depressing. I dunno how some of these people ever get their music published. The standards must just be dropping all the time. And they expect the public to pay for the junk! You’ve got to be awesome and amazing for me to buy any CDs these days.
Friday, 17th of February, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (13:17) Our Sunbeam AT40 ToasterMatic toaster made it to 50 years old. I’m just having some toast out of it now. So yep — it lasted 50 × longer than its warranty. It might go for another 50 years! And out-live me.
• I had an intense dream this morning about electronic related stuff. My main computer acting up, a cassette recorder I had connected to it, screwing me ’round somehow, and trying to turn off that “Clear Type” font anti-aliasing on an iMac with Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Normally you have System Preferences, but it’d been changed to some weird name, like “Bono.” I was really psyched up and a bit angry feeling in the dream too, so when I woke up I was really spaced out.
• (13:37) It’s funny how they told me at Beagle that they were no longer offering the site hosting, and that would be closed down, yet my site @ the old address is still there! Not that I can log in any more & get rid of it. Anyway, it still acts as a notification to the new address here now.
I also re-submitted my site to search engines again yesterday, because I did a search for some stuff that I know only exists here, and it wasn’t showing up. I did all that when I started at the new address, but apparently for some search sites, it still hasn’t sunk in. The Beagle address one is still coming up though.
• (16:24) I was looking through Panasonic radios from 1958 to 1972, and discovered the RF-60 headphones, which had a built-in FM radio. I thought: “Those look like the ones that Philip had in The Towering Inferno.” So I got out the DVD, and yeah, I think they are. I didn’t see anything else on the web about it though. Anyway, they weigh 825 g! Phwoar! A bit of a neck wrecker. Were my PSB headphones that heavy? You could also plug cords in each side and connect them to another amplfier, so you could listen to a record, cassette or whatever. The volume control only had soft, medium and loud, but there was a balance control on one side, which was interesting.
Saturday, 18th of February, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (19:07) Our Netcomm router thing’s gone tits-up permanently by the looks of it. It’s been playing up for ages. Every time there’s a storm, we turn it off, and then when you turn it back on, it doesn’t work properly. So, it looks like we’ll have to get a new one from the computer shop. Or Harvey Norman, or some place. What a bummer! I had things to do on the Internet too. It’s just as well I didn’t want to transfer stuff to my MacBook using its Airport wotsit, because there’s no “Wi-Fi” transmission from the router. It’s completely stuffed. My PC couldn’t access it by its I.P. address either.
Sunday, 19th of February, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (15:07) I found a Radio Master brand radio at an antique kind of shop today. I don’t recall that brand before. One of those big floor model ones, probably from the 1930s or 1940s. It had a huge dial, and it was mostly taken up by the radio station letters. Then at the bottom was a tiny short wave section, which mentioned other countries, but only had the numerical markings in metres, rather than MHz. It has the AM frequency range though, at the top, but in reverse order. You can check out a picture. I had to use my flash, because it was too dark, and I didn’t exactly have room to set up a tripod. I had my camera half stuck in a gramophone trying to fit it all in. I don’t know if that speaker cloth’s original. It looks very odd with the red stripes.
• I also got a photo of a Philips colour TV from probably around… hmm… 1978 to 1982 maybe. But it’s very fuzzy, because I didn’t use the flash, and couldn’t hold the camera steady for better quality.
• No luck at Hardly Normal with the router tooter. They don’t stock any with the VOIP feature! That’s really weird. How are people supposed to use their ’phones? So, tomorrow, we’re going to try at the computer shop. Perhaps they can order one in. NetGear might be a good brand, like our hub, or D-Link, if they’re still around, and making such things. Until then, no Internet access or telephone!
• (20:42) Check out these old mobile ’phone ads from about 30½ years ago. This bit of newspaper’s been folded up in a drawer for close to the same amount of time, so I didn’t give them time to flatten out. They’re both from the Daily Telegraph Mirror on the 25th of August 1992. I couldn’t even tell you if that snooze-paper still exists. I don’t think NEC makes mobile ’phones any more. (Actually, I never realised they did.) All you hear about these days is Apple, and figging Samsung. This one on the right’s from prior to the 8 digit ’phone number change too. 02 was the Sydney area, but now it’s like the whole state. Anyway, check out the price! $5 short of $1600! Fwoooo! Then again some of the ones now are probably about that too. They must’ve rushed this ad, because the capitalisation of the words is all over the shop.
Anyway, these ads were in the small business section. Every Tom, Dick & Harry weren’t obsessed with the things like these days.
• (22:16) I was trying to find my little white pocket sized Sanyo radio. At least I think it’s a Sanyo one. But all I came across were a bunch of other things I’d forgotten about for the last decade or so. And I swear there was a Sanyo RP-5115 radio somewhere too, but I didn’t see any sign of it in the house.
When I was a kid I wanted to do a display of old radios, but more along the lines of valve based ones. I seem to have decent amount of transistor based ones to do such a thing though.
Monday, 20th of February, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (14:27) The computer shop chap looked up routers @ Office Works, and found none there either with a VOIP feature. Even he thought that was weird. So now we’re waiting on one from I.I.G., who are going to pre-configure it. So of course when you’re reading this, we’ll be back in action. I’ll be interested to get back to eBay to look up what routers are available and with what features.
Saturday, 25th of February, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (23:55) I was looking up those Little Miss books on eBay — holey moley! They’re worth a fortune now. When I was a kid, the Mr. Men books were about 75¢ each, or less maybe. I guess that was close to 40 years ago. Even the bigger books like Mr. Silly On The Farm were only 60p in English money, which is about $1.05. I still have all the Mr. Men books from prior to Little Miss appearing. So they might be worth a bit more now. I’ve also got Mr. Happy At The Seaside, 2 of The Mr. Men Times Table Books, Mr. Tickle In The Park, Mr. Nosey Follows His Nose, Mr. Greedy Goes Shopping, and as I said, Mr. Silly On The Farm. Let’s see if you can get them on like eBay still…
• Yep! 2 listings of pre-owned books of Mr. Happy At The Seaside. The 1st one is $24.95, & the 2nd is $17.60! Holey figs! I’d better put mine in a safe!
Wednesday, 1st of March, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (13:41) It looks like our telephone’s packed it in. I thought something was up regarding the settings in our new router dealie, and got on to I.I.G. about it, but they were seeing no issues, and suggested trying a different ’phone. Well, the only thing I have close, is a (dial up type of) modem, so I thought, let’s try ringing in to that. And yeah, the router was acting more normally on its ’phone indicator then, even though the modem couldn’t answer the call. So it looks like we’ll need to get a new telephone tomorrow.
Thursday, 2nd of March, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (16:14) I ordered a new ’phone off eBay today for about $37. That should be here by the 10th. So no ’phone calls for a few days. It’ll be like going back to 110 or so years ago. Ah well, people back then survived perfectly well without them. They had heaps of those rotary dial style telephones on eBay as well, but probably with tone dialling now, rather than the old pulse dialling. Plus quite a few vintage ones too. People could use them to make intercoms. If you don’t know about that, you can look it up. It’s possible to connect 2 telephones together with a 9 V battery in series, and possibly a resistor, I think, and you can use them around your house or one in your shed or whatever. Yep. I’ve never tried that though, as I don’t have any old ’phones lying around.
As well as our ’phone dying, the oven started sparking last night too.
• I donated some more pictures to that Radio Museum web site, of a General GC 211 colour TV from about 1985, and my grandfather’s Sharp System-CD550E(GY), so I’ll put links here in case somebody’s interested, once I hear back.
Saturday, 4th of March, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (14:19) In case you didn’t notice, I’ve given my Morrowind “sub site” a visual overhaul.
Wednesday, 8th of March, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (13:49) The new telephone turned up on Monday. It’s a Y043, apparently by Orrin. Hopefully it’ll last longer than that V-Tech thing. There really are some obscure brands these days. Anyway, it seems to be aimed for Indian users, because the instruction manual mentions 2 area codes in India. Even though the ’phone was made in China. The other thing that’s weird is the “Ocean Blue” L.E.D. they keep going on about, like it was some amazing new thing. It just lights up the LCD on it. Anyway, it even has a calculator and an alarm in case somebody’s listening in on your call. But I don’t think that would work with the router, because the audio’s converted to some kind of data that’d be interpreted by IIG or whatever. Plus it’s got 8 choices of rings, I think. So yeah, rather feature packed for a telephone. Some of those old pulse dialling telephones with the dial you spin ’round probably last a good length of time. They seem to keep showing up on eBay, and I’ve often seen ones in antique shops, so maybe they’re pretty rugged. I saw some of those ones with a magneto the other day too.
Tuesday, 14th of March, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (19:50) I’m really tempted to get a couple of those QU4RTZ CDs from Japan at the moment, and a 3rd one related to the Nijigasaki High School Idol Club / Love Live! series dealie thing, in a broader sense. Like, whether it includes the QU4RTZ members or not. I’ve been looking at a site which lists all the tunes, and listening to which ones I can find on YouTube. Oh! And I found some QU4RTZ figurines too, which were all sold out. They were reasonably priced as well. I was feeling quite mesmerised and happy earlier! I think there were about 2 songs I didn’t fancy, but most of them are brilliant, and consistently good. I don’t want to spend too much, because getting foreign stuff is pretty expensive as far as music’s concerned. I’d probably get Enjoy It!, maybe Make-Up Session ABC and… ooh boy… how can I limit myself to just 3?!!!! Well, some other one anyway.
• (23:53) Actually, I think Make-Up Session ABC is only part of an album dealie. But Enjoy It! also comes with 4 Seasons, which is also great.
Wednesday, 15th of March, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (18:07) Oh dear heavens — all the figgin’ mobile ’phone stuff I seemed to run into today. I got a message from the credit union about some program they suggested you have, then a thing on the web, and then when I was on the ’phone with the bank. But 1st, the good news! I ordered 2 of the QU4RTZ CDs from CD Japan! I had a bit more money in the bank than I thought. So: Yay! I got Enjoy It! & Pastel. Ooooh! They have instumental versions too, and yapping from the girls, which I won’t be able to understand. That cost $48.20, or ¥4334. Oh, but I got a discount too, because I had 300 points still. So that was a nice sweetener. Anyway, when I placed the order it did some check with your card provider, and it fouled up with the NAB, saying it couldn’t authenticate me. Whatever THAT means. Then it said please have your mobile ’phone number registered with the bank. Well, I don’t have a f***ing mobile ’phone! It said to ring the number on the back of your card. So I did that, which was a number in Victoria, and after being cut off somehow, and ringing back, and going through all the voice recognition stuff, and 2 humans, the woman asked if she could send me a SMS message. So I said: “Well, you can’t, because I don’t have a mobile ’phone.” Anyway, there turned out to be no restrictions on the card, and it was some cock-up with the store’s choice of verification stuff, or something. So I borrowed an American Express card off somebody else, and did the order all over again from a newer version of Firefox in Tiny Core Linux, and then it worked.
But yeah, don’t go assuming everybody has a mobile ’phone, people! As they said in The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert: “Assumption is the mother of all f*** ups.” Or as Benny Hill put it: “When you assume, you make an ASS out of U & ME.”
• (18:52) Last night I did a web search of: “Is modern music depressing?” And several sites were listed saying that it was. Well, from a majority perspective. They said since the 1990s, music has generally become darker, angrier and written in a lower key. So that’s quite sad really. Plus people have started turning to listening to older music. Well, I really need perky, cheery stuff. There should be more funny songs as well. Not just like Weird Al Yankovic, but ones written initially to be funny. Now, here’s a good one from close to 100 years ago! The Laughing Policeman.
• (23:12) Um… oh yes! Next month for the Software Review Of The Moment, I’ll be having a look at Windows XP, since I’ve been using it for over 16 years now. I wrote it 2 days ago.
Saturday, 18th of March, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (12:33) So much for Autumn. It’s was over 30°C yesterday and today. Then tomorrow, it’s supposedly going to be 36°C!!! Holey beepin’ struth! I dread to think how hot it’ll be in Sydney. Probably 46°C or something. But on Monday, it could be down to 18°C, and that’s more like it! Ah, I want to see snow this coming Winter.
Sunday, 19th of March, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (12:41) Yep — it’s hot all right.
• I was wondering last night how much time people spend on finding new music. I don’t know if anybody’s done a survey on that. It is quite time consuming to look up the stuff that I check out each day from only a small selection of countries. I did find a couple of web sites which mentioned this, but I think it was more to do with people who were dedicated to finding music from their favourite genres. It’d be interesting to get this information from maybe 10 000 random people.
Tuesday, 21st of March, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (19:50) I think I got lucky with those QU4RTZ songs. I looked through more of the Nijigasaki High School Idol Club related songs, but in comparison, a large chunk of them were really cr@p. So I think I’ll call it quits for the Love Live! stuff now, and check out some other tunes. I got about 27 good songs though, so that wasn’t too bad, I suppose. Some of the last ones I listened to just seemed to really overuse the electric guitars. They were just too intense. I know the Japanese are big on them in the forefront, but eventually I got sick of hearing them. I thought I might check out some stuff from that Ensemble Stars!! game, but I’m in 2 minds about that.
Anyway, my QU4RTZ CDs are on the way, and those particular songs WILL be excellent.
• The temperature’s more like Autumn now. I’ve got the heater back on. So much for Sunday. It went from 37°C down to about 18°C yesterday.
Wednesday, 22nd of March, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (15:17) I was thinking about people having jet lag. Well, if you went somewhere before the invention of jet engines or on a plane with like an external propellor, it’d be more like internal combustion lag. You’d come home and say: “Ooh, I’m so tired after that flight. I must have internal combustion lag.” Although it does sound like something’s going to eventually explode inside your body, but it’s taking its time about it.
Wednesday, 29th of March, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (14:39) Hooray! My QU4RTZ CDs arrived today! Enjoy It! and Pastel. I got some photos before I opened the plastic covers too. As usual with Japanese CDs and other optical discs, they have the edge cards (on the side of the box) and there are some bonus goodies inside the covers too. Enjoy It! came with a Rina Tennoji card, which I’m really glad to have got, and Pastel came with a sticker that’s the same as the cover. There were also some other cards with some kind of unique code that you can use on some web site for something. Ha ha! I’m not sure what though, as I can’t read Japanese. Well, very little of it. The edge card of Pastel also mentions the 22nd of May this year. Maybe that’s an end of production date? I don’t know. It says “made” (which I think would be pronounced like mah-deh) after it, which seems to mean “as far as”, or “up to”, according to my dictionary.
Anyway, Enjoy It! runs for 16 minutes with the 4 tracks. I haven’t put Pastel in yet to listen to.
• In other news, I’ve also started on a 3rd Inner Depths plug-in for Oblivion, which is so far entirely based around an Ayleid ruin to the east of Anvil. Construction hit a standstill though when my new CDs turned up.
• (15:03) All right, onto listening to my Pastel CD now. This one has a 5th track called Feeling The Sky, where the girlies talk about stuff, I think. Not that I’ll be able to understand it. It goes for 9 minutes and 58 seconds. Oh yeah! The cover for this has a special plastic looking coating with “holographic” hearts, and as you move it about, they grow and shrink in a rainbow of colours. Inside you get the lyrics as well, but again, you’d have to be able to understand Japanese. Michi No Saki is only written in Japanese too, so it was lucky I already knew what it was called.
Anyway, I’ll update the Music Page with the new goodies some time later today.
Friday, 31st of March, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (22:34) I noticed another funny thing in One Foot In The Grave tonight, which I hadn’t spotted before. In series 4, episode 2, when Mr. Swainey’s fixing Victor’s food disposal gizmo under the sink, he’s reading a manual which says Recording & Playback! It’s odd, because that’s the same one when Victor unintentionally gave away his VCRs.
Saturday, 32nd of March, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (0:01) Keep your pants on for the 1st of April. It seems that due to fluctuations with the sun’s gravity, and the earth’s orbit being a bit slower this year, we’re to have a 32nd of March.
• In other news, it seems that Microsoft’s finally given up on Windows, & IBM are going to jump in to release a new OS while the going’s good. Hopefully this will be the decent operating system we’ve been crying out for.
• I’ll also be making another trip to Siberia at the end of the year to avoid the Summer all together.
Tuesday, 4th of April, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (22:46) I’m still going with Inner Depths: Oblivion 3. I’ve got the 10 main zones done, plus a shop. I’m going to add more areas yet. I’m falling behind again with what new music’s out though too.
• Obviously there wasn’t really a 32nd of March either.
Wednesday, 5th of April, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (19:32) Today’s progress on Inner Depths: Oblivion 3 was making levelled lists, although I have a lot more to do yet. That’s always pretty dull. I have to make the NPCs too. I might have about 60 or so. I dunno yet. I know that’s less than last time. And the 1st time too.
Thursday, 6th of April, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (19:57) And now for the 19:57 news with your host, John Kahler:
Thank you, Claire. Today in Inner Depths: Oblivion 3, I completed the levelled lists, and got 6 smugglers done. This time there are going to be 4 groups of power levels, with easier, group 1 enemies at the start, and harder, group 4 enemies towards the end. But within each group, it could be a randomly picked bandit, marauder, smuggler or pirate. So this time fights really should break out, unlike how I intended with Inner Depths: Oblivion 2. Well, they could, but they didn’t really happen as often as I wanted. There are also 3 grades of levelled lists for weapons and armour, so the easier enemies will have worse stuff, and harder ones will have any kind of gear, including low quality stuff.
Saturday, 8th of April, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (12:19) Oh no! Paul Cattermole from S Club 7 died! It was 2 days ago, and apparently the cause is unknown. This is very sad news.
• (19:26) I had a good day doing more stuff for Inner Depths: Oblivion 3. I got containers put in, beds and seats too. Tomorrow I’ll start on the pirates.
Sunday, 9th of April, 2023
Easter
Today’s current mood:
• (12:43) I was fiddling around with a thing for Inner Depths: Oblivion 3 last night and discovered something about meshes for Oblivion. It seems you have to also choose “face normals” in NIFSkope, and as a result, potentially “smooth normals” as well. Otherwise the meshes tend to look a bit odd. So I’m going to go through the meshes I made from scratch for Oblivion, and update my plug-ins. So if you got something for Oblivion from me in the past, you might want to update it. This will not affect your game in any way. Only ESP file changes can stuff things up. Hopefully I will let you know here when this is done.
•
I also added another mesh the other day that I corrected, to that mesh fix pack. It was the gas trap from the Ayleid ruins. I added an alpha channel threshold to make it smoother.
• My Software Review Of The Moment has now been changed for this month. It’s Windows XP for the 1st time.
• (13:32) Okay, I’ve updated the meshes for Castle Riches and the window in Ayleid Mansion, although I think that one will be more subtle. If you got either of these plug-ins from me before, you can consider whether you want the mesh updates. You’ll be able to tell which meshes were updated by the more recent file dates.
• (20:22) I did 6 pirates for Inner Depths: Oblivion 3 today, but I spent more time working on a tiled scorpion to put on the floor in one of the zones. In the game, there’s a book called Gelebourne’s Journal which speaks of an Ayleid place somewhere, which has a huge stylised mosaic spider as a trap. This doesn’t actually show up in any of the ruins in the game. So I thought I would do a little scorpion instead, for my joint. It took a while to get it semi-decent. So it, and 2 other glowing scorpions on the walls, now activate certain things.
Wednesday, 12th of April, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (16:48) I’ve got all 80 NPCs done for Inner Depths: Oblivion 3. I did the 20 bandits today. I did 5 new gems which weren’t in my Castle Riches plug-in, but I still want to do 5 or more other new items which could be smuggled. Although I don’t know what. What things would smugglers be interested in? Or pirates? I’ve done crates of skooma.
Friday, 14th of April, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (15:38) Financial Friday, it’s been. I’ve been organising the closing of an investment I’ve had for about 21 years, which hasn’t been performing too well over the last 6 years. I rang the N.A.B. about 5 times, but nobody seemed to be there to answer the call. It’s more like a bank twig than a branch there. I was also on the ’phone with the investment joint, and I had to print out some PDF files to update my details, since they were still set to the Commonwealth Bank. I then have to wait until I hear back from them about that, and then I can send in the next lot of forms to transfer the money. Then I’ll need to create a new term deposit account at the bank, and transfer the money from my regular account to it. It’d be good if they had a 4 year one or something, with higher interest. Mmm. So I got sod all done of Inner Depths: Oblivion 3 today, or much of anything else. But since Wednesday, I did come up with 3 more smuggled items. Perfume, caviar and silk. The perfume’s using a mesh I made for Morrowind, but I obviously changed its textures to use ones from Oblivion, and I had to add a Havok shape as well, so when you drop it, it tumbles about and all that.
Saturday, 15th of April, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (16:02) I haven’t got back to I.D.: O. 3 yet. Maybe tomorrow. It might be complete by the end of the month.
• Anyway, I did a test to see if my (Cowon) X9 can play M4A files, but nope. It just says: Invalid file. Ah well. It was worth a try. It might’ve been a nice surprise if it could. I’ll have to convert any M4A files I have to either FLAC or Monkey’s Audio instead. They’ll take up more room, but I don’t want to recompress any in a lossy fashion.
• Well, I have some other Love Live! related song links to add to my Music Page, so I shall go and do that now.
Tuesday, 18th of April, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (22:52) I called the bank on Monday, since my statements for March still haven’t arrived. They said they’d been sent on the 31st (of March), and that maybe Easter had held things up. But that was 9 days ago, and still nothing. That’s 4 letters from them so far that haven’t got to me. So I’m going to see them in person and get them to print them there, or send them again. I dunno if it’s figgin’ Australia Post who’s to blame or what. Probably. Other people have had missing mail lately as well. So I dunno what the f**k they’re doing. I got my QU4RTZ CDs from JAPAN faster than this!
• Then surprisingly, I got a new Visa card from the credit union, on the account I emptied. So perhaps they don’t consider it closed.
• The Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra have a new MV out. Oikoshiteku Hoshi, which translates to something like: Overtaking Stars. It’s done at a (horse) race course, so maybe they’re aiming for some kind of track record.
• I.D.: O. 3 is almost done. I did 2 books for it today, and a 3rd one which might be a bit rude for it. But it is funny.
Wednesday, 19th of April, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (20:30) Oh no! That Underground History site’s gone! Aww. I liked reading about the old abandoned stations on there. What a bummer! I was talking about the Bull & Bush station after dinner this evening.
• I got my statements from the bank in person. The woman said if they don’t turn up again, I can call a ’phone number to see what’s up.
Sunday, 23rd of April, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (12:23) Ah, no more Dame Edna! Poor Barry Humphries died yesterday. He’d had hip surgery, apparently, and things went downhill from that. He was 89.
• In case you missed it, I released Inner Depths: Oblivion 3 the other day. Check The Oblivion Review Page dealie.
Friday, 28th of April, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (13:12) Oh no! Jerry Springer died yesterday. Struth. First it was Barry Humphries, and now him. Who’ll be next ever?
• (23:40) I’m still doing my 2023 MV page, in case anybody had thought it’d come to a standstill. I just haven’t found anything else good enough to put on it.
Sunday, 30th of April, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (15:55) Here’s something I thought was a bit interesting: Probably about 5 years ago, I saw a bunch of L.E.D.s hanging down at Market City in Sydney, most likely for Christmas time, so I thought I’d get a photo of them. When I checked it on the camera, I couldn’t believe it! They were all off! This then proved that they were flickering @ a very fast speed, and the camera caught them at the exact moment they were off. To your eyes you couldn’t tell though. So I took the picture again, and this time they were on. It’s probably a method for reducing their perceived brightness that reduces the load on the components doing it. You would need one really tough variable resistor that could handle a lot of power otherwise.
Saturday, 6th of May, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (13:44) Apparently it could be 0°C tomorrow. Brrr! Although it’d be nice to see some snow this year.
• I thought I’d look up the alphabet of Georgia yesterday, but they actually have 3 of them. Although 2 of them aren’t even all that well understood even by the people who live there, supposedly. Anyway, this turned out to be beneficial, because I was able to translate some Georgian text from a bitmap I got off ICQ yonks ago. It was an ad for tours / travel stuff. It’s also 20 years ago that they changed their flag to the one with the red crosses. The central one is to do with Saint George, like the English flag, and the smaller ones are to do with a Jerusalem cross, or something.
I also wrote out a file of Hiragana & Katakana characters from Japan, to try and get them memorised better. Maybe I can read more bits of Japanese more easily then.
Tuesday, 9th of May, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (13:28) The weirdest thing ever just happened! I turned on the computer at the front of the house where the printer is, to print out something for Mother’s Day, and inexplicably, the printer just decides to print out a picture from The King’s Woman! What the fiddly-f***?! Where the hell did it come from?! I haven’t watched The King’s Woman since last night! And I never took any screen shots of it to print! I just can’t work it out. It was a picture of Gongsun Li saying: “No.” I don’t even have any recent screen shots from the show like that. I am literally stumped as to how that even happened.
• (13:37) After searching my 2ndary hard drive, I did find a picture like that, but how did it randomly print?! It was from 2 years ago as well. It doesn’t make sense. Even if Windows XP has its quirks, I’ve never seen it start randomly choosing images to print.
Thursday, 11th of May, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (20:38) I’m going to start on Story Of Yanxi Palace tonight. Loads of people have said it’s excellent, so fingers crossed they’re right! I heard about it in 2019, or early 2020, back when I started on the other Chinese shows I looked @. It’s got 70 episodes, so: Whew! A real long one. If each one goes for 45 minutes, that’s 52½ hours. There are several sites, where you can watch it officially. I might take the YouTube route this time, but it’s also at Viki, where I saw the other shows. Speaking of which, I just finished my 2nd watch of The King’s Woman the other night. It only took me about 2 years to get around to that! Ha ha. Then last night I watched The Palace again.
• (23:00) I got through the 1st episode of Story Of Yanxi Palace. Phwoar — I had to pause a lot to read the subtitles. Not only that, there were translation notes as well! But I guess that helped you to understand stuff. It was mostly a translation to American, rather than proper English, but I kind of suspected it might be. Just about ALL these things are. Although The King’s Woman was a mixture. Anyway, S.O.Y.P. was kind of interesting to a point. It wasn’t very gripping from the 1st episode. I think it might appeal more to people with a deep interest in the finer details of past Chinese culture. The architecture, clothing & embroidery were very impressive though. That’s my observations from the 1st episode off YouTube anyway. I’m not sure if I feel any great urge to watch any more though.
• I’ve also got 2 hands full of music videos to catch up on, so I wish I could stop my clocks to drag the night out a bit longer.
Saturday, 13th of May, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (15:20) I decided to watch Legend Of The Phoenix again last night. (My 2nd watch ever.) I got through 2 episodes. That is such a great show if you feel like watching something Chinese. The inside rooms in the palace are really beautiful, and if you’re into clothes, there’s some fancy outfits too. Especially the Empress’s head-ware. It’s got 41 episodes, so it’s not overly long. The music is really good as well, especially the introduction tune, which gives it a really classy feeling. If you’ve watched lots of Chinese shows before, you’ll recognise bits from Hengdian World Studios, which they seem to use for everything over there.
Monday, 15th of May, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (12:56) I called the bank today and got their statement issue sorted out. For some reason they hadn’t been set to come to me in the mail. There must’ve been a mistake when I set the accounts up. Not by me though. Perhaps they’re too pushy & assumptive about people wanting to use their web based services. Then, like before, the chap asked if he could send me a SMS message, and I said: “No. Because I don’t have a mobile ’phone.” LOL. Holey moley. The mobile telephone infestation on the planet now is just ridiculous. I’m getting sick of seeing them in music videos as well, as if they’re something we should all somehow relate to, or something. You’d think people’d be fed up with them.
• I watched episodes 3 & 4 of Legend Of The Phoenix last night, which was great. They went too quick. No ’phones in there, that’s for sure. It’s probably set over 1000 years ago or something, but it’s all fictional.
Thursday, 18th of May, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (16:11) It’s been 20 years since OutRun 2 came out this year, and 30 years since Virtua Fighter! Holey moley! That was the same year of Cool Spot as well. Next year, it will be 40 years since the 1st Apple Macintosh computer.
• (17:04) My UPS saved 2 of my computers from going off about 16 minutes or so ago. I had my MacBook converting a video, and whoosh! The light just went off, plus my clock. It came back on in about 15 seconds maybe. The power went off this morning for 20 minutes too and several towns got knocked out, so I dunno what snuffed it. Mmm… so without my MacBook’s battery working now, it’s just as well I have been plugging it into my UPS for such events. I got ready to shut down my main PC, but the juice kicked back in before I closed all my programs. I had 45 minutes anyway, but the battery recharge time on the UPS is 8 hours, so you don’t want to drain it completely. Well, as long as the power stays on for dinner now. I remember last year, I was cooking a steak, and it went off. Holey moley. But it came back on maybe a minute later at the most. Our neighbours have a backup generator.
Thursday, 25th of May, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (12:19) The power company changed our meters today. Well, their meters. They weren’t ours to begin with. So that took about 40-ish minutes. Now it’s apparently just a single meter, instead of the 2 we had previously. They gave us a month’s notice about it, which was good. As long as the new ones survive a jolt from any lightning.
• I watched 3 epsiodes of Legend Of The Phoenix last night. I was really getting into it. Then I looked up about some of the actors, and I couldn’t believe how many of them were younger than me! I’m either getting old, or the new people look older these days than what they really are.
Saturday, 3rd of June, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (12:42) I spent a lot of yesterday looking up stuff again about the Imperial Mountain Resort in Chengde (which is north-east of Beijing). I’ve got a couple of maps of the entire joint, but finding pictures of the places listed is very difficult. Looking up stuff in Chinese worked a bit better, but I really need some kind of conversion web site that can do Pinyin into Hanzi. If that’s possible. I did find 1, but it didn’t work. It just came up with a bunch of error messages. It was easier getting information on things in Guilin and Shanghai. Probably because they’re more popular with English speaking tourists perhaps. Oh! But one thing I did find of interest, were a collection of old photos from about 1920, of the resort. That was really surprising after looking at stuff from there a couple of years ago, when I 1st found out about it. Seeing how some of the buildings had been so dilapidated, and how the landscape seemed more bare, was quite the eye opener. At the same time, recognising some of the stuff from over 100 years ago was an interesting feeling too.
• I’ve only got 4 episodes of Legend Of The Phoenix to go now! Aww! It was getting so good when I was looking at it last night. It’s on YouTube now as well, with subtitles, which I don’t think it was originally. Or when I saw it 3 years ago anyhow.
Thursday, 8th of June, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (14:25) It seemed something got a bit loose with my video card again yesterday, in my main PC. I lifted it up to push the glass back to where it should be on the desk, and it must’ve got slightly disconnected or something. So I loosened and re-tightened its bolt, and then when I went to try it again, I’d forgotten to plug the monitor back in. Figgin’ heck.
• There’s nothing new to report from me in regards to Morrowind or Oblivion. I haven’t played poor Morrowind for almost 2 years. And I haven’t played much of Oblivion lately either.
• Tomorrow, if I don’t forget, I’ll be changing the monthly software review back to Cog, MacAmp Lite X & XMPlay.
Sunday, 18th of June, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (0:23) I’ve got a new game coming out soon, once I’ve done 1 last check for bugs. I had a couple of issues with the compiler which weren’t my fault, and had to work around them. Anyway, it’s called Teddy Maze, and like Teddy & Bunny, you can make your own stages once again. This time though, they’re a lot bigger.
• I’ve got some new Japanese songs to put on my page for 2023 soon too. But I should be going to bed now. I’ve had a lot of late nights recently.
Monday, 19th of June, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (20:21) I was watching season 2 of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, with Mumma Cheri’s joint, and there was a funny bit in the kitchen. He said something about buffalo wings! What the fig are they supposed to be? When has anybody ever seen a flying buffalo? That must be a like a comic name or reference to something, for whatever the food was. It was like one of Gordon’s menus with a loin of tuna. Well tuna fish don’t have legs for starters, to even have loins. So I dunno what he’s on about sometimes.
• I looked up some new Australian flags today. There are some REALLY good designs out there. I was sold straight away on some of them. It’d be exciting to kick out all that foreign British stuff and finally have something that’s purely our own. On the money too. For those of you from overseas, who don’t know, we only had Queen Elizabeth on our coins and $5 note. The other notes have Australian people. The government should’ve made the cut off point at the death of Queen Elizabeth 2. None of that old stuff is relevant any more. I personally think the coins should take inspiration from the Chinese money, and have scenes that are specifically Australian. Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef, maybe pictures of our capital cities, etc. If we had those changes, I would be totally for them. That said, us Aussies SHOULD still be friends with the British, and welcome them if they want to visit, but I think it’s time for these changes.
Thursday, 29th of June, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (17:14) I was contemplating getting some fibre optic “cable” / a strand reel to make up my lotus… thing, that I originally planned to possibly make with L.E.D.s. You can get 50 m for about $14.35 off eBay, from a place in Sydney in 1 mm thickness, which is probably what I would use. I asked the seller if you can melt the ends, because you need them thicker than the rest of the strand, so they don’t pull out of the surface. I haven’t bought any of this stuff since probably 1990 or so. It might be different plastic now. I’m probably going to stuff the other ends into a piece of heat-shrink tubing, over the L.E.D.s themselves, and that should keep them lined up. I have some black stuff, and it’s a bit shiny on the inside, so any extra reflection is welcome to get more light up the cable ends.
This would’ve taken about 225 L.E.D.s, I think it was… Yeah, see the 11th of January, last year, if it’s still there, above what you’re reading now. So that would’ve been quite insane, and it would’ve lit the room up. Plus soldering that many would’ve taken me a week maybe. Plus, it would’ve used a lot of current, I think. So, if I use fibre optic strands, I can have maybe 16 per L.E.D., or something. I’d have to test that. There are 86 green dots for the leaves on this thing, so that would be 6 L.E.D.s, rounded up. (There are 54 white dots, 59 in magenta and 26 in yellow.) The other alternative would be to have a light “box” for each colour with all the fibre optic strands coming out of them, and going to their appropriate locations in the image. But, as this is going on my wall, it needs to be pretty compact. Even if I use 20 L.E.D.s, that’s less than 1/10 of the original direct L.E.D. count.
Another thing that interests me, is side lit plastic. This would have to be done at a professional etching place though. You have little etched spots on it, which catch the light from below. If you had more than one colour though, you’d have to have a different layer of plastic for each. Although I don’t know how well that would work.
Saturday, 1st of July, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (16:43) I tried engraving / etching my lotus design onto an old CD box cover as an experiment this afternoon. As you can see, it works, but it’s messy. I’m not a master engraver. So perhaps it might be better to do the lines as a bunch of little dots. That way the thing isn’t sliding around. The tip did want to spin off course on several occasions. The other thing is the persective. When you’re looking through to a printed piece of paper that you have to trace, the thickness of the plastic throws you off a bit. So before I go anywhere near my perspex sheets that I bought last year, I’m going to come up with a more consistent way of doing this on bits of scrap plastic.
I just used 4 green L.E.D.s to light this up, but if I do get something good finished, I’ll use the 4 colours you see above, and have them run vertically, rather than etching 4 separate pieces of plastic and trying to align them.
Tuesday, 4th of July, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (12:53) I got my lotus engraved onto a piece of perspex, but after a lot of woe. I had issues cutting it, and it kept cracking and being a pain. I think you need better tools, like LASERs to cut the stuff. Or a band saw. Anyway, in the end I got the thing done with 3 colours of L.E.D.s, but it doesn’t show up quite so much in the picture. I added a bit more of a tint to it on my computer. If I do any more, I’ll get pre-cut perspex at the size I want, and only do one colour, and have the L.E.D.s at the bottom. Putting them to the side was quite tricky, to get a small enough holder. Mmm. So, it’s not perfect looking, but it’s fairly pretty. As you can see, I did it with dots, which was neater than the the image from the 1st.
I need to make a triple or quadruple adaptor for my transformer now, so I can plug more stuff into it. I’m low on wire though.
Thursday, 6th of July, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (12:37) Oh no! No no no! CoCo Lee has died! This is terrible news. It never would’ve crossed my mind that she would be dying any time soon. IMDb says it was suicide. I’m really shocked and sad about that.
Friday, 7th of July, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (14:38) Why is it that so many cars of the recent 5 years or so, are such ugly piles of $#!‡? Not only that, but they all seem look the same, with these strip-like lights on their fronts too. I think this is another example of how my fellow humans are really brain dead sheep who can’t think differently from one another. And customers with no taste obviously keep buying them. Not only that, there seem to be an enormous amount of vehicles of late with malfunctioning head lights, like it was some kind of mass design flaw. I dunno what’s up with that. Is it just in my area? People may be half bothered to fix them, but it’s still illegal to have non-working car lights.
• I passed 15 000 000 Septims in Oblivion the other night! I think I could buy up all of Cyrodiil with that. When you really need the money @ the start of the game, it’s hard to build up, then when you don’t need so much later on, you have too much.
• I actually got a handful of new decent songs over the last few days, which has been surprising. I added 3 or so of them to the MVs page for this year as well. The countries I’m focussing on at the moment are Japan, of course, China, if I’m lucky, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia and Vietnam. If you ask me, the British music has gone right down the sewer since 20 or so years ago. All I seem to see listed these days is $#!‡-head gangsters and other depressing cr@p, so I just avoid anything from there now. It used to be so much better around the turn of the century, and just before, like in 1998.
• (15:30) Oh yeah! That was another thing I was going to rant about — what is it with all these offensive, arrogant jerks in some music videos sticking up their rude fingers? Are they just so cocky that they think customers will buy their B.S. regardless? I made a list of all these little pr*cks so I don’t accidentally get any of their cr*p in the future. There was even one from Australia, sadly. We’re not all like them.
Tuesday, 8th of August, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (22:52) I tried making a 4 transistor based chaser circuit, based on the 3 transistor one I showed on my Electronics Circuits Page, but all I got was the effect of 2 flip flop circuits. I wasn’t happy with that circuit with the 3 transistors either, so I removed it. This then threw a spanner in the works for a chaser circuit I wanted to make later in the year. I really wanted to do a 4 “channel” one with 3 L.E.D.s on @ a time from each channel. Perhaps output is a better word than channel. I dunno. Anyway, I regard this as a moving gap chaser, or inverted chaser circuit. There are circuit diagrams to do this directly off a 4017 I.C. This is okay for a couple of L.E.D.s, but from that forum discussion I read 3 years ago, I don’t want to risk stressing the I.C. with the likes of 18 super bright L.E.D.s running off it directly at any one time. So I’m still inclined to include one of those ULN2803APG darlington transistor arrays. Or maybe 4 BC639 transistors. Anyway the solution to inverting the L.E.D.s from on to off may be a 4001 NOR gate I.C. This only has 4 outputs, so it would still fit in with what I want to do. This would then connect between the counter and the ULN2803APG I.C. I haven’t seen any examples of people doing this, but I think it will work, based on how I’ve seen it in other circuits. I will include a circuit diagram here when I get one drawn up, and you can comment. If anybody actually sees this.
• After saying about ugly and unoriginal cars the other day, I found out about Tang Hua electric cars from China 2 days ago, and they look quite unique. There’s a strange 4 seat one, which looks like a van, and its front is quite cute.
• (23:59) Okay, the diagram is to the left. I can’t test it though, because I don’t currently have any 4001 I.C.s.
Sunday, 13th of August, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (14:21) Ooh my goodness. I had to do a simple, but very awkward fix of my main PC today. I’ve pretty much only just turned it on. Well, about 20 minutes ago. Yesterday, I noticed that the power button was acting iffy, and I had to press it in a strange way to get it to turn on. Then today: Nothing! No matter how I pressed the button, it wouldn’t work. The button is part of the case, and screwed in, in a way which would require you to remove a lot of stuff to get to it. So instead, I snipped the wires to it with some scissors, and went about connecting a push button from my box of electronic components left overs. The wires they used to connect to the motherboard though, are those awful silvery looking things that you can barely solder to. I hate that wire. It’s plain copper or nothing for me. So I eventually got my extension wires to stick, after doing most of it left handed, shrunk on some heat shrink tubing, tied my new wire to an unused SATA drive cable with bread ties, and ran a little red push button out of the unused ~14.8 cm drive bay on the top. Very professional I’m sure. So now I can press that, and it will turn on. I’m going to put a plastic cover over it though, I think. I’ve got a tube thing for ear plugs which might be suitable. Mmm, so if I didn’t have a soldering iron, and left over buttons, and all the other handy things, I’d be stuffed, probably. And I’d go to the computer shop, and they’d probably take an age, or say you need a new PC. Maybe.
• (15:33) Yeah, I don’t want to jinx myself, but there are so many things I need to be aware of with my main computer. If I ever did take it to some shop, I’d have to warn them. So there’s the new power button dangling out the front as of today, the blue L.E.D. for the original button doesn’t work most of the time, the USB’s power is iffy, you can only have 1 hard drive internally now (for some reason I don’t understand), you have to enter the BIOS set up section every time you turn it on, and the clock sometimes freezes when it’s running off the button battery. When I say the USB power’s iffy, it means it may drop out unexpectedly. So when I used to have my mouse plugged into it, it would sometimes be seen by Windows XP as being unplugged. So I have to use the PS 2 port, and my hard drive caddy has its own power supply. I do have a USB hub in my monitor, but it’s dead as well!
Monday, 14th of August, 2023
Dad’s 76th birthday
Today’s current mood:
• (14:01) Holey moley! I had trouble with my main PC again today! It seems the power button may not have been at fault after all! When I pressed my new button today, nothing happened! Then one of the wires fell off that mother f***ing silvery wire, so I had to resolder that, and still nothing! One I thing I noticed, which seemed a bit odd, was that the motherboard L.E.D. & mouse L.E.D. were flashing. Now normally I wouldn’t see either, but it did seem odd. When I looked up about that on the web for this motherboard — the ASUS A8V-MX, it was suggested that it could be an error with the RAM, but it said after power was applied. Does that mean when the PSU is turned on, or the actual motherboard from the power button? Because there was no power beyond the PSU coming partially on. So I dunno. I got out a load of dust, and eventually it was working again. Maybe something became a bit conductive in there. So much for my case’s power button, but all symptoms pointed to that yesterday. And the fact that it worked with the new button I put on, proved it in my mind. If the RAM has been at fault, there has been no suggestion of it. Nothing has crashed or frozen in Windows XP. There have been no instances of stuttering audio or anything acting weird. Unless something else is to blame. Let’s see what happens tomorrow, or today.
Tuesday, 15th of August, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (15:16) More computer woes today. No start up again. The L.E.D.s flashing again. They should actually be “stable” with no flashing, when the PSU is turned on. And by that, I mean the power from the house. Not when you press the power button. Anyway, it’s obviously working at the moment, since I’m typing this. I took out my video capture card though, in case I kill it. I don’t use it much anyway. I took the RAM out, and cleaned it, and put it in the other socket, and that made no difference really, but it was quite dusty, and a bit grubby. I also took the video card out, and tried the built-in video… thing. And that didn’t work. I think it might actually be the big power plug to the motherboard which needs attention. That’s another possibility. I did sort of jiggle it a bit. Then it was working again. The 1st time the motherboard L.E.D. was stably lit, the computer was starting, but not beeping, and there was no image to the monitor. Plus the number lock L.E.D. on the keyboard was flickering a bit. So perhaps power hasn’t been getting through somewhere. I’m not really too sure what I’m going to do if this thing packs it in completely. If Windows didn’t suck so much now, I’d aim for something new perhaps, but since it does, I’d probably have to go for Linux of some description. Or at least something that can run Windows 7. I could probably deal with that. Or move everything to my 2018 PC, so long as it keeps running. My Dad’s computer is even older than mine, and it’s in better condition.
Sunday, 27th of August, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (15:35) My goodness. The last 12 days! My main PC just refused to turn on in the end, no matter what I tried. All I got was the flashing L.E.D. on the motherboard. So I dunno what that means. Maybe something was up with the power supply. I dunno. Or something else most likely failed. I was in the middle of typing, and the picture just went on the monitor. Although other stuff was still working, like my music playing. So I decided it was probably best to get a replacement computer off eBay. There were a lot of used PCs on there for real cheap, but I thought something new would be the more wise decision for the long term. I found somebody selling a bunch with a small tower case and Windows 7 for $550, brand new. So I thought I would take that route. This one also has one of those static storage drives, to avoid any ambiguity, rather than a motorised hard drive. Although, again, they’re both hard.
The CPU is a 3.7 GHz Intel Core i3 6100, which I think is a quad core type. It shows up in Windows 7 as having 4 cores, but the hardware monitor program I have only shows it as 2 cores, but 4 CPUs. So I’m not sure. Anyway, it’s still faster than my 2.4 GHz single core AMD Athlon 64.
• (15:46) After a quick check on the web, it’s dual core. It’s just hyper threaded like my Core i7 one. So it probably performs like a quad core CPU. Anyway it’s fast enough for my uses. No Sound Blaster card this time. Just the built-in Realtek I.C., and I’ve just got the built-in Intel GPU as well. Although there is a PCI express slot for a better video card. But I’ll save my 2018 P.C. for games.
One thing I wasn’t giving up was Windows XP, despite its quirks. So I installed it in a virtual machine — in this case, Virtual Box. I made up a 30 GB virtual drive, and got it installed. That should be enough, because I’m using shared directories for dealing with my regular files. So I really only need room for programs to be installed. Plus, since some programs don’t get along with Windows 7, this is my other option. Plus for 16 bit programs too.
Now it’s time for the rant about how Microsoft really p!$$€d me off. After I got Windows XP installed, as we nearly all know, you need to activate it. I tried the method over the Internet, and like 2018, when I did my last re-install, it failed. So I thought: “It’s late at night. I’ll ring tomorrow.” So the next day, I went to the ’phone, equipped with that massive number you need to enter. I got onto the activation service, with some simulated woman yapping at high speed. For some weird reason, they wanted me to enter a number on the telephone that was told to me. In this case it was 432. So I entered it in. The simulated voice is like: “That’s not a match!” & it gets me to try again. The same thing happens. I’m like: “What the f**k?!” So I ring back, do a different number, and still nothing. “F**king Microsoft!” I’m thinking. “Their ’phone service is just as cr@p as their operating systems.” So I’m already p!$$€d off at this stage, since I have a short fuse. But it gets worse, of course! So I go back to my new PC, and check the other telephone number, because the 1st one is toll free. So I get that, and head back to the ’phone. (The telephone’s near the kitchen, not in my room with the computers.) Then all I get is a message along the lines of: “This number has been discontinued. Please ring blah blah blah blah instead.”
“F**king hell!” I’m thinking. And she rattles the number off at some insane speed, which you can’t possibly remember, or write down. The stupid, brain dead, mother f**kers! I had to ring this number about 5 times, and have somebody else write it down. I finally get it, and ring the 3rd ’phone number. Then what do I get: “Oh, we’ve discontinued this so that you don’t have to wait in a queue. Just go to help.microsoft.com” And I’m in a RAGE by this stage. I almost smashed the ’phone, and I was swearing about the absolute c*nts at MS for giving me such a run around, and I didn’t even get to speak with anyone! So I said: F**k you! And I found a little 18 KB program that came out early last year, which basically simulates that ’phone activation business. And it worked! So yay to that at least. But what a way to screw over your legitimate customers who PAID for their copy of Windows XP. I’m never buying any more Microsoft $#!+ again. Not even hardware.
Oh yeah — and that web site — it didn’t even load anything. I used Firefox 93 in Tiny Core Linux, since it’s my newest browser from like only 2 years ago, and all I got was a white page of nothing. So yeah. What a crock of utter $#!+ Microsoft truly are. I wanted somebody to execute Bill Gates. BillGates.exe. Run it and execute him!
• Woo! That riled me up again, just thinking about it. Anyway, Windows XP is pretty snappy on this thing, even in the simulated computer. Prior to the new computer arriving though, I had to use my 2018 P.C. to do stuff, and it was amazing that even after 10 years, I still wasn’t aware of how annoying Windows 7 is with Explorer. I had to install Q-Dir to survive, and make more registry tweaks to get consistency in file information. I also used Corel Photo-Paint 11 for some stuff, and it’s a touch buggy too, which I didn’t know. I got memory errors coming up. Although maybe it doesn’t like Windows 7 much. Plus the over scroll is mega slow! Normally when you’re drawing a line in Photo-Paint 8, and go off the edge of the picture, it scrolls along rapidly so you can keep going, but in version 11, it was painfully slow. Anyway, I have version 8 re-installed under Windows XP now, so I’m back to normal. Hopefully.
DivX does not work too well either in that virtual computer environment, nor Power DVD 6. (You see no image, and in DivX compressed video, you get distorted lines.) But it does work fairly well on Windows 7, although the OS says it isn’t really compatible. (PowerDVD 6 that is.) Another thing I didn’t realise, is how VLC seems to have so much tearing in videos. This was pointed out by other people too, and if you’re running it on Windows, it’s an idea to try it with Direct Draw for the output module. I guess when I used it in Windows XP, it wasn’t too bad. I’ll try to mention that on my Computer Page for more tips. Plus about my Pegasus MJPEG codec.
So yeah, it’s taken so long to get things back up and running again. I even had to re-write my text file searcher program, due to some file missing from Visual BASIC. I’m going to update that on the Downloads Page soon.
Sunday, 3rd of September, 2023
(Father’s Day)
Today’s current mood:
• (12:41) I had some partially good AA size Energiser batteries near my TV, and the beeping things leaked, didn’t they? They were supposed to be used by November 2028! 5 & a bit years from now!!! What a crock. I should buy those Chinese EastPower batteries. The ones in my TV’s remote control not only haven’t leaked in 18 years, but they still work! They don’t get a lot of use though. In terms of the 2 most popular brands of batteries, I used to prefer Duracell. I didn’t buy the Energiser ones anyway. They were given to me. So now some of the paint’s come off my TV and game console stand thing from the acid. Damn. Oh… here’s an Ever Ready one by the keyboard. That can fig off into the bin too. (Bang, clonk… Damn! I missed.) Actually, I should change to rechargeable batteries in AA size, because I already have a charger for those nickel metal hyrdride type ones.
• Things are feeling a bit more “homely” with my new PC now. Sort of. I’ve had more issues on this one when it comes to playing audio and video files. Maybe some of my software could use updating here and there. This built in Realtek sound processor thing is a bit of a wuss compared with my Sound Blaster Audigy. It’s so quiet. You really have to crank it with my headphones on. With the SB Audigy, you didn’t need the volume levels anywhere near as high. I could probably use a mini amplifier that will fit under my monitor, with an equaliser on it too. But I can use my Sharp audio system I guess.
My Windows XP installation is up to 3.18 GB now. So that’s not too bad.
• I had to get a new CD ripper (program), because Nero 5 is a special version, which only works with the Lite On drive it came with. It installed fine in Windows 7, and worked, but you can’t choose the new drive to copy stuff from. What a bummer. And that Lite On drive is still in top condition, even after 20 years. But because it’s got a parallel connection, I doubt I could plug it in to this motherboard. Maybe I could find a caddy or something to connect it via the USB.
• Be sure to check out my new review of those media player programs too!
Friday, 8th of September, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (20:56) I thought there was a new-ish TV company called Kogan. I just looked it up. It actually means testicles in Japanese! Yep, 睾丸. They had some big bollocks coming up with such a company.
Saturday, 9th of September, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (13:22) Brrr! Winter may have ended, but this morning you could freeze the balls off a brass monkey! It’s been colder than the last days of Winter. The monthly changing software review’s been updated, and it’s Winamp again this month.
• (19:52) I was doing one of those word finder puzzles after dinner. One called “In Court.” There were some very funny extra words in there: Bob Hawke Hide Maid Coffin Loft Warm USA. Hmmm! A hidden message about the old prime minister! Then in one called “Full Of Promise,” there was USSR hidden in there too!
Sunday, 17th of September, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (22:12) Happy birthday to Yuji Naka today. He’s 58 now. Boy, he must’ve only been 26 when he did Sonic The Hedgehog.
Friday, 29th of September, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (0:10) I was watching series 3 of Some Mothers Do ’ave ’em again. When Frank goes to see about getting a telephone, there’s a poster on the wall for a service called Dial-A-Disc, which you rang on 160. I’d seen it in the past, but I decided to look up what it was tonight. It turns out it was introduced in the 1960s in Britain to let you hear music on your telephone. The quality was understandably bad though. At 1st I thought it might have been like a record hire service, and they’d bring one ’round to your house, but apparently not. I dunno how much of an enjoyable experience it would’ve been. Maybe you could put your ’phone handset near a microphone for an amplifier, and listen to it better in your house. I read in a forum that there was even a service for bed time stories.
Satuday, 30th of September, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (0:03) I was reading up again to see if Britain’s ridiculous TV licence fee had gone by the board, but it still seems that they’re at it, hiding behind a corrupt portion of their law, and even trying to extend the licence to electronic devices that aren’t even TVs, like computers. According to one video, they recently forked out £20 000 000 to send more thugs ’round to people’s houses for their racketeering, which is to last until 2027. It’s insane that they still expect people to pay for something that they make no effort to prevent. You don’t see Microsoft sending people ’round to various houses looking for valid operating system licences, and then expecting them to pay for them if they had a Mac! It’s exactly the same thing. By their manner of actions, this is self-evident. But it’s not just the British — even the Japanese still have the curse of the NHK demanding money. Apparently people there hide when the TV folks come knocking. You’d think the Japanese with all their experience in electronics could come up with a way to encrypt TV shows to everyone, apart from those who pay. It’s the simplest solution. If you don’t want a service, you don’t pay for it, and you’re prevented from having it. That makes sense, and it’s fair. How can supposedly civilised nations still have this irrelevant bull$#!+ now? It makes no sense, and it reflects badly on them in the eyes of those of us from outside their countries. I think even Germany still has something like this too. At least they did a few years ago. And also Ethiopia — there you could even got to gaol for 5 years! What a crock of $#!+! It’s for a TV! The TV company dictators should be in prison. Not the other way ’round. If this didn’t actually affect people’s lives so much, it’d be laughable. Thank goodness us Aussies ditched this cr*p decades ago. Some people argued that it’s our tax that pays for the likes of the ABC, but we don’t get a bill for it. I don’t pay several hundred dollars a year for anything I don’t use. I haven’t watched the fizzing brainwashing box in 12 years. So I’m with you, the folks being screwed over, from whatever country you’re from. You do have foreign sympathy.
Thursday, 12th of October, 2023
Today’s current mood: 
• (22:57) Mother fudge! I was trying out SheepShaver yesterday and today, (to see how Mac OS 9 would run,) and the freaking thing f**ked up the time stamps on several hundred files for my web site! What kind of bug did they overlook for that to happen ever?! It somehow put nearly every file, except for RAR files, 15 hours ahead! WTF?!!! So to anybody who plans to use that, I would be REALLY careful about doing so, and what directories you access from it. For me: Screw it. I’m not going to risk that happening again. Now I have to go through all my files, restore them from backups and manually fix the times that it stuffed. Plus some other directories got messed with too. There wasn’t even any read me file, or any other warning that suggested something like that might be a problem with it. You wouldn’t even imagine such a problem anyway. Then to top it off, when I was restoring files earlier, the freaking power went off! Thank beep for my UPS!
Friday, 20th of October, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (20:16) I’ve got another Oblivion plug-in in progress. One with respawning NPCs who travel about. Like other adventurers, hopefully peddlers and so on. I’ve only done 1 NPC at the moment, and the way it’s going, it’ll be next year before I get it done.
Friday, 27th of October, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (19:29) My Wandering N.P.C.s plug-in for Oblivion is coming along well. I added some peddlers, but it took an age to work out how to get them to actually peddle. While a character is travelling to a destination, they can’t offer services apart from recharging, training and repairing. So the trick was to add another AI package for them to wander on the spot, when you approach. I also worked out how to do a tree house.
Wednesday, 1st of November, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (14:14) Wandering N.P.C.s for Oblivion is almost completed. I was hoping to add some more books of poetry, but I’m too stuffed to come up with anything today. I feel like I want to go back to bed. Anyway, since I last wrote about this, I also added a group of 3 “explorers” who go ’round together to 7 different locations. They do a different one each day. You can hang out with them if you feel like barging into a place and taking out all the baddies in a hurry. Or just watch to see if they’ll survive. As for the other 20 adventurers that I started with, if you find all of them, you’ll be added to their faction, which lets you legally get stuff they’ve collected.
• The amount of new songs coming out over the last month really seems to have dwindled. I dunno if it’s related to the web site I go to, to see what there is, or if there really has been a decline. It feels like once October came around, everyone threw the towel in for the year.
• (15:40) Mmm, so I would say that this year’s best finds in terms of music were the big wad of Love Live! songs from Japan, and Dejan Vunjak from Slovenia. They were the most impressive. Hopefully next year I will find somebody else who’s really great as well. Last year it was Heesey, and for 2021 it was Sumika, who are both from Japan.
Thursday, 2nd of November, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (18:30) I heard on the grape vine, as they say, that Grandpa’s Shed at Fitzroy Falls is having a 20% off sale on everything, so I hope that isn’t an indication that the dude’s finishing the place up. So, if you’re in that area, (in the Southern Highlands region of NSW,) swing on by for some bargains. They have old valve based radios, a really old car radio that I saw the last time I was down that way some months back, a cocktail cabinet style Zig Zag arcade game (which is a knock off of Dig Dug), an old TV, a couple of pianos, I think, various garden tools, a box full of old valves (as in the electronic ones), photography equipment, CDs, DVDs, weights, signs, some model trains, tableware, old magnetos for telephones and goodness knows what else! So if you’re looking for old wares, and are hoping for something interesting, swing on by. I will try to get there next week.
Also, in the area, my Dad tells me that All Aboard, the model shop, is closing after 35 years. They’re now at Bowral, but they used to be at… uh… oh… that town passed Mittagong. Braemar, I think. So if you’re looking for model railway supplies, pop on by there too. They might have some bargains.
• In other news, I found some more Japanese songs last night, so I’m in the process of updating The 2023 Music Videos Page.
Saturday, 4th of November, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (12:44) There was some sodding sneaky service for M.S. Internet Explorer running behind the scenes on my main PC, (in Windows 7) that I discovered last night. You’d think that when I removed that “feature” as they call it, it would be disabled as well, but it seems all the junk under the sun still remains. So I was able to find where to turn it off, and I deleted all the files as well, so it’ll never run again now. Something to do with RSS feeds, which I’ve never used in my life, even in any other browser. All that Internet stuff in the Control Panel is pretty much irrelevant outside of Internet Explorer as well. You can actually hide a bunch of Control Panel items that you don’t use, by using the Group Policy Editor. 
There’s a thing called Hide Specified Control Panel Items under User Configuration Administrative Templates Control Panel. You can just type in the name you see, and that item will be hidden. It makes it much more tidy and easier to find things of relevance. There you go — you can see in my sample image how I’ve trimmed it down. Do a search for Control Panel images on the web, and you can see how much more there is by default.
I trimmed up my Windows XP one just then as well. Speaking of trimming things up in Windows XP, now that I’m running it in VirtualBox, I saved some space by deleting that entire “dllcache” directory as well. (Which is at C:\Windows\System32) It’s only there in case you delete the wrong thing from your system files, but since I have the entire OS installation backed up, there’s no need to worry about it any more. There’s some program I got years ago, which I should crack back out, that does some kind of drive tidy up, so that virtual machine disk “images” are smaller, when you delete stuff from the guest OS too. Although it can’t be too bad, because my VDI file is smaller than what Windows XP is saying I’ve used, so that must be to do with compressed files in there somewhere. Windows XP says I’ve used 4.52 GB of space, but the VDI file is 4.12 GB. So I’m saving 409.6 MB somehow.
Tuesday, 7th of November, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (13:59) Well, I went to Grandpa’s Shed. Sadly, it sounds like the chap there’s going to sell up, or close the place anyway. He said he built it 26 years ago. There was some interesting stuff, and I got a photo of an old car radio that looked like it came out of… I dunno… more like a truck or something. It was pretty rugged looking. So yep — pop on in, if you’re in the region of Fitzroy Falls in the Southern Highlands. They’ve got vintage jugs (for heating water), a few (electronic) valves, although some were unmarked, some big lamps, old radios, cameras, records, 2 pianos, those old “Pianola” rolls, or whatever they are, that Zig Zag arcade game, various electrical meters, old coins, old bottles, old fans, old heaters, that old colour TV I mentioned the other day, and even a few pieces of full size railway track. The dude has 20% off everything.
• (19:32) This right here, is the model of radio I saw today.
• (19:50) Here’s my own photo now after all. I think they wanted a bit much for it. Although car radios aren’t really my expertise. Mmm, but no frequencies listed on this. Just the station names for each state. But it was AM only, which is probably to be expected for 1953.
Some of the valves they had there were huge in size. I dunno what they were. Plus what they said was a spotlight, which had a massive light bulb. It was made with brass and stuff too, so I don’t know how old it was.
• I ordered some DVDs for Christmas today — the original Psycho from 1960, and The Poseidon Aventure. Plus One Hour Photo for myself as soon it arrives. I’ve never seen that one, or Psycho. I saw the 1 with Anne Heche though, about 21 years ago.
Wednesday, 8th of November, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (16:13) I got a message from eBay saying you could now also use your finger print as an extra security measure for your account. But who the heck would even own a finger print scanner anyway? About 0.01% of people? Maybe if you were with the police or something. What else would you even use one for? That was really weird. And how the fig would it even work with your web browser anyway?
• Ugh — off to the dentist tomorrow for a filling, clean up and X-ray imaging. Or whatever you want to call it. That’ll be the highlight of the week.
• I’m still waiting on some replacement ear pads for my noise cancelling headphones that I ordered on the 26th of October. Crikey they’re slow getting here. They only have to come from Punchbowl. They must have a snail delivering them. You could walk to Punchbowl and back quicker than this.
• (19:03) All right! Heesey’s got some kind of new mini album out called Paint It Red. It only seems to have 3 tunes. The songs @ YouTube are dated from just 1 month & 5 days ago. I hope there’ll be a MV of one of the good ones. Anyway, check out Paint It Red, HomeTown and Tango De Cero.
Thursday, 9th of November, 2023
Today’s current mood:
•
(18:51) I didn’t do so well @ the dentist’s surgery. He wants me to come back for 3 more 1 hour visits yet, because today’s X-ray imagery showed up areas of decay in a few of my back teeth, including underneath some of my previous fillings. What a bummer. It’s lucky I do clean my teeth so well, & use dental floss, because they could be even worse. So now I need to spend extra time on using the dental floss. I had my 1st injection since I was a kid today too, for the anaesthetic. It wasn’t too bad. My gum’s a bit sore though now. My very 1st filling has to come out as well. It’s one of those amalgam ones with the mercury in it, I think. That’s not the reason though — it’s the decay underneath. So I’ll no doubt be having more injections for all that. That’s not until the 7th, 12th & 19th of December. It’s a bit disheartening when you make all that effort to clean your teeth, and you still end up with problems. But then imagine if I didn’t clean them at all! I’d probably be missing a whole bunch by now. As for the dentist, he didn’t have time to clean my teeth today — my one tooth took nearly an hour for him to fix up.
Wednesday, 15th of November, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (14:15) I’ve been going through more Japanese songs written in Japanese, and boy it’s been dragged out. I can only read some of their letters, so it’s super slow. If you are Japanese, or speak the language fluently, you’d be crying with frustration, watching me doing at one letter at a time, going: Hmm — what’s this one? And looking it up on my chart of Hiragana & Katakana characters. Because it’s written in videos, I can’t select the text. I have to work it out for myself. As for the Kanji letters — forget about it. There are thousands of them, so I have to skip them and piece it together & hope for the best with search results. Anyhoo, I’d better get back to it. Keep an eye on my Music Page for new links if I find anything good. Specifically for this year.
Saturday, 18th of November, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (0:00) Holey moley — look at this DVD of Downton Abbey. It looks like it came out of a muddy pond after a decade of lying there. I knew we had issues with both series 2 & 3 when we got them, but this one’s got even worse. It’s like the plastic is eroding or something. The look & feel is like it was covered in a layer of spray on glue, then sprinkled over with really fine dusty sand. It won’t wipe off; it seems to get worse if you try it with a moist cloth. It’s like moisture has actually broken down the plastic. It must not’ve been finished properly. Or something went wrong with it. As for the squiggley lines, I can only assume this is where dust was protecting it, but it looks like a worm licked it off. I’ve never seen anything like this before. Luckily we got replacement copies some years ago. The other discs in the series also have what look like corrosion from finger prints, almost like they’ve started to grow mould. These are most likely far beyond saving now. All our DVD players had problems reading them when they were new, let alone like this.
This is in focus, by the way. It’s just that the reflection is causing a doubling effect.
Thursday, 30th of November, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (14:31) I got my 4th flags pack done, so do check that out on the Downloads Page. It also tells you what you get. You’ll need Art Of Illusion though to open the files. If you want to see previews, check out the images I uploaded @ DeviantArt.
Sunday, 3rd of December, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (15:22) Yep. Beepin’ Summer now. Sticky, smelly sweat, storms & humidity. Ugh. I know some people love Summer, but you’re barmy.
• One thing I’ve noticed about Windows 7, since I’m using it more now, is that it’s slower sorting files than Windows XP was. When you go to open files in a program, you can see it adding the files in the directory to the dialogue box. In Windows XP, it would come up close to instantly. At least it doesn’t seem to suffer with that random refresh problem now. Files you selected several hours ago seem to remain selected, which is good if you were looking at files by a certain collection of dates. Windows XP would go: “Oh yeah — I need to refresh that.” And you’d be like: “Ah, you pr**k! Where was I up to?!!” Of course that still happens with it in Virtual Box.
• If you haven’t looked already, be sure to check out the Electronic Circuits Page, for how to make a battery out of some old coins. After doing the thing where you could make about ¼ of a volt with your hands on copper coins & some foil, I figured you could replace your hands with vinegar and get a better result. It turns out other people have tried similar methods too, including using lemon juice. You only need about 5 clean copper coins, some aluminium foil, and some thick paper / thin cardboard / bits of towel soaked in salty vinegar, to get a L.E.D. to light up. Just the thing MacGyver could use in a power failure when he’s out of batteries / candles.
• Off to the dentist on Thursday. I need him to fix the tooth he fixed last time. It isn’t quite right. *Sigh.* Why can’t something good be coming up on the agenda instead? Like frolicking about in the nude with some beautiful women.
• (16:42) Apparently Microsoft nagged some users of Windows XP and Windows 7 with messages that they were dropping “support” for those operating systems. Well, this must’ve only applied if you were using Windows Update, as I’ve never seen them ever. As far as my Windows XP & Windows 7 installations are concerned, they both “know” nothing of any later editions of Windows existing. I don’t think Apple ever used these tactics. Then again, I never used automatic updates on my Macs either. I downloaded what updates I wanted, and I can just add them if I need to re-install Mac OS X. That’s the best way to do it. You don’t have to wait for anything to transfer from the Internet, and you don’t run the risk of Apple pulling the plug on hosting the files.
• (21:07) From what I was reading, the NHK extortionists in Japan sound even worse than the British ones. There’s actually a political party in Japan that aims to protect people from NHK, so that proves that there are decent people with common sense over there. I wonder what their excuse is for not encrypting stuff. And like the Brits, they seem to want money for non-TV products too, like computers. That really is just bull-$#!+, and stepping way over the line. It’s evidence of greed, trying to rob people from stuff they should have no right to do. But these bent laws that these companies abuse & hide behind lets this behaviour continue, rather than saying: “Well, there may be this law, but we won’t treat people like this, just because it exists.”
In terms of computers, it’s probably even easier to make an account based service for Internet provided content. That’s the sensible solution.
Monday, 4th of December, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (23:27) I was reading that people from China were aiming to get a magnetically levitating train up to 1 megametre per hour by using some kind of evacuated tubes. As in a vacuum. That should give the airlines a run for their money for local travel. Yeah, and apparently without the vacuum, the trains could still reach over 600 km per hour. That one in Japan that goes about that speed is just nuts fast. I saw a bit of a dodgy video of it, but the gist of it could be understood. It’s not quite as quiet as I would’ve thought. It still makes a bit of sound, despite not having any motors. There’s supposed to be a huge railway project to link some part of China with Moscow in Russia. Whether they’ll negotiate with the Kazakhs to go through there, or use that gap between there and Mongolia, I have no idea. There’s supposed to be some tunnel between Denmark & Germany being done too. My Dad’s into all this train related stuff. If you’ve read any of the Australian railway related magazines, you’ll probably spot his name somewhere.
Tuesday, 5th of December, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (0:02) Today’s joke for your amusement:
How does a vulcanologist find their way ’round @ night time?
With a lava lamp.
• (14:02) I remember spending an age looking for recording locations from shows in England, like that Normansfield Theatre, Shrub’s Wood in Buckinghamshire, and also the folly at Fawley Court, also in Buckinghamshire, but now I’m trying to track down this place that keeps coming up in Japanese music videos. It’s this location for indoor / outdoor use. It’s got this fake shop that stands out, with a sign that says: “American Gluting (?) Bar: EUDAEMONISM.” Whatever that’s supposed to mean. There’s also a beige looking Citroen 2CV car there. i
Ris had it in Heart Beat Kyūjōshō, it was just in Heart Diamond by Super*Girls (on the 25th of November), Chou Very Good! used it for Congrazie!, Say-La were there for Seishun Igunoransu, and I’ve seen it come up in other videos too. Write in and tell me if you know where it is. I’m going to try to track it down myself, anyway. I’d still be interested to know that white building with the British stuff inside is, that’s in Korea, too.
Saturday, 9th of December, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (22:00) Phwoar! It was a bit of a hot one today. Not the worst ever, but still more than I’d like. My new PC’s certainly running cooler than my poor old 2006 one. The CPU only got up to about 50°C, and the fan was only running a bit over 1000 R.P.M. The other one got up to about 90°C, or more, in the Summer, with fan speeds close to 6000 R.P.M. It was almost always like that. The AMD Athlon 64 sure was a tough CPU to survive it though. I should’ve written some kind of eulogy for that computer, after all the stuff it achieved for me.
• Well, it’s only 2 weeks & 2 days until Christmas. Where’s the year buzzed off to? It only seems like the other day that the tree got put away.
• I watched Kill Stalin the other night. Well, over 3 nights anyway. That was pretty good too. There are only 8 episodes, which run for about 51 minutes each. Here’s a link to the 1st episode @ YouTube, if you fancy it. It’s based on real events, and it has subtitles, luckily.
• I had another tooth fixed at the dentist on Thursday. That was the one behind the previous 1, so the gap that was there is now closed up more. I got another anaesthetic injection, and boy — my mouth felt so weird later one. Like I had a big blob of plastic jelly in it.
Monday, 11th of December, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (12:08) I was sorting through stuff on my new PC that I don’t need last night, and came across this whopping big file that was over 800 MB, for Adobe Acrobat Reader. Well, it was nothing to do with the version I have installed, because it only takes up 25.1 MB normally. So it must’ve been from the person that installed the operating system. Plus it was under C:\Program Files\Common Files\ anyway. So that hit the bin super fast. Then I installed some other programs I was in 2 minds about, since I got more than double the space back that was required for it. So it pays to look around your drive for excess stuff.
Wednesday, 13th of December, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (12:20) Next month, I’m going to have a review of the Corel Draw Graphics Suite 11, which is around 21 years old. It’s hard to believe! I do a lot of comparisons with version 8, and speak about why parts of that are still better. In the meantime, check out my current software review.
Monday, 18th of December, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (21:59) I wonder how many operating systems the average computer owner has installed. I was making a count of my collection just then. I’ve got about 7 copies of Windows (Windows 3.11, Windows ’95, Windows 2000, Windows XP × 2, Windows 7 × 2), React OS, 4 copies of Mac OS X, System 6, Mac OS 9, & Tiny Core Linux. So that’s a lot! Quite a few are in virtual machine status though. Windows 3.11 is in a state of “suspension” though until I re-install DOSBox. That’ll be Free DOS then too. I kind of feel like finding some cool, older programs to run for a bit.
Wednesday, 20th of December, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (13:41) I was just looking for another file searching program for Windows. Boy, some of them are an absolute joke. I got one called MultiFind, which I’m going to use, and see how that goes. XSearch is okay, but it has issues with opening files in some strange manner that some programs don’t understand. And neither do I really! Plus you couldn’t use the normal file context menu to send files to specific programs. But other than that, it was okay. MultiFind seems to run as far back as Windows 2000 as well, so I could even put it on my HP laptop PC. But the search feature in Windows 2000 is pretty good. I mainly needed something new for Windows 7, because its built-in thing is just ridiculously cr*p. How they stuffed that up since Windows XP, I have no idea. I disabled that on my Start Menu from day 1. Now, I’ve put MultiFind on there instead, since Classic Shell lets you modify it pretty easily.
• It’s quite cool today. About 13°C. So that’s better than the 30+°C temperature of yesterday. I dunno how hot it’ll be on Christmas Day. Never mind all this foreign bollocks with snow. Not at this time of year! It’ll only be cool if the air conditioner’s making it so. We probably won’t have any hot food, apart from a bread roll in the oven. It’ll be cold chicken, ham, cheese, and salads. I’ll be off to Harris Farm Markets tomorrow, to get more supplies.
Thursday, 21st of December, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (15:04) I had a good trip to Harris Farm today, and got to see all the interesting goodies they had for sale. I got some different coconut & something ice cream things, some chips I haven’t tried and other stuff for Christmas.
• In computer news, I decided to disable the error reporting on my new PC in Windows 7, ’cos like Windows XP, it never seems to provide you with any help, and Microsoft aren’t going to provide any more fixes for Windows 7 anyway. Then chances are, if they did, I probably wouldn’t install them. Since 2006, I think the only feedback I ever got, was when GetRight crashed once, and they just said: Get a new version. Yeah, really beneficial. Plus for just about every program crash I’ve had on this computer, it just says: Response: Not available. So f**k that for a joke. I think the error reporting service needs reporting too!
MultiFind is going pretty well, although I did find a bug with it. If you delete its list of files not to search through, they just come straight back again the next time you load it. But you can figure out how to remove them manually from one of its configuration files, or just turn that option off. As for turning things off, I still haven’t worked out how you completely disable the built-in search feature (of Windows 7), or change it, because when you bump F3 from the task bar or at the desktop screen, it still comes up. It’s the stupidest broken thing I’ve ever seen. I just tried it then to look for files called “Belle”, and it’s like Spotlight on Mac OS X. There’s no option to choose where to search, by what date or anything. And what does it do?! It loaded Pale Moon, which tried to open the address of: “http://www.belle.com/” LOL! What the f**king hell?! Seriously; what the fudge did they do to it? How does searching for a file open up some web site address? It’s not even a proper search program. It’s like a tacked on after thought to the Explorer file manager. Why didn’t they keep the one from Windows XP ever? It wasn’t perfect, but at least it worked most of the time. I really don’t get how Microsoft didn’t check all these things from a usability perspective.
Friday, 22nd of December, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (14:01) The file search feature in Windows 7 is disabled from the “Programs & Features” section of the Control Panel, under Turn Windows Features On / Off. As for how you specify a different program to handle the F3 key “shortcut,” I’m not sure. It says to do it with the default programs thing, but I can’t figure out how.
Sunday, 24th of December, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (12:25) Ooo~ooh! Christmas Day tomorrow! Wow, it’s come around fast. If I was a little kid, I’d be getting up at 7:00 in the morning, eager to get to the presents under the tree. But I think it’ll be more like 10:00 tomorrow, if we’re lucky.
Anyway, as usual, I won’t be doing anything on the Internet, since I ban myself from that. So I’ll say to have a good day now.
Tuesday, 26th of December, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (12:20) Yesterday was a bit of a mixed bag. It started out all right, but being Summer, we got another huge storm that went for about 3 hours or more, so I didn’t get to watch my new DVDs until later. Then The Poseidon Adventure turned out to be in NTSC instead of PAL, but it was okay, since I was watching it on my computer. Why they released dozens of shows in a foreign format in Australia, I’ll never know. Anyway, I went on to Psycho after that, but it was too late to watch it all.
The Kingston flash memory units I got have been a real disappointment. They’re as slow as f**k, and they’re supposed to be for USB 3.2 speed. They can’t even do USB 2 speeds! I completely formatted one of them yesterday, and it took close to 3 hours! This was in the hopes of improving the transfer speed. But nup. A big fat, waste of time. I’m not even getting 8 MB per second on one of them. USB 2 should be able to do around 60 MB per second, and USB 3 should be much faster. (Both my main PC & 2018 one can work with USB 3 speed devices.) I should’ve got another portable hard drive instead. And stupid Microsoft think these can be used for that Ready Boost nonsense?! When this came out for Windows Vista, there was no USB 3. And when has a flash memory unit from back then been able to out perform an internally connected hard drive? Never. Even parallel connecting hard drives can probably maintain a faster data transfer rate. Anyway, that’s irrelevant. So I asked the seller at eBay if they can claim from Kingston, and perhaps get me a refund. Although I did add some stickers to indicate the formatted size and contents, but I don’t think that’ll be an issue when it’a faulty manufacturing. Oh yeah — that’s another thing: These were supposed to be 64 GB each. Now I know they always con you out of space, but these didn’t even add up to 64 000 000 000 bytes. It was closer to 61 000 000 000. What a rip-off. They were only 57.8 GB formatted. (64 real GB = 68 719 476 736 bytes.) Plus they initially had an extra 100 MB of unallocated space! What was with that ever? Another thing I didn’t realise, was how Windows 7 wanted you to use a command prompt to partition them. I thought they would’ve dumped those methods years ago. In the end, I used my MacBook to erase and repartition them, then my main PC to format them with the NTFS. (They came formatted as FAT32, which I didn’t think was possible for that size, but because I had to store files beyond 4 GB in size, I had to use a different file system.) I thought they might have internal L.E.D.s as well, since they have transparent plastic ends, but nope! No indication of activity at all.
Friday, 29th of December, 2023
Today’s current mood:
• (12:49) Not much of the year left now! I had to go to the dentist again yesterday, unexpectedly. I was getting pain in one of my recently filled teeth. It just seemed to be a bit high, so the doc’ fixed it up, and now it should be good.
• I got a reply from the eBay seller of those flash memory units, but they said I need to contact Kingston. So I did that, but I haven’t heard back from them just yet. Hopefully they’ll say something like: We’re sorry our product has not given you the performance you expected. Please send your flash memory doodads to such & such an address, and specify if you would like them exchanged or refunded.
Actually, I think the warranty thing says they’ll only refund you when the problems can’t be resolved with replacement products. There’s nothing on the packaging suggesting: This product may suck. It says USB 3.2, so that means it should perform above the previous level. Plus it says that it works with 4 operating systems on the back, including a really old revision of Mac OS X, which probably wouldn’t have USB 3 on the computers it ran on anyway. Although that’s mostly irrelevant, since the speed’s determined by your own computer’s USB. It’s probably more to do with the file system they chose. Anyway, that’s not really a problem, because I’m not having issues with other USB 3 drives. My hard drive caddy for instance, is transferring just above USB 2 speeds. I was getting about 64 MB per second. That might be the limit of the drive I chose to put in there though. Yeah, I thought I was going to see something like 100+ MB per second, but I’m only getting around 7 MB per second. So that’s too slow when you need to transfer 30 GB, or more, of stuff in 1 hit. That would take something like 1 hour & 13 minutes.
• There’s a really annoying bug in Windows 7 that I’m sure will p!$$ me off for years to come. And other people have had this trouble too. For some reason, file lists sometimes truncate file names with a bunch of dots! What the f**k, Microsoft?! How are we supposed to read the file names, if they don’t show the entire thing? This didn’t happen in Windows XP. So now I’ve had to put in blank files with long names, like: WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.txt, to try and keep the longer file names shown. Freakin’ heck. Users having to come up with these kludges is not a good sign of a well thought out O.S. Especially when the problem didn’t exist previously. Anyway, this is my last Microsoft operating system now. If I can’t proceed with Windows 7 on my next, future PC, it’s on to something else. Although I’m not very enthusiastic about Linux these days either.
• Speaking of bugs, something’s gone kooky with the money in Oblivion. I reckon it’s to do with getting into really high values, because it started to act up when I got around 16 000 000 gold pieces. I’m a master of the mercantile skill now, which means I get full value for items that I sell. But now, when I’m selling, I’ve noticed that sometimes the value doesn’t quite add up. Especially on items which can’t be divided evenly by 10. And sometimes for those as well. It might fall 2 Septims short, or you might get extra. So something isn’t as accurate as it should be. In fact, it isn’t just with trading. Last night I got some gold from a chest, and it came out wrong again with the amount I picked up. Maybe you could do a plug-in to allow you to drop off a portion of your money in a chest, and that might cure it, by bringing the amount you carry, down to a lower level. If that’s where the issue lies. You can’t drop gold in Oblivion, like you could in Morrowind, so you’d have to have a script on something to add gold from you, to a container. But then you’d have to have a menu to let you choose how much. Also, I don’t know if there’s a limit on how much you can transfer at once. In Morrowind, transferring something like 32 000 gold pieces in the one hit, caused problems. You had to have scripts break it into separate groups. I saw this with that Mournhold Clock Maker plug-in.
Monday, 1st of January, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (23:19) Happy new year. I may still have more tunes for my 2023 page of music videos, since there’s bound to be a bit of overlapping with finding out songs I didn’t know about from the end of last year.
• Something’s up with Lavabit at the moment too. I’m not getting any e-mail. It’s like the start of this year triggered some change, or fig up. Anyway, I haven’t heard back from Kingston yet. Everyone’s probably having a break.
• (23:31) Oh yeah — I said about snow on the 20th of December — well it hailed on Christmas Day. I said it was because of: Hail to the new born King. Yeah, and it’s been quite cool the last couple of days.
• R.I.P. to Tom Wilkinson too.
Thursday, 4th of January, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (16:34) I’ve been going through more Japanese tunes pretty much all day today. I’ve got one here: Otonarisan by Team Shachi — it sounds almost identical to Hapichoco from Fruits Zipper. If that isn’t the same composer, I’ll turn gay for a month. The person who wrote it was probably knackered one night, sat on the loo with their to do list, and said: Aaaack! I’ve got to write another song for Team Shachi in 2 days time! Eh — let’s just recycle something from earlier in the year. Nobody will ever know. As for my 2024 page of favourite tunes, nothing good’s come along yet.
I’ll be adding another song to the 2022 page in a jiffy anyway.
Wednesday, 10th of January, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (13:23) I finally got a reply from Kingston. It came from Taiwan, so maybe the Aussie & New Zealand division’s gone. Anyway, I’m starting to wonder if they even got my 1st 2 messages from Lavabit, because as soon as I changed to my I.I.G. hosted e-mail, which is connected to my web site here, I got a response. Then I sent myself a message to my Lavabit account, and it didn’t turn up. So that’s a bit fishy. Anyway, I think the dude who replied to me, wanted to make sure I had USB 3 capable hardware, because he asked if I could take a photo of my PC’s USB, and for a serial number! Well it doesn’t really say on the case, and as for any serial numbers, I can hardly open the thing up to look for them. That was a bit of an odd request. I just told him what model of motherboard I have on my main computer. But both this one and my one from 2018 have USB 3 capability, and there’s even extra software installed specially for it. In any case, the flash memory units weren’t even hitting the top end of USB 2 speeds, and the guy agreed that 3 hours to format one was a bit too long. As I think I said the other day, I tried that to see if it would improve the speed if they were fully formatted first, but it didn’t. The USB 2 speeds off my SD card reader were faster than these supposed USB 3 flash memory things as well. I was getting about 19 MB per second, vs about 7. If I’m backing up 30 GB of stuff, I’m going to need it done faster than like 1½ hours, or whatever Windows 7 reckoned it would take. Even if it was 50 MB per second, which is just under the top of USB 2 speeds, it would only take just over 10 minutes to transfer that much data, and my hard drives can certainly keep up with that rate.
Thursday, 11th of January, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (13:26) I got another reply from Kingston, and they gave me a number to send to the eBay seller to request some kind of return. Hopefully they can deal with that. The chap I got messages from seemed to be a bit confused. He seemed to incorrectly refer to the flash memory units as “the USB,” but that’s the bus that the ports use on the computer! So I dunno what he was thinking there. And then he seemed to think I was suggesting that some part of my PCs’ USBs were slower, when I didn’t. Fig knows. Although his English was pretty good, since he was from Taiwan. Now I just need to wait for a response from the seller. The way things are going, the warranty will run out before I get anywhere.
Friday, 12th of January, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (14:18) I was 100% correct about Otonarisan by Team Shachi. It was written by Sho Yamamoto, who did Hapichoco / Happy Chocolate from Fruits Zipper. It doesn’t look like I’ll have to turn gay for a month now! I picked it like a dirty nose. Some composers just have that signature use of notes that you can tell without reading that it was them. Although I have heard some instances of songs that are similar, & yet are by completely different people.
You really need groups who mostly use the same composer, because otherwise they seem inconsistent, and you only end up liking 1 song from them then.
• (14:49) At the Dummies web site, they said: The Windows 7 search feature is a wonder compared to its predecessors. *Snort!* LOL! You’re pulling my plonker there! More like it’s a wonder anybody used it. Or, it’s a head scratching wonder, because you can’t figure it out. I still have no solution for specifying a new search program as the default for Windows 7, when you press F3 from places that have focus, like the Task Bar, or desktop area. Maybe there isn’t one.
• (21:59) I’ve been busting my knob off, trying to find that location I’ve seen in a bunch of Japanese music videos. The joint I mentioned on the 5th of December. Wherever it is, it’s not easy to find. I did however find the Aviral Resort Studio, which was used in some other MVs. It was interesting to see the rental prices. Probably an average of around $200 to $300 per hour, depending on the location. (¥100 is about 95¢ in Aussie money.)
Saturday, 13th of January, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (15:15) Huzzah! I FINALLY tracked down that place in Japan that’s been used for at least ½ a dozen MVs that I’ve seen. It’s called Wedding Fantasia, in the Shizuoka Prefecture. I’d have to look that up though, where that is. Phwoar! What a day of trying to hunt that down. I’ve seen so many studios and rental properties. In the end, I found it by the name of that shop in the place, that says “Eudaemonism.” I typed that in for like a studio and a picture came up of it. Alleluia! Thanks to nobody else’s efforts. You can all thank me now for finding it, if you like Japanese music videos and had no clue. Now I need to find the place with the indoor race track, I think it is, (in Japan,) and that white building in Korea.
• (18:08) Another location found! Daikeien — the place with the go-carts. I think it’s in the Chiba prefecture. This was in Miryoku To Wa? by Girlfriend, to name one song. But I didn’t really fancy this tune. So if it crops up again in anything I like, I’ll mention it on the appropriate music videos page.
Sunday, 14th of January, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (0:04) I’m onto South Korean places now. I found 1 that I knew from a couple of MVs, including one by Minseo. I haven’t found that white joint though, with the arches & the British stuff inside. Maybe it’s a wedding hire place, rather than a studio.
Monday, 15th of January, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (14:18) I found pictures of the place that Paradise used for Fate, but not the name of it. It’s some rental hall. I wasn’t even looking for that one specifically. Aaaaah! This is really frustrating trying to track down places only by what they look like. Especially in a different language. You’d think it would just show up, because I’ve seen it numerous times. Busters used it twice for their 1st 2 MVs, Laboum were there, and somebody else I’ve forgotten. APink was it? Hmm. I dunno.
I got the location of those pillars, from BLACKPINK’s video for As If It’s Your Last. It was at some university. I mentioned it on the 2017 MVs page.
Sunday, 21st of January, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (21:58) I FINALLY found that white hall in Korea. The one that was in Busters’ MVs, and that one from Laboum. It’s the Namsan Art Wedding Hall. Thank fig! Plus, I also found another popular place in Japan! It’s this outdoor joint with a white roof with square holes in it. Well, it’s the Plaza Of Kanagawa Institute Of Technology. It’s come up in so many MVs now. Phwoar! What a lot of searching. And it finally paid off. So that’s about all the areas I’ve been looking for, tracked down.
Tuesday, 23rd of January, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (12:45) I’ve added a section of locations to the Music Page of places that have cropped up a few times in various music videos. I’ll be expanding this over time, as I find out what locations are called, and if new MVs use them. If you know any of the locations I don’t have listed, for music videos I do have listed, please let me know.
• (18:44) If a binary digit is a bit, then a “trinary” digit would be a tit!
Friday, 26th of January, 2024
Australia Day
Today’s current mood:
• (12:45) Oh yeah — I got a refund for those 2 flash memory units, so thank you, Clicking Trend at eBay, for your professional handling of this issue. That was a few days back anyway. I’m not sure what route I want to take from now, regarding backing up my virtual machine files.
• I kind of feel like designing another flag for today, being Australia Day & all. I might go and have a fiddle and see what I can come up with, and if I feel like it, I’ll show it here.
• (16:39) All right; how about this design for a flag? Although I’m not 100% sure about the kangaroo, yet I felt it was an important symbol of the nation to include it. I think the large star should have 8 points instead of 7, because we have 8 main states and territories. Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. The Southern Cross should stay, because it’s part of the night sky from here. The background blue should be more vibrant as well, like our sky, and of course it needs the green and gold. In this case, it serves a 2nd purpose — to represent the beautiful coastlines, with the land and then the beach. The light blue at the bottom is the sea. I think our surrounding ocean water and that, is another iconic feature. I don’t think the flag should be too complex. Some flags do have a lot of detail, and yet others are exceptionally simple. Send in your thoughts! Lose the kangaroo? Change the positions? Change the size of stuff? Let me know. Would you have this on a flag pole to represent this country? And lastly, who would you submit the idea to?
• (19:17) Here’s another flad idea I had. I like these colours, so I’m sticking with them. They have to have some resemblence to the country anyway. Perhaps in this one, we can have the kangaroo on the reddish, iron rich dirt that’s seen so much in the country. Although, maybe it is a bit like QANTAS. There really are so many possibilities, and I’m sure everybody has their own idea. I tried some other concepts too, but they didn’t really look quite right. It’s got to be sensible looking.
Friday, 2nd of February, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (19:57) I reckon a clock with magenta L.E.D.s would be pretty nifty looking. I don’t know if they make 7 segment displays in that colour though. But I’ll bet you can get rectangle L.E.D.s in that colour, to make your own “8 shape.”
• (20:02) I did an image search, and only really found 7 segment displays with RGB type L.E.D.s., but not any specific magenta ones. You can get magenta rectangle L.E.D.s though, like I figured. I’d probably want extra wide ones for the likes of a clock. Ah well — I have other things to do with my money before I try to make my own clock. Getting the special integrated circuit is a bit awkward too — especially if you want 24 hour time. I’d have to find the correct type and then track it down.
• (20:44) Oh yeah! Check out this video of a Manning-Bowman heater from over in Canada / America / somewhere on that continent. It’s got a magenta element! What the heck is it?! I’ve never seen anything like that before. It looks really good anyway. I think it’s from 1960-something. I saw it 3 days ago.
Sunday, 4th of February, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (14:10) I did another edge lit bit of perspex with a design of flowers on it today & yesterday. It’s okay, I guess, for hand etching, but I think for a really professional end result you need a LASER etcher. Those things are over $300 though for a good one, so you’d want to be doing a LOT of those kinds of signs, or selling like 10 of them, or more for $30 each to get your money back. And that would be just for the perspex without the L.E.D.s and power supply.fsfs Ah. f**king Dreamweaver. You press Alt + F, then S to save, and sometimes it doesn't respond to the Alt key. Anyway, it took me an age to hand etch the little dots, and some of them are a bit inconsistent. I saw some American dude in a video, who had a label with pieces cut out, and he sand blasted it instead, which is an interesting alternative. Cutting the paper accurately though would be a problem for me, and I don’t have a sand blaster either. I’ve got 3 Sound Blasters, but they won’t work! For me, doing the L.E.D.s and power supply is the really easy part.
• (20:02) Some time this year I’d like to get my inverted chaser circuit done. To the left is the goal of how it should look. I’m going to use “warm” white L.E.D.s, which are slightly golden, I guess. I’ll only need weak ones for this too, and I bet I’ll still be darkening them up with some higher resistor values than usual. This will have 36 L.E.D.s on simultaneously, which might take 200 mA. I dunno. It depends on how much current I limit with the resistors. I may need 1 watt resistors to handle 12 L.E.D.s on each channel. I’ll have to work it out. I want this to be about the size of an A4 piece of paper, so I’m thinking I’ll probably go with those polarised header socket things. Those KF2510-2P type ones. But I might need to buy more from China. I’ll have to count how many I have. I’d like a big black box to put this in, ideally, but it depends on what I can get. I may just need to settle on some black perspex, or something similar. Firstly I want to get some 4001 I.C.s to test if this will work as expected. The circuit board only needs to be pretty small, but I’ll need to get a few more prototype ones from Phipps (on eBay). They’d probably have the LEDs too, but I’ll shop around for them. You can sometimes get better prices elsewhere. Maybe that place I got my ice blue & turquoise ones. Um… SM Components. I’m also going to use a 4PDT switch as a sensible and effective way of changing the chase direction. That will just connect between the 4001 and ULN2803APG I.C.s. It does only use half of one of them though. I want to get a full size variable resistor and knob as well, for the speed.
Anyway, that might be some time off.
Monday, 5th of February, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (12:49) Whatever happened to the Windows Picture & Fax Viewer in Windows 7? All those extra functions you got in the Windows XP one have gone out the window. Although now, it’s just called Windows Photo Viewer. Some people might’ve missed all the bonus features, especially for TIFF files. (That’s Windows XP at the top & Windows 7 at the bottom.) The Windows 7 one looks nicer with those fancy central buttons though, but you can’t save as a different image type this time, pictures are no longer smoothed out when you zoom in, and it doesn’t play animated GIF files any more either! That’s a bit of a diddle. You’d think that’d be something to add new features to, not get rid of them, when you get a newer version of something. I don’t see why they couldn’t have just used the previous program again, and made it look nicer.
Sunday, 11th of February, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (19:07) I’ve been getting set up to record some video action from Oblivion this afternoon. I thought that Rhythmyx mixer I have would work for the microphone, but you can only use 2 microphones or have everything in mono. So that’s a bit cr*p. I tried connecting my microphone to my 2018 PC, but those weird Realtek sound processor things seem to want a stereo input for 2 microphones as well! You only get the left channel otherwise. F**k! It was never like this on the Sound Blasters. Plus there seemed to be a delay in the sound coming through. So that’s a bit iffy. So I’m going to use my Sharp audio system again to mix the 2 lots of audio, which is a bit dodgy at times. At least it has a microphone volume control. Then I have my Gefen scaler thing doing the output from my video card, and then this’ll be captured with my Canopus ADVC-110 as usual, and that plugs into my MacBook. I’ll have my headphones plugged into that too, to hear what’s happening. Although there is a slight delay from the Canopus doodad, due to how it does stuff. I can see why some people use special software to capture game videos. Anyway, I have all this expensive equipment, so I should use it.
Thursday, 22nd of February, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (22:11) Somebody else on the web was asking about whose videos to watch for new Japanese songs. I think I mentioned this before, but at the moment, the best ones I look at from YouTube, are SK4, Akuma Musiik & Relatives Of Del Potro. SK4’s ones are usually pretty short, with a more limited selection. Akuma Musiik does ones at the end of each month, and sometimes has up to 3 of them with their favourite selection, but that said, it’s usually a wide variety. R.O.D.P. does the broadest range, and covers most new releases every Tuesday in chronological order. The only thing is, you’ll need to be able to read a bit of Japanese, or know how to translate it. There’s also RiceCake, whose stuff I haven’t seen for a while, (but they seem to mostly do top 50 charts,) and Japan News Network, but I think they quit doing them. POPNABLE is also worth checking for new songs worldwide, but they only have small percentage from each country. Parents be aware that any of these may contain offensive content, so just take note of that too, if you have young kids watching stuff.
• Here are some sites for translations and conversions also, if you’re interested: This Romaji Converter will put most Japanese text into the Latin alphabet. There’s also this one, which will do Katakana specifically. If you want to translate text, check out this site. If you want to convert Rōmaji (Romanised Japanese words) to Hiragana & Katakana, this is another joint you can try out. It seems to have issues with multiple words though, so you may need to manually add + symbols between the words in the address area of your web browser.
• If you want to go back in time, check out The DX’s line up of the most popular Japanese songs of the 1980s. (January 1980 to December 1989.) This was a bit of an eye opener, and something I never thought I’d see. Take note of how much more mature the women singers’ voices are compared to the more girlie ones these days.
Friday, 23rd of February, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (19:33) If you want to buy more local products, or if you’re from overseas and feel like supporting us Aussies, check out Wallaby Batteries. I spotted these on eBay this evening. (Just so you know, I’m not being paid to mention these.) They might be worth a burl. There are also Nickel Metal Hydride rechargeable ones. Although I didn’t spot any of these beyond AA & AAA size.
After those leaking Energiser ones I had, and some of the steep prices at Coles, I thought I’d see what other options there were. I didn’t see any of those Chinese East Power brand ones on eBay. I’d probably go for the Australian rechargeable AA ones though next time, as I already have a charger for these.
Thursday, 7th of March, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (22:53) I ordered Toy Story 4 on eBay last week on Wednesday, and I don’t know if the seller’s dead, their computer conked out, or some other disaster happened, because it still hasn’t been posted, nor have they answered my message I sent. So I may have to tell eBay that it hasn’t arrived, or cancel the order, or something, if too much time elapses. I’m in the dark on this one.
• I FINALLY found a Japanese MV I was looking for last month, and yeah… it was cr*p! So, so much for that. Typical! I’ve been catching up today, because I’ve been busy with more important things.
• (23:46) I was looking up the prices of mobile ’phones per month, just out of morbid curiosity. Some of them are over $20 per month! F**k off out of it! Thank goodness I don’t have 1. There were some other deals from some shops with some minimum costs of about $828 a year! Crack my gob! You could get a computer for less than that. I should have shares in Apple & Samsung. It makes me wonder how much money I could save if I became my own ISP, but I’m not sure what risks are involved in doing that. I read that you can do that somehow. The problems with running your own server for your web site, are power failures and storms. If a lightning strike takes it out, you’re going to be down a lot of money to get another one, so in that way, I think renting space from a company is the better option. At least for me.
Saturday, 9th of March, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (13:01) Still nothing about my Toy Story 4 order. This seller better be sick or dead. (Like that bit in The Shawshank Redemption.) Or waiting on a new computer, because if they’re just lazy and disorganised, then that’s not going to cut it. Then this morning, I get a message from eBay asking me to leave feedback for them! Well they haven’t done anything. I hope they nagged them too, to send the thing. If nothing happens by Tuesday, I’m going to say it hasn’t turned up. This is really trying my patience at the moment.
• The change to my Software Review Of The Moment page has occurred. It’s back to Corel DRAW 8 this month.
• (13:58) Another thing that’s got a bit more cr*p in Windows 7, since Windows XP, is the disk defragmenter. It used to show you a visual representation of where the fragmented areas of the drive were, unmovable files and blank space, but now there isn’t anything like that. Back in the original Windows line, with Windows ’95, you used to see every… uh… block, or whatever they were called.
• What the fudge?! I just found porn related stuff on my computer to do with the getting started with Windows 7 thing. What the heck?! What did the installer have happening on here last year?! I’d better check this out and make sure there isn’t anything weird lurking on my drive.
• (14:41) I found some other suspicious files and a registry entry too, so I hope I haven’t picked up some kind of malware somehow. $#!+ — the Start button’s stopped functioning now. What the fig is going on?
Sunday, 10th of March, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (20:04) I re-installed RollerCoaster Tycoon today. Has it really been 14 years since I last played that? I couldn’t find any newer files to suggest otherwise, unless some are on my previous main PC’s primary hard drive, which is now in my other 2018 computer. Anyway, it runs okay under Windows 7. You just need to install the Windows XP patch, set it to run in 256 colours, and it’s mostly good. Apart from the introduction bit that slides up. Sometimes it’s in weird colouring. The graphics tear a bit, but not too badly. I don’t remember if it did that before. I copied over all my old save games, so I could quickly complete each park. I did saves on the last day of the goal, and that way you could complete the stages quickly. There is some other tricky way to copy over your old completed files too, but I’d have to look it up on some other web site. I thought it was 1999 that the game was done, but all the files say they’re from the 15th of January, 2000.
It probably is better to be running it on a multi-core CPU as well, because it will hog all the free oomph on a single core one. So my Intel Core i3 CPU just goes up to 25% usage.
• I got my XBOX 360 control pad installed in Windows XP in VirtualBox, so that worked better than back in about 2007-ish when I tried that on my MacBook. The one good thing about Windows 7 is that you don’t need extra software to install that pad, because the O.S. is newer than the console.
Wednesday, 20th of March, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (22:39) I never heard back about Toy Story 4, and eBay just refunded my money, since there was never a response from the seller. So I ordered another copy, and that turned up today. It was really good, and the graphics were amazing! It’s hard to imagine that they could improve much on the earlier shows, but they did. It was a bit emotional in places, and the ending was rather unexpected, making me wonder if Woody really made the right choice. As for the DVD, I had some issues with it. Toy Story 3 seemed to have these mild stutters, and #4 was worse. It seems to be something odd about how Disney did them, because I have no other DVDs with these issues on my usual DVD programs. PowerDVD “froze” at one point, it was so bad. 2 versions of VLC (on 2 different PCs) were skipping even more, and Light Alloy had trouble too, making the audio skip rather than the video. It did however play properly on my XBOX 360 & Apple’s DVD Player on my iMac G5. I’m not sure if it’s worth it to track down another DVD player program just for a couple of shows. A bit of a disappointment though. It says on the box that it may not be compatible with all systems. You’d think all shows would stick to the DVD specifications so this wouldn’t happen. I also tried doing a backup copy and running it from the hard drive, and it made no difference. It’s something about how the video’s encoded / compressed. But yep — only Disney DVDs seem to do this. Some more than others.
I also watched The Light Between Oceans again — or The LBO for short. That’s how Michael Fassbender & Alicia Vikander got together. Or as I said, if the lighthouse went out: At least you’ve a candle. There were absolutely no issues playing that one. It ran perfectly.
Thursday, 21st of March, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (13:03) M. Emmet Walsh sadly died on the 19th. I remember him from Frasier & My Best Friend’s Wedding mostly. He missed his 89th birthday by just 3 days. I also saw him in A Time To Kill, which we watched in high school, Early Edition, Home Improvement & Wild Wild West.
Sunday, 24th of March, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (14:52) If you haven’t noticed on the main page, I’m offering my copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga for the Sega Saturn. I want to try to sell it privately, rather than on eBay, because it’s worth more than the $500 limit they have for 1st time sellers. Due to the prices being asked for it now, of over $1000, I’m willing to do better, and offer it to anybody who’s interested, for $825. But I will put this up in time, as eBay prices rise. I’m not joking — people are asking for close to $1500 for this now! This is a rare title for collectors, and those of you who’d like to experience one of the best RPGs for the Saturn. I’ve owned this copy since 1998, so it’s only had me as the owner. See the new page for details.
Monday, 25th of March, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (23:31) Come on, rich Sega collectors — get off ya bums and buy my copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga. You could be saving over $600!
• I’m in a Toy Story mood of recent days. I just did a rendition of Forky in Art Of Illusion. Well, it actually took all day. I’m not too good with 3D characters, and cutlery’s an awkward shape. It looks a bit like him. There are some tutorials to make your own Forky. I’d have to buy a bunch of arty farty supplies though. And then I’d probably have a bunch left over. I want to get a Jessie action figure. One of the really good ones. There’s the signature collection from 2010, but those ones are worth a lot now. Like several hundred dollars. There are some newer ones too though. I’d probably go up to $100 or so. They’ve got pull strings & everything, but electronic components for the speech. There’s a great looking Bo Peep as well, with the lamp and the Toy Story 4 style sheep. I must be turning into a girl. Maybe it’s because I want to look at girls and not men. LOL. I want to get the Toy Story 2 sound track CD as well, and the Toy Story Of Terror DVD. Hee hee — so buy my video game, so I can get some new toys and stuff.
Friday, 29th of March, 2024
Good Friday
Today’s current mood:
• (19:24) I’ve been reading up about selling stuff on eBay, which has been really tiring. Some people were getting in a flap about providing a password for their bank accounts, for eBay to access as a kind of verification for new sellers, but that is only 1 of 3 choices you have. The one I’ll pick is to provide a picture of a bank statement. Besides, I don’t do any banking on the ’net, so I don’t have a password to give. It’s a bit odd though that eBay doesn’t let you set up payment options prior to listing your 1st item for sale. That would make things a bit easier. I’m going to try selling one of my fountain pens 1st, and see how that goes. I think the whole eBay selling thing is aimed more at people who wanted to do it on a constant basis, rather than now & then, like me. So this mightn’t work out in the long run. If I was a multi-millionaire, I wouldn’t bother with it at all.
Some of the terms they use over there I’ve never heard of. Some service called Sendle — never heard of it. Something about funging, or fudging, or fungus — what the fig was that about? And some other kind of computer I didn’t know about, and this thing called “metrics”, or something. Is that opposite to imperials? LOL. Most of the explanations you can understand though.
Tuesday, 2nd of April, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (14:24) Well, I got my Montegrappa Espressione 2012 fountain pen listed on eBay. There was nothing asked (so far) about providing a scan of my ID card, or any requests for a bank password, or even the scan of the bank statement. So, they must’ve changed all that malarkey from the time of what other people were saying. It was all just typed in stuff. I got a phone call with the security number to put in. That happened pretty much instantaneously, when I clicked on the button for that. It said they only accepted a driver’s licence or passport information. Well, I just used my I.D. card for the licence, because other people said it’s the same thing, and they’re both issued by the same place. Here is the listing if you want to buy it. Unless it’s sold by the time you read this.
• (14:51) Woah! What the fudge?! I thought you could only sell 10 items when you began selling on eBay, with a limit of $500 total. It says I can sell up to 700 items this month, with a limit of $53 500! How does that work? I’m not on a business account either. Holey beep. Is this some kind of extra promotion, or something to do with bank credit ratings? Wow. I didn’t expect that. Maybe I should list Panzer Dragoon Saga over there soon too then.
Tuesday, 9th of April, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (14:04) I sold my Pilot / Namiki Custom 74 Demonstrator pen on eBay last night. My 1st sale! I posted that today. I had to update MORE details after the sale that I figured eBay would have. I think they need to overhaul a lot of how they set things up for your selling. Mainly to fill all that stuff in before you sell, to avoid any traps and surprises. Not to mention the hideous appearance of the site too. They seem to have these vague, fat, custom “slide switch” looking controls, which you can’t tell if they’re activated or not. What’s wrong with using a standard tick box? That’s a bit stupid and short-sighted.
Yeah, it’s a bit of a rip off how they charge a percentage of the postage cost as well. That’s a bit greedy. They should just take a percentage of what you’re selling. The postage cost should be a “pass through” kind of thing. I think you need to consider what you want to get for an item, and add on about 30% to cover all your costs, especially if you’re going to offer overseas postage. That is a huge amount for heavy items. Even light weight ones are a bit. They reckoned it was going to cost $10.60¢ to post my pen, but it was $13. So, maybe with eBay’s postage labels. Live and learn, huh? So I should’ve charged about $104 for the pen, rather than $92. I’ll be putting the price a bit higher for my Panzer Dragoon Orta sound track CD in that case. I want about $86 for it, so I’ll charge $110, or so. That’s a little under 30% extra. Then if international postage costs as much as $58, that would mean I’d get about $145 after eBay fees, minus the $58 I’d have to pay to send it, and that would be about $87. So I don’t know how some people offer free postage. They must get huge bulk discounts. Even Jaycar don’t send stuff for free, and they’re a shop.
The nice woman at the Post Office said I could get a discount for a lot of items, but I said I wouldn’t be doing this all the time. It’s more like a clear out of stuff I want money for now. I may not sell anything again next year. Anyhoo, it should be about the 23rd before the money from eBay is released from being on hold, as they explained in the 1st place. Last night it looked like they were going to send some mini deposit to my bank account to check it was correct, but I heard nothing more on that. I might get the bank to print me a statement on Thursday if I need to check for deposits. You might be able to get a mini one at the ATM. Surely that would tell you.
Mmm — so if you’re thinking of selling your old stuff off on eBay, you’d better have a lot of patience, all the identification information under the sun, and be prepared for the percentage you’ll be paying to them as well. I think if you have a place locally, like an antiques store, or Cash Converters, that may actually be comparable and less hassle. Cash Converters only sell popular stuff though, and they put the price on it.
• I’ve got another plug-in for Oblivion in progress @ the moment. It’s like my outposts one for Cyrodiil, but this time it’s for the Shivering Isles. I’ve got 6 locations so far. 3 in Dementia and 3 in Mania. There are a few new items as well, and some neat enchanted goodies to buy. I’ve got 4 guards at each location, with 2 sleeping at about 12 hours out from the other 2. I don’t think you saw Golden Saints & Dark Seducers sleeping and eating, but they can actually do it. Although I don’t know if there’s any game lore that defines this.
• Well, that’s enough of that. I’m off to see what new Japanese songs have come out in the last week! Toodle-oo!
Tuesday, 16th of April, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (22:37) When a mare’s following you, that’s ’orse trail ya.
Tuesday, 23rd of April, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (13:11) eBay notified me that my money was paid out from my Pilot pen that I sold. So that was good.
• I’ve got Blue Stinger for sale now as well, for $80. That’s less than another game shop here in Australia wanted for it. They were asking for $129 or so. Mine’s in really good condition too. No box damage, the instructions look like new, and the disc is close to new looking, with 1 small finger print.
• Holey moley! Street Fighter 3: Double Impact — over $200 now! Somebody from America has the PAL version, and they want $323.75 for it. Wow. I’d better take care of my copy. I haven’t played that in a while either. The prices of Dreamcast games have really gone up. I even saw Crazy Taxi for over $100. I also saw one of those drive replacement boards that lets you load games off a memory card, or other type of drive. I almost got one of those some years back for my 2nd Dreamcast, since its motor failed in 2014. You should still own the original games though to make using that legal.
• Ooh! Even Street Fighter Alpha 3 is over $200 now. Somebody from here in Australia wants $220 for it. Unreal! Speaking of which, Unreal Tournament is worth around $100 for the Dreamcast as well. The American copies are cheaper though.
• Let’s look up Skies Of Arcadia again… (WHISTLE!) $325 on a new listing here, from NSW. I’m never parting with my copy. Some of the British sellers are doing it cheaper. I really would pay $200 for that game though. It’s that good. But I already have it. And the GameCube one. Talking of that, check this out! Nigh on $370 for it! Holey fudge! I thought $79.90 was a lot when I got mine 2nd hand. The original music in the Dreamcast game is so much better though. It sounds a bit weird with the GameCube trying to play it.
Wednesday, 24th of April, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (14:13) Panzer Dragoon Saga is now listed to purchase at eBay. It’s $1100 with free postage, except if you live overseas, in which case it will be $15. This is the best deal on eBay right now for this PAL version, by the looks of it.
• Wow — even the Dreamcast (console) prices have leapt up in the past 10 years. I got my 3rd Dreamcast in August 2014 for $113.80 with postage. ($99.90 base cost.) Now they’re up to around $300 or more. It’s like going back to 1999. Some even come with those SD card drive replacements. That’s a good idea, since the motors weren’t too good. It also saves the hassles of making a CD and optimising it for the motorised drive speed too. I would probably get one of those doodads, but I don’t play my consoles so much now these days. It would be good for my 2nd Dreamcast which had the motor failure. I could put it back into action then.
Thursday, 25th of April, 2024
Today’s current mood:
• (0:37) Ha ha — here it is again in the old 1994 Dick Smith Catalogue — the Team Concepts “Smart Phone.” Under the toys section of course. These days so many grown-ups are playing with their “smart ’phones” too. Well, it does say 3 years & up. This one looks a great deal cheaper than some of the ones you can get now from Apple, Samsung and whoever else. The buttons are much more generous in size too.
• It will also be 30 years ago at Christmas this year, that I’ve had my Mega Drive. I remember Dad getting it at the old Grace Bros store in Sydney, I think, and me looking around for who sold Cool Spot. Oh! I was so excited about getting that. I still like that game, but I don’t play it very often. The Japanese got the Saturn 30 years ago this year as well. Figgin’ beep! Where’s that time gone? Honestly?! It’s hard to believe. I remember the day I got mine in 1996 and running Daytona USA. I was so amazed by that. It would take Daytona USA 2001 to impress me more these days.
• (14:32) I had an eBay user from overseas contact me for more pictures of Panzer Dragoon Saga. Aaaahhhh! I had to unwrap it again to do that. Ah well, if they buy it I’ll be pleased. I didn’t claim it to be in perfect, brand new condition. Maybe they want it more as an investment, rather than to play it. Or both.
Some of the NiGHTS toys on eBay are around the $1000 mark, and some nightopians for over $300. Ooooh! They’re so-o-o-o cuuute! But so expensive. I wonder what my Sega World Sonic toy is worth now. There were no listings of him on eBay. $1000 do you think? I’m not parting with him. He’s too special! I dusted him off a bit and my Knuckles, Tails & Cream toys as well. They really need a good display case. Maybe with tinted glass or something.
John’s Top 5: Most Recently Played Games:
Game:
|
System:
|
RollerCoaster Tycoon |
Main PC |
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion |
“2018 PC” |
JezzBall |
Main PC |
Teddy Maze |
Main PC |
Teddy Utopia |
Main PC |
John’s List Of Interesting Articles & Scams:
“Beach’s Bizarre Broadway Subway” — An article about Alfred Beach’s pneumatic transit system in New York, which you may have seen a reproduction of in Ghostbusters 2.
City Of Darkness - Revisited — A fascinating look at what was the Kowloon Walled City.
Livermore’s Centennial Light Live Cam — Get an up to date view of the world’s longest running light bulb! This thing puts modern bulbs to utter shame!
Making Ice In Mississippi
A Keeper’s Account - A
Quiet Night In — This is Charlie Riding’s tale of working at the Bell Rock Lighthouse in Scotland, on the 2:00 to 6:00 A.M. shift.
Read about Geoffrey D. Bennett who had a heck of a job trying to get a refund for Windows ’95, which he didn’t want with his laptop PC in the 1st place.
Letters from BBC Television Licensing — The BBC’s TV Licence over in Britain is one of the biggest jokes of our time, not because the BBC shouldn’t be getting paid, but because you still have to pay whether you watch them or not. It makes
as much sense as me asking everyone on the planet for $5, because they may happen to stumble upon my web site. The BBC have always wanted to charge TV owners to receive their broadcasts, but made no effort to block them to viewers of other channels, and demanded payment whether you watched what they broadcast or not.
Ever wondered how to completely remove iTunes? Here’s an interesting article on the procedure. (This site now requires a pretty new web browser.)
London Underground History. (This has gone for now.)
Game Copy Wizard — This is a big fat SCAM! Check out the website, but do not fall into the trap of buying! One affiliated site even claimed it could duplicate cartridge based games! It is also a pyramid scheme to draw in affiliates to put up positive reviews about it in order to get paid when they can sell a copy. Lots of people have been burned, and there are dozens of sites out there claiming it DOES work, when it clearly does not. As easy as it is to see through this fake product, I put this here to make it more well known to those who aren’t familiar with copying console games. Click here for a list of sites that seem to be pushing this. (This site has finally gone, and just re-directs to some other thing.)
Ever heard of the Better Business Bureau from America? It would seem they’re not as straight as you may have thought.
Transparent Audio — Another company bordering on scam status. Anyone who makes $777 USB cables, and somehow magically thinks they’re better, has no credibility at all in my book. Not to mention their $84 900 speaker wires. The problem is, I think they actually believe what they’re selling makes a difference.
AudioHarma’s Cable Cooker — more snake oil.
