Well, work is continuing on the change over to Divs for this site. Most of the work is pretty much done and I am just adding a few more features here and there before I commit everything to my local CVS server and re-update the site. Once I have everything in place I have some more features to add such as streamlining comments now I am actually getting comments.

Recently I have been thinking a lot about the XBox. Don’t get me wrong, I am an avid PS2 owner (and Sooz has a Gamecube), but the thing that I am curious about is the whole issue of the rights of a consumer to mess around with technology when they have purchased a machine. I suppose the thing that is piquing my interest is the guy who wrote a book on hacking the XBox and his book looks in legal hell by the likes of Microsoft claiming that he should not do this.

I suppose the question I have is whether the Microsoft have a right to do this. If I go and spent my hard earned nicker on an XBox, where the hell do they get off telling me what to do with it. I can understand if I was to put Linux on it and commit a cracking crime, but then again that would be the fault of mine and not them. I might send them a letter and ask them exactly what they think of this.

The other thing I was wondering was what their legal ground was on the guy who was trying to crack the XBox code. I think that if he is trying to crack it that should be fine, but if he distributes the code that should not. This is a legal minefield, but I would be facinated to see how it would end up in court.

What do you lot think?

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Yes folks, I have rambled. Head over to the Rambles section and check it out. I would love to hear your thoughts as usual. 😀

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Well today and tonight I have been coverting my site over to Divs. Pretty much everything is in place although I have a few small formatting bits and bobs that need to be sorted out to ensure that it looks good in *most* browsers. So far the site seems to be fine in Firebird, Opera, IE5, IE6 and NS4. It also looks cool in Lynx and Links. I have also apt-got the W3C Validator so my site is now HTML 4.01 Strict valid. 2I am beginning to feel all clever and compliant. 🙂

Today was also a day of making music. I spent most of today with Emelye working on some new tunes. My new project is a metallised version of Knights In White Satin by the Moody Blues. This cover has been brewing for years and now I can get round to doing it. After the jamming with Emelye, I started a jam with Steve from the band and we worked on a stompingly heavy Seraphidian song. 😀

Luckily the damn cats and bird infidel have not asttacked yet tonight. It is only a matter of time before they start squarking and shouting. I tell you what though folks…just when I thought I was safe…we found a nest of Spiders eggs on our front door today. I am convinced animals are plotting a takeover of our house. I mean come on…SPIDERS EGGS…I hate spiders because they are (a) scary (b) ugly and (c) useless and I don’t need no damn eggs on the door. Sooz was a brave soldier and removed them while I covered under the table

A couple of weeks ago I had a debate with Aq in our LUG about Divs vs Tables in web programming. Ultimately Aq came out on top and I agreed that I would switch my site over to Divs. Well, tonight I have been working on this.

Aq sent me an example of my front page converted to Divs. There were a few small layout issues here and there but in general it was pretty good. Tonight I have taken his work, applied the database content, fixed up the small layout issues and made the code valid under HTML 4.01 strict. Generally things are looking in good shape and although I have a few small bits and bobs to fix it is a better solution.

For those who are interested, the work in progress page is index2.php in the root of the domain and you can keep an eye on how things are developing until I release it live on the main site. I need to do some testing and fix a few things and then I will apply the Div layout to the rest of the site.

Got up today and have been having a relaxing day with Sooz. Sent a few emails and it is the LUG tonight; more cheesecake, debating and bad jokes. 😀

I have recently been getting Tobe ready for release as a pre-alpha. It has taken me a while as I have had lots of other stuff to do. I want to get it out though…it has been in the works for quite a while and even if I can’t spend as much time as I would on it, I am sure another hacker can make use of the code.

Yesterday I was messing around with my Zaurus. I upgraded the ROM to 1.39 and I am now using it to store details for my freelance work. Handy little devices so long as you remember to charge them!!

Finally my buddy Craig has gone on his travels around Europe. We went out last night for a drink with the crew and they set off this morning.

Tonight I have been hacking a little script to grab a Viz Profanisaurus term from their website as a fortune. I have been hacking this laid in bed and being subsequentally annoyed by damn cats outside. There is now some strange bird thing making a row…

You know…I hate cats. They are by far the most arrogant of animals. What other animal demands a door to be built in your house? Not only that they just come to your house, eat, fart and then bugger off out again. No hanging around like dogs…no that would be to nice for damn cats. This stupid bird infidel is making a racket still…it is at times like this when I need to run around wildly with a frying pan.

Oh my good lord, did we have fun last night. We took the washing machine and monitor down to a park near us and prompty destroyed the aforementioned items with great vigor. IT was fun, and what was more, we got it all on video…some of which will appear on here over the next day so. I also have the video to Jack’s Playing Ball to go online and some more songs.

Had a band practice today. New song is going well and I am off to the pub in the next hour to meet up with Craig and the others. I have also got some 3D artwork to go on here…possibly later tonight of my experiments and fun with Blender (www.blender.org). Lot’s of creativity and fun going on, and I am just looking forward to the next time I can destroy an appliance…
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First thing’s first – go and check out my new Ramble. The rambling is basically all about the strange nutters that seem to love talking to me. I think some of you lot may sympathise and have had similar ‘challenged’ people talk to you.

I have just put online a new song also. I recorded this with my buddy Emelye and I am quite chuffed with it; there are a few bits that I would have liked to have cleaned up, but time does not permit unfortunatly. Check it out in my music section and let me know what you think. 🙂

As I type this I am in my studio waiting for the band to show up. We are going to spend a night of drinking and destroying an old washing machine for our video. We also have an old 21″ monitor to destroy. Fingers crossed it will all look good on video. 🙂

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Well, Sooz and myself headed over to a pub to get some lunch and then went to get the WLAN card from PC World. It is now installed and I have put Free The Free online. I have some other tunes to finish doing some drums and final mixing for and then they will go online.

I am now layed on my bed as Sooz is doing some curtains and I have some work to do. It was also nice to see my Quanta+ tutorial online at the Content People website. You should check out the site; the guy who runs it, Matt, is doing a good job pretty much single handed.

Woke up today after a late night last night. We did a gig at the Varsity in town and it was cool – good response and good fun.

Today we need to go to a restaurant at 3pm and then we will be heading over to PC World to pick up a wireless LAN card for the studio PC. Other than that I have some emails to send and lots of other little things to do.

I am also desperatly trying to fix OpenOffice.org. I pretty much destroyed it the other day when exporting PDF’s of my research work. Hanging out in #openoffice.org unfortunatly did not reap results so I think I will mail some lists to see why my installation (and re-installation) won’t work.