Office blog

[freedom]

Friday 6th March 2009

Around noon, on my way into the office, found that the brothel hedge has been
roughly cut back in the style of a manic chainsaw attack, sometime earlier
today or yesterday. Bits of the stone "mushrooms" have been chipped, two
extra "mushrooms" have been revealed, the hedge has been excessively thinned,
and no healthy green shoots have been left on the outside side to regrow.
Some browned, dead growth has been trimmed off, but not a lot. Most of the
dead growth that has been trimmed has not been brushed out. A huge pile of
trimmings has been taken off te road... and dumped in the back garden,
largely over the steps.


Saturday 7th March 2009

Fence rope cut & one fence post knocked down, outside the office.
Roughly retied remaining rope, as stopgap, to lower part of
gatepost/guardpost.

There is now no use for the mirrors of Acorn User CD1 & CD2 on the PC
(because they can be accessed & searched much faster from the CD drive on the
RPC), so removed them, saving over half a gigabyte. (420Mb prev used from
Archive mirror.)

Leafleting & rent payment issues resolved by the Landlord, afterwhich I was
able to demonstrate my single-click application, ready-loaded with the
"Minder" sound sample. He didn't understand the significance. I am going to
have to explain...

Cannibalised the latest blown monitor... steps are:

• Disassemble case.
• Remove main boards & plugin boards.
• Remove boards & plugins from tube.
• Cut cables leading to tube, between boards & tube, & the case, preserving
  max. length of cable from any useful plug types.
• Nibble bits of case around any plugs out, to remove those plugs.
• Reassemble case with tube in, for disposal.
• Bag types of components, continuing disassembly as necessary
  Types are:
  
  • Ferric cores & hoops
  • Plugs/connectors, springs
  • Cables/wires
  • Wireless insulation, feet, lightguides, switchbuttons, misc
  • Enclosures, eg metal cages, shields
  • Screws
• Break up large boards into smaller sections, ready for desoldering

Afterwards, bagged components to remote stores, possibly further sorting.
Large old cases & tubes reassembled for disposal.
Remaining large boards (in sections), to desolder, thereafter to
bag components for further storage & sorting.
Remaining desoldered large boards & unrecycable specialist components for
disposal.


Sunday 8th March 2009

Made a start on the leafleting; most of the west side miniarea done.
Stopped early because didn't take enough leaflets out with me.


Monday 9th March 2009

Cleaned the worst patches of gunk out of the fridge, particularly around the
shelves.

Finished the west side miniarea.

Fixed !SciCalc on my RPC, but found that !FontEd does not work. Downloaded a
large number of utilities, some very useful, some disappointing; the usual
experience. Found that !Calibre, the calendar generator, cannot save as
Drawfiles, but can generate yearplanner wallcharts.

I need a pseudoprinterdriver that can output drawfiles and/or sprites.

!Multirun appears to be not a something-already-written of what I want to
write, but something completely different.

I couldn't find online the RO app that adds resizable borders to all desktop
windows, so I will have to search for it in my discs, or, probably faster -
search again online.

I copied my standard home utility discs directly onto the RPC, largely to get
an up-to-date version of !InterGIF, so I can convert from deep sprites. Found
v6.15 (downloaded today) doesn't work well on the RPC. Dunno why (yet).


The office clown has developed an annoying habit of knocking loudly on the
door for trivial things, like loudly knocking for ten minutes, and when
answered, to say goodbye, or asking if the outside door need's shutting when
he goes. (If you're reading this, the answer if always yes.) Maybe his
medication needs increasing again,... then again, as previously noted,
it can't give him common sense.

Palette utility missing from RPC: Mode changer alone in functional place.

Need some way for setting desktop colours so can produce selective colour
dithering effect. 'Have to write another app there, then...


Found an interesting way of assigning icons to directories using the
Pinboard: Create a file of the required type and name on the disc.
Drag it to the pinboard. There will now be a file on the pinboard
of eg text type, called items. Now save the pinboard (for luck), and
delete the real location of the file you created. Now create a directory
at that position. Put some files in it.

Now double-click "items" on the pinboard, and apparently double-clicking
a textfile, causes a directory to open!

This works because the Pinboard simply filer_run's the object, instead of
checking to see what type it is beforehand.


And to think I was messing around with various types of indirection the way
Apps uses, before I noticed this.

Just found that system reset put's the correct pinboard icon back in place.
Hmmm.


Tuesday 10th March 2009

Tried the RPC compactor (defragmentation). It took 8 minutes (for 10Gb), and
reduced the fragmentation by 65%, but refused to go again: It had compacted
as far as possible. No noticeable speed improvement, but then it was
lightening-fast in the first place.

A avalanche of cutlery and crockery appeared during the evening: Around thirty
extra teaspoons, a few small cups, and a dozen-or-so small plates and
saucers. Doubtless the office clown will manage to use all of them in one go.


Wednesday 11th March 2009

Compared the coverage of the Independent and the Guardian with the Daily
Mail's news of the clashes in Luton: The Daily Mail devoted 5+ pages to it,
including lurid headlines on the front page, the Guardian had a
quarter-page, and the Independent didn't carry it at all.

Made a good start on the leafleting in Pewsham. The new headlamp (�4 from
Wilkinsons) made a big difference: No nightblindness caused by hopping
between floodlights and streetlights, and no falling down the holes people
dig in their garden paths in 'nam. No slipping on steps, no treading in
flowerbeds, no frightening cats, much greater speed 'n' efficiency.

'Ran out of carried leaflets just before I got to the Landlord's house.

Worked through the night (for what must be the third night on the trot (I've
taken to napping [at home] in the afternoons, just after lunch)), and heard
what sounded like a minimoto starting up outside, but it was only a chainsaw,
and a large diesel generator to power it.

Finally got round to looking inside the PC for physical memory specification.
DIMMs, AGP, PCI, ISA. 500Mhz PIII, 64Mb RAM. Lots of dust (but not as much as
I'wou've'thought), a metal chassis, and an unnecessary amount of rivets &
screws.


Network Rail is working on the open [to the sky] (now closed [to the public])
footbridge. They were using the chainsaw to clear the undergrowth. Perhaps I
hadn't noticed how bad it was getting(?)


Thursday 12th March 2009

Found in the bin while pressing the contents down, the half-packet of menthol
breath-blasting polo mints I gave the office clown two Christmases ago
(untouched), and three 25-way printer-port-type sockets, One male and two
female.

I called the mints breakfast, and took the sockets away for my component
collection: They're unused apart from a few wires in the solder buckets, and
those can be easily desoldered. I was putting off buying some of these
because of the cost and ordering time, but now I don't have to worry about
that!

You could live off the stuff chucked away in this office.


Put the Extensis menu, in "dotted line" form, into an application, then
upgraded it to tree form, and extended the options a bit. Application called
!Extend, icon nicked from !Clock; it's a stress toy, and it doesn't do much
else. Typical menu run: Extensis -> Edit Schedule -> Extend Deadline.



This is from a spoof Photoshop menu, published as a JPEG on flickr (Ithink).
Original author unclear.

[freedom]

Friday 13th March 2009

Eager to be fresh & awake for the meeting tomorrow morning (the second time
this will have happened), and starting to feel a bit ripe after napping on
various floors over the last three days, had bath in early morning. Needed
some rest beforehand, but couldn't afford to oversleep, so set a repeating
12-minute timer, and napped in my own bed for three hours.

Experienced an odd repeating dream in which I was talking to Charlotte,
saying that I never dream about her. -Big meal before bedtime: I'll never
learn. Apart from that oddity, I never do dream about her, apart from the one
(odder) dream, which I really must get round to discussing, if I haven't done
so already and forgotten about it due to alcohol. Although she did have some
cameo roles in dreams about other people, around the time she was stalking me
more frequently. (She kept popping up in waking life, which caused dreaming
life to reflect that; Ithink.)

Much later on, in the library, internet access was *much* faster. Still much
slower than anywhere else, but faster relative to what it had been in the
library. This surprised me, a lot, particularly because it wasn't Machine
One, but login was much slower than usual, taking about 15 minutes instead of
five. The last ten minutes was a BSOD-like pause just after the login scripts
had run, and "just" before any icons appeared to let me do anything.

I tried to use MsWord, but it was to slow to actually load (itself).


Dropped off �2 in fiddly small change [bags] at the bank, and was offered
some free change bags.

I think banks ought to offer to take mixed small change in large quantities;
how much of the stuff is lurking at the back of people's furniture?


Yesterday I joked that you could live off the stuff the other inhabitants of
this office throw away. Today I found a meal inside three small bags left out
for the (overflowing) internal bins: Two portions of chips, and a fried
hash-brown thingy with rice & fat as well as potato, and a small amount of
mixed veg; probably a vegeburger, accompanied by pineapple chunks, sauce,
salad.

All very high quality food, and very filling too. I hasten to add that it was
all very well wrapped, separate from the other rubbish, and fresh from the
end of last evening, having being kept extra-cold by being rested overnight
outside the fridge.


I aim to get a solid block (or two) of sleep later on, and also to be
properly prepared for the morrow.

The office clown just asked to look at a map (of 'nam). I asked him if he
wanted to take one away or just look at it. He replied "just to look at", so
I handed him the expensive one, and as I walked back to my office, I heard
him jump in his car with it and drive off!


Many hours later, late at night, returned to find the office clown had left
my expensive map out for me, not on a desk with a note, but on the floor by
the stairs, where anyone could step on it. He leaves things on the floor that
he wants to throw away and considers of no value, so this is a double insult.


Saturday 14th March 2009

Up early in the morning to prepare to go off to the secret society, meeting
again at the military base in Somerset. I think I've covered before the
business of it not wanting to be secret.

Preparation went quite well, trip down good and punctual. Last minute
email/listserv check found that another member had offered to pick me up from
the station, and I rushed to find where I had stored his number (on my
wristtop).

This meant that my prior plan, to prebook a taxi once I had the up-to-date
ETA, and before I had actually to get on the last connection (because the
mobile's battery is a bit flaky), was no longer needed.

He gave me a lift back, too: This saved me �34, meaning I was able to break
even on the budget at the meeting, rather than sliding further into
pseudodebt. I even had some cash left over, but only because Graham refused
to accept repayment until the Hub was functional.

Moss gave me the USB podule and extra PC RAM he promised at the Show, and
eventually accepted payment for it. Graham gave me the 17" monitor ditto.

Ian promised me a component, secondhand, for one of my secret projects, and
Moss assured me that they are still available in the current marketplace
[particular components, not secret projects].


Allan had his laptop in, running VRPC [RISC OS emulation], and after he had
finished the main bits of what he was doing, I gave him copies of the
software I had written & brought with me. -Only to find that very little of
it worked! "Dr Wimp not recognised" it said. This turned out to be because
DrWimpLib$Dir was not set, something I had done on my machine, but not in the
software archive.

There is a copy of DrWimp inside one of the applications I gave him, so it
will probably be possible to email a one-line obeyfile fix to Allan for this!


Conversation at the end of the meeting lapsed, as before, into odd
non-RISC OS discussion. I managed at some point in this to comment that
"military intelligence" was a contradiction in terms, which didn't go
down very well. I had also managed to forget that I was at the time,
inside a military base, on the "secure" side.

A little while before this, Graham had told us that he was recently at a
meeting ('sounded like a party actually) at Portsmouth naval base (so it was
a party then), with twenty four-star admirals and two sealords, all of which
he knew. One of my cousins married an admiral, but I forget his name. I'm
going to have to ask...

So. Faux Pas over with, "Microsoft Office Works" was cited as a decent
oxymoron.


Naval gazing aside, the monitor was very heavy for a monitor, and again I
avoided the danger of the outside stairs (after the two-storey bridge), when
Graham buzzed me across the taxiway, reminding me again that I was inside a
military base, blah blah blah. It's an odd venue for a meeting, but it also
happens to be free (apart from the �2.50 membership fee covering coffee &
biscuits).

Although the monitor was heavy, it wasn't as awkward as the printer had been,
so there was little similar amusement on the trains, apart from some scary
moments going down stairs, where I couldn't see my feet.


After carrying yet another heavy piece of equipment back to the office...

• Took out old monitor
• Fitted RPC USB module
• Fitted new monitor
• Changed screen resolution on RPC, then on PC.
• Added extra RAM to PC; not recognised - still 64Mb
• Swapped order of RAM modules in PC; 160Mb recognised.
  Should be 192Mb, but good for now.
• Chkdsk'd PC after all that resetting.

Also at some point in the above, cleaned strange orange gunk off the face of
the new monitor (with water).

PC is certainly faster now; not fast per se, but it is only a PC
afterall.

Settled on 1024x768 resolution for both machines. The monitor can cope with
1280x1024, and maybe higher, but text a bit small then.


Sunday 15th March 2009

Woke up after a longish sleep, still feeling abit tired though. Went down to
the office with the intention of taxing back the old monitor, but halfway
there realised that the taxis would be charging sunday prices!! Came in
anyway, updated expenses spreadsheet, wrote some application briefs (Pinwin &
Metawin). 'Mocked-up output from Metawin, too, for use as part of the
proposal. I'll write Pinwin; someoneelse can do Metawin.

During the course of this, looked at Pinboard's Templates, and discovered a
"windowless background" window, called "Back". I suspect this is used as the
backdrop, which is a window with a special handle. I wonder if there can be
multiple backdrop windows (eg so one can swap between them)?

Intend to wrap up the old monitor ready for transport tomorrow, and then home
for lunch, then out in the afternoon leafleting (doubtless much to the relief
of the Landlord).


Monday 16th March 2009

Taxied back home my old, "standby", monitor.
Swapped out peripheral cables attached to my home machine, ready to take in to the office tomorrow:

• Serial link & 9/25-pin converter
• Parallel link

Hunted through my home archives, now I had a monitor there to view them on
(!) for my copy of the any-corner window resizer. Didn't find it, but found
quite a lot of other interesting stuff, which I put on two floppies, for the
RPC.


Tuesday 17th March 2009

Downloaded more RO PD; found the resizer on Arcade BBS. It was called
!Resizer (duh), and was just as I remembered it. 'Works on the RPC, too,
which helps.

'Will note details and follow up my previous post on drobe.

Fiddling about with a copy of it: It is supplied with well-laid-out source,
and I've managed to turn off the hotkeys activation. Now (with some
flickering (because I haven't given it auto-window sensing yet)), it displays
the extra window borders under the appropriate active window.

I aim next, to make it:

• stop flickering
• turn the visible borders invisible
• do without the extra invisible window at all, and
• sense the edges of the existing window instead.

This would be more elegant. Maybe a combination of the last two points.

Went of leafleting, picked up half a dozen of the very-cheap (14p) cans of
kidney beans from the Tesco Metro on the way back.

The Landlord's Agent very kindly gave me a lift home, which was just the
ticket at the end of a long day.


Wednesday 18th March 2009

Plugged in the cables I brought with me: The serial converter & lead, routed
off to the "plugboard" area of my desk, and similarly, the parallel lead.

My Plugboard area also contains: Extension USB lead from PC, printer USB
lead. This is so I can either plug in a USB memory stick without fumbling at
the back of the PC, nor wearing out the socket. I also have the option of
using it to plug in the printer.

Now I also also (sinc) have the options of plugging experiments into the
parallel port, and/or plugging the Z88 into the RPC.

However, the printer lead terminates in a centronics plug, not a 25-way D-Sub
connector. However however (sinc), it looks like it may be possible to insert
solid core wiring into the centronics connector.


Fiddling around with RPC Boot Sequence; got start time down from 21 seconds,
to 19... 14... and now 8, the same as the netbook advertised by 3d. 'Beat's
Ian's 9! 'Still not 2, though.

Some applications complain, notably !NetSurf, but most don't!

Tried at first the uniboot (ROL download), then put in a blank $.!Boot
directory, and adapted to the error messages, putting in what they asked for.

Total size, 2.6Mb; Size !System within, 1.9Mb. 'Pretty certain not all of
!System used.

'Ought to bung back in VProtect, even though it can't catch viruses, I do
do a lot of experimentation, partic. with Boot, so it might help me with
that (although it hasn't so far).

Whoakay, NetSurf now runs, but when after I load a page, the hourglass stays
on. This means it is searching for something, but won't behave nicely and
tell me what it is.

Boot now 4Mb, time still 9 seconds, so maybe I should chuck all the
networking extras back out, and swap back to be old boot if I'm desperate for
NS.

'Still don't understand what the original problem with the old main boot seq.
was, why it happened, or where the "filer error" hails from.

Okay; on the offchance, I copied over from the old (original) Boot, what NS
expects to find in Boot:Choices, and now no problems. Nothing
earth-shattering in there, just its collection of hotlists etc.

(This is NS v1.2, (probably) the latest at this time, BTW, if that helps
anyone.)

Copied over page 14 of this blog from the PC, decompressed with !Spark
into a new raFS volume, stored archive and volume for later use. Opened okay
on NS, found also able to save objects (eg pictures) directly out into !Paint
&c (Object -> Export -> Sprite).

Later, will have to look at FORM usage, for my usability suggestions,
to ensure they haven't been thought of before!


Found an unmarked portion of the monitor that clicked, it was a hidden
button which produced a hidden menu. So now I have turned off the annoying
warning beep the monitor made whenever I switched feeds. -And since I use
a KVM, I switch 'em quite a lot!


Thursday 19th March 2009

Managed to corrupt my copy of sparkplug,... by copying two different versions
into one another instead of into separate directories for future comparison.
Old version won't work on RPC; 'have to hunt online for new vers
self-extractor... No more copies on this HDD.

I do appear to still have alternative decompressors, though.

Trying to work out how much more backup capacity I need to be able to safely
backup & reinstall my PC setup. No more than 4Gb (uncompressed), doubled for
the twin backups. Compressed estimate needed next... and pre-download of 3rd
party software to reinstall afterwards.

Compacted boot seq again; collated all iconsprite thingies, time now 8
seconds.

Full breakdown:

• 4s Power glitch (time for power supply to (re)stabilise)
• 3s POST (Post On Self Test; hardware checks)
• 8s Boot (software settings)

Making a maximum of 15s, yes, but sometimes not all of those apply.

I think the power glitch is a bit long, 2s is more usual,
and the POST time I can't alter, although I don't see why
it couldn't be speeded up in hardware.

Boot time with nothing proper loading, takes no time at all!
Interesting... the minimum RO3.7 needs is a directory $.!Boot
containing an obeyfile !Run, which may be empty!
However, then it can't remember it's optimal monitor type / mode
settings. It'll still auto-detect, of course, but for a mode
that merely works, rather than necessarily the best mode for the
monitor/user.

So, to do this, just $.!Boot.!Run just needs to contain:

Code: Select all

LoadModeFile <Obey$Dir>.AKF92
WimpMode X1024 Y768 C32K

-and $.!Boot has to have the AKF92 monitor definition file copied into it.
(5631 bytes in total)

... Now, why is the rest of it taking an agonising 8 seconds???!!
Honestly, I could've taken a whole sip of coffee in that time, instead of
waiting for the RPC to boot up. Tsk.

(With the PC, I could pop out for an entire meal, but that's another matter.)

Technically speaking, I've just disregarded the POST from my timings, making
a long(ish) user boot of 4s! Worst case cold reset now down to 11s, from
28s. (May have to re-time the worst case scenario, now I've split up the
timings.)


New boot time may be 4s, but I've just found I can actually click on things
at 3s, before the start-up banner has disappeared.

At a later date, I will experiment with just adding the Pinboard (backdrop),
loading !Zap, and "booting" [telling the OS where software I use to open
particular filetypes is] the DrWimp bits, and then I'll have a separate
NetSurf preparation obeyfile, and eventually put that inside NetSurf itself.
NS takes ages to start up anyway. At least 5 seconds; I'll not notice
the (2-3s extra) difference!

It's difficult to set NS's Homepage without manually editing its Choices
file; perhaps there's a feature begging to be added, perhaps I'm missing
something. Perhaps the documentation needs to be clearer in that area. Later.

Another trouble: It's taken me six hours to shave 4s off the boot time,
and I haven't had lunch/breakfast/brunch yet! Fiddlesticks!


Early this evening, the office clown tried to run me over, so I suspect he may
have stopped taking his medication again. And then it was off out leafleting
again. Slightly shorter to cut back over the Long Close / Monkton
[foot]bridge, so I passed the college on my return. The lights were off, but
there was a fellow nosing around inside on the first floor near the windows
with a torch. Further examination revealed one of the study metal main "Pull"
doors had been pushed in, and jammed there. Then the guy passed me on
the ground floor. He was dressed all in black, with a woollen hat on,
not covering his face.

After some brief difficulty locating a working phone and a valid number,
alerted the duty manager, who thought the guy may be his caretaker locking
up. Strange though, caretakers usually lock up with the lights on, and if
they've blown they generally try to locate the fusebox, not the windows. The
manager said he'll check it out.


Friday 20th March 2009

Some more leafleting, in the daylight, just to get it out of the way.


Now I can run both FEMS (Finite Element Materials Simulation) and POV
(raytracer) useably-fast, I decided to try taking a FEMS frame in facet-form,
and feeding it into POV.

This actually did work, although it was in an odd orientation, and
I had somehow got my coordinates out of sync at some point:

Code: Select all

...
{x,y,z},
{x,y,z},
{x,z,x},  (y coord missed here)
{y,z,x},
{y,z,x},
...

-Because I'd converted between file formats quickly in a text editor,
instead of modifying the program output directly.

This glitch gave the scene an odd geodesic effect.


FEMS, BTW, allows you to detect when solid objects collide, and bounce them
back along a path. It also allows you to do this with deformable objects, or
as the introduction puts it, "Have you ever had the urge to throw a giant
cube of jelly down the stairs?" The scene I used throws a tablecloth over a
sphere, but the principle is the same.

I am thinking maybe the hidden surface removal may have exported to the
raytracer, so I'll have to alter the rendering options to stop it doing this!


On other things, I tackled again the problem of converting Excel spreadsheets
into Pipedream format, so I can update my expenses quickly on the RPC,
without waiting for the PC to bootup/shutdown every time I need to make a
quick addition and/or budget check:

The steps I have so far, are:

1. Prior to saving as CSV, use CTRL-` in Excel, to reveal formuli.
2. Preferably include all quotes, so as to preserve case in
   text labels; use some kind of preprocessor or Text Editor.
3. Convert formulas by taking out the initial equals-signs
   and the colons in cell ranges. Colon search should only take
   place where equals are found in the initial position.
4. Find a nice sans-serif font, and convert the whole sheet to that.

Probably to automate steps 2 & 3, ideally in Perl, once I find a
StrongARM-compatible version.


Looked through my mess of downloaded, inheritated, and archive-dredged
directories, and shifted some more of them into a more organised structure.


Tuesday 24th March 2009

Recovered (a few days ago), !Sparkplug; only fumbled one version during the
overwrite, of course!

Found �5.61 in a drawer, which I will not be declaring to the DWP, because it
was mine in the first place. Also noticed lots of spare empty drawers, which
I will be filling with new filing.

Wrote a conversion program: Excel-generated CSV to Pipedream-acceptable CSV.
Fiddles around with quotes, removing unnecessary ones and adding them to
preserve case, converts formulae. I need this to swap over my
expense-tracking accounts from the PC to the RPC. My expense accounts don't
only cover expenses; it's a name that stuck, but really it's a kind of
"fiscal diary".

The converter, with the catchy title of "ReadComB" (a pile-up of
contributing-program names (directory called AutoCSV)), I will convert into a
filter-type application. That is, sit on the iconbar, wait for something to
be dropped onto it, proffer savebox or error grumble as appropriate. First, I
will have to write a "blank filter" application, ie save what dropped onto.
Graphical filters come next, eg Spr2Targa.

I will freeware most of these filters, unless I need to use them as part of a
larger somethingelse, so I will have to remember to compile them properly, so
they do not need the DrWimp Library! (And run faster, and take minimal space,
and download faster, etc etc.)


I have noticed with my experiments with !Boot, that I have lost (on the fast
version) the ability to read non-audio CDs, and to use the USB configuration
utility that I have, up until now, not found. If I'm really desperate, I can
always swap over the !Boot versions, reboot, wait 4 or 5 seconds, and I'm
good to go. Maybe I will add an obeyfile to autoswap 'em, once I've finished
fiddling with my optimisations.

'Need a copy of !MassFS: It may be cheaper to buy that than to get more USB
sticks; then I can copy ZIPs of my PC backups onto the RPC HDD... 'Probably
safer to backup two copies onto memory sticks, come to think of it!


Transferred expenses spreadsheets over, including historical list back to May
last year. In 'process, found that linebreak conversion lousy in !AutoCSV.
That'll have to be fixed.

Took the "Acorn" logo texturing out of my backdrop, because it clashed with
the Pinboard text. 'Will experiment with darker backdrops, in preparation for
yet another thingy I can't discuss on this blog. Perhaps a POV-generated
starfield.

Er, forgot to do CTRL-` in Excel first... so back to convert all over again...

Eventually, would be need to do a complete conversion from CSV (or even XLS)
format, direct to Pipedream, rather than simply loading into it.
Not too difficult, given Pdream format.

Done that, now.

Just had occasion to convert a block of my blog from spreadsheet format to
text, to memory-jog some of this blog: On the PC, it'd be copy/paste/fumble,
or save-as & edit around; Here, it's save, select ASCII, drop straight into
text editor, done. Amazingly fast.

'Gonna have to put a blank helpfile, or a copied one, into !Zap, or stop the
help applications throwing errors when they don't find one, and none of them
catch that error: I feel a patch suggestion coming one. !Help has a fixed
window, !BubbleHelp and !Float have little bubbles next to where the help is
needed. !Bubblehelp also has a pointer, and it stays above subsequent menus,
whereas !Float doesn't, and tends to get buried underneath them, which is not
stylish: !Float was written 5-8 years after !BubbleHelp. Hilariously, you can
have them all running simultaneously. I did this to compare them.

Around midnight, did the hoovering upstairs in the enclosed office, and came
to the conclusion that it's not an office: It's a litter bin with a fitted
carpet.


Wednesday 25th March 2009

Worked through the night at the office, apart from a short nap of three hours
- I hardly think you can call that sleeping. Cleaned most of the upstairs
windows and the toiletroom mirror, but had to stop when ran low on kitchen
towelling.

Hoovered downstairs, found & rescued crate of jars, some of the ones that I
had painstakingly cleaned to a shine, stacked ready to be dumped. I will dust
those off and take them to a charity shop; there really is an obscene amount
of waste stacked up in the foyer.

Nagged so much by relative to make a phone call for them yesterday, that when
I finally blocked the nagging out and was able to make the call, it was eight
hours too late. So that'll teach 'em.

Put to take home, large space-wasting items: Large cardboard box, empty, used
as guideline dimensions for future trolley cabinet. Putting into that, old
b'ware advertising boards, and, once I have scanned them, old advertising
window-layer-thingies. Also wine-bottle-carriers that I haven't been able to
sell (or indeed capture) as an idea yet. I can just as easily photograph
those at home later on. They're not doing any good hanging around the office
at this time.

It'll be a day or so before I have spare use of my trolley, since I will be
using it to bring supplies from the supermarket to the office, and onwards
home.

Just noticed, when the pinboard stopped with an error, that:

1. The pinboard stops with an error when it can't find a file in it's load
   list. Because it uses an obeyfile, this should be fixed with iftheres(?),
   or the pin command should have an option to ignore file not found errors, and
2. All applications on the pinboard get booted as they are attached. This has
   to happen for their icons to be displayed. The pinboard itself carries out
   the booting (or rather the filer does on it's behalf), so adding all their
   icons to my multi-spritefile in !Boot, should speed things up a teeny bit.

Well, it's not speeded it up that much, because the applications still get
calls to boot, and the more applications you have on the pinboard, the longer
it will take to load. I have 13 now, and that may have added almost half a
second to my boot sequence.

Picked up some cleaning supplies, acid-cleaned the sink, set to on the phones.

Quick response from both the Ezy's Taxis (as usual), and British Gas (less
usual, with a callout booked for tomorrow morning).

Brief trawl around the charity shops, and Oxfam gratefully accepted all the
spare jars I could find (aprx 15).

[freedom]

Friday 27th March 2009

I have been looking at !Wlist,
by Richard Possnett.

WindowList is a small application that sits on your icon bar. When you click
on the iconbar icon with select or adjust, it will give you a list of the
currently open windows. Select a window from the menu, and it will jump to
the front. Simple.

I like this. I like it a lot.

Recently, I managed to summarise MacOS's Expos� feature, largely because it
had been annoying me for some time that nobody did this, instead referring to
the wikipedia entry that isn't exactly concise itself.

And so, I think !Wlist can be used as a basis for a RISC OS version of
Expos�. This would help, because RISC OS supports with several orders of
magnitude more windows than other OSes.

So far, I have strimmed down the !Wlist code, knocked out unused routines,
and converted it to run with the DrWimp library, to ease further development.
I've also added a single column of checkboxes, to be shortly followed by
further columns, a self-expanding/shrinking window-list window, and another
(iconbar) task-list window.

I aim to get the text list clickable before I have to go home to sleep
tonight.


Earlier this afternoon, my gas boiler was taken to bits, tested extensively,
and refitted. Two hours after the engineer had gone, the mysterious loud
buzzing returned. This is no fault of the new engineer, who fault-traced
properly, and tested within known parameters; the trouble seems to be, that
the fault lurks deeper than anyone previously suspected, and therefore
outside the parameters investigated, possible as a preprecursor to the
primary ignition sequence. (There must be an alternative name for that: It
makes my central heating sound like a rocket.)

If the enclosed office upstairs is a litter bin with a fitted carpet, my
office downstairs is now a three-dimensional sliding block puzzle. I have
packed crates and slide blocks out of it, trolleyed them home, and now I have
a mixture of densely-populated desk areas with empty sections of filing
areas. I have a wish-plan of how I want my space to end up, but I'm not there
yet.


drobe (yes, them again), have recently published [url=http://www.drobe.co.uk/article.php?id=2454]another article
about me[/url], without warning me beforehand this time (tut, tut),
regurgitated from some earlier material I sent them.

Yesterday I explained about my five-second boot timings to other regulars in
the community intercafe. "I think you might be lying, Robin" was the
response. RISC OS is literally unbelievable.


I have been nosing around in my copy of Pipedream. Buried in the spelling
options is the ability to produce anagrams and subgrams. I put in the name
of the town I live in, and "Chippenham" produced:

• Impeach PNH!
• PP Machine.
• Hemp panic, H.
• Heh, panic pm.
• HMP Panic, eh?

So now I just need someone prominent & local, with the initials PP or PNH.

I'm sure the new "unified" county council will provide plenty of ammunition.


Hokay: With !Wlist now, whenever I click on a window and it jumps to the
front, the list of windows shifts around to reflect the order, but in
reverse, so I'll have to reverse the display - tomorrow.


Saturday 28th March 2009

Transferred stuff off the memory stick, onto floppies for the library,
got to the library and discovered they've "upgraded" all their public access
machines to not have floppy drives!

They did have a USB FDD behind the desk, though, so that's okay.
All the useful software is hidden, but the usual hacking techniques
get around that. The new PCs are slightly smaller, with slightly nosier fans,
very clean keyboards, and moderately fast for PCs - in others words slow.

[freedom]

Sunday 29th March 2009

Slept. 'Needed that.


Monday 30th March 2009

Generated and analysed a small AVI file, for feasibility test of sprite <->
AVI convertor. To AVI is easy enough, from would only work reliably for file
converted by either my program or presumably AVIcreator, on who's output I
analysed (with help from a file format guide by John McGowan).

Plan today is then onto the phones, community intercafe, lunch, stilt
practice (kneeling & running), litterpick, leaflets.

I have developed some kind of weird earache, so I'll get that checked. No
hearing or balance effects.

Promised the Landlord that I would get back to the leafleting this evening,
which I failed to do in favour of a litterpick, which I failed to do because
I was messing around on the computeriser too long.

I have, however, solved the problem where the little boxes the text sits on
under desktop icons (so you can read it inspite of the background colour) is
an inconvenient colour when I change the backdrop drastically. I want to change
it to black, for my own dark reasons, so I am left with ugly grey boxes. Now
I have managed to fix that, and also I've added little stars to the jet black
backdrop, partly as texture reference for virtual desktops, mostly so I can
see what is what if I open black windows.

Central to this is finding out the window handle of the pinboard:

1. First find Pinboard's task handle, by looping through all tasks with
   TaskManager_EnumerateTasks.
2. -Then looping through all open windows with XWimp_GetWindowState until I
   find a window handle whose task handle (with Wimp_SendMessage) matches.
3. Next, with my handy window handle, I lookup the number of icons on the
   pinboard (Wimp_GetWindowInfo), and cycle through them, changing only the icon
   flags for background & foreground colour (Wimp_SetIconState).

Much reference (and indeed wholescale theft) from !Wlist, !WinList, and
!WideScrn, during this, along with constant Stronghelp reference.

Next to do is run/include the pinboard patch which stops it hogging the
iconise upcalls (so my application can hear them and update accordingly), and
put it into a proper iconbar application (using DrWimp), then to add menu
options for changing the background & foreground colours, and some handy
presettings (eg standard default, inverse, fancy coloured text, &c).

I had to alter some black foreground dominant icons, notably Zap.


Tuesday 31st March 2009 (midnight and beyond)

I'll have a go at a new iconbar background sprite...
... Ah, no - it seems I can only have textured backgrounds globally,
that is, for all windows, rather than solely the iconbar. That said, I'm
sure there's a way of doing it. I'd like a fade from traditional iconbar colour
at the foot, to black at the top. Which might be a little too Mac-like, come
to think of it. A darker iconbar of whatever style may help; perhaps an
auto-disappearing one would be better.


Next, made a replacement for CamStudio, ie one that works, and runs on the RPC.
Used DrWimp's regular automatic null polling feature, combined with that little-known
feature of *Screensave: That it saves only the graphics window, and thus can be adjusted
down from the whole screen.

Called it !Camcord, used one of Quantum's free-ish icons.

Captured of part of screen in 16bpp mode, with !Camcord
Source 32 16bpp sprites
-> BMP files, 4Mb (!Spr2BMP core)
-> AVI, 6Mb (AVIcreator, soon to replicate on RPC)
-> WMV, 668Kb (Ms Movie Maker, would like some kind of alternative)

MsMM squished the aspect ratio, and conversion caused blurring.
Currently only way to get video file to portable format.
Would like to use ffmeg &c for this.

Put it on YouTube, anyway, as a technical experiment.


Tuesday 31st March 2009 (Silly O'Clock)

Ummm, 'just looked at the time, it's getting light again. This is what
happens when you've had plenty of sleep and you have a bit of freedom: You
just work straight through the night.

No, sorry, it isn't getting light yet - I had to go for a short walk
to check that; there's little natural light in my office ever since I piled
my poster-size filing against the light vent.

I'll take a food break, and do a litterpick in the morning-proper. I need to
get some sleep, so I can do some stilt practice.


Now it is getting light, things are starting to echo a little bit, and I have
!Pinback (maybe I should've stuck with Pincolour) as an application, with the
(as yet nonfunctional) fore/background & presets menus.


Tuesday 31st March 2009 (late afternoon)

Very short nap; under two hours; Did a litterpick outside the office: Network
Rail's contractors are tidying the footbridge next to us, and the first of
the spring litterdrifts are showing us up. Then wrenched out the overgrown
plants along the side of the building, and used a sharp trowel to chop out the
ones that've dug in. Found that that drain-like dip was infact a proper
drain, and twice as big as previously suspected. The cover was half rusted
away, so decorated the eroded top with stones & large gravel, to hide this
weakness from vandals.

Dug out the litter around the girder gatepost, and also along the length of
the drainage channel. Extended excavated area along that side of the
driveway, too.

After I went back inside, I noticed the contractors busy washing the
brickwork of one of the bridge pillars.


Very hungry: Cooked some kidney beans, tomatoes, and chilli sauce, and then
submitted to a fantasy of croissants & custard [and a lack of supplies in the
fridge] via Tescos. They have some custard in little Tetrapak-type cartons,
and this was all very convenient, and refreshing.

Nonetheless, felt a bit wobbly shortly after, and had to go and curl up on
the floor in my office. I didn't lose consciousness, but I hallucinated on the
edge of it (like of like dreaming while awake), in Japanese, for some reason,
for just about an hour. Then I felt very cold indeed - so I switched on the
heater, and after that I was fine and able to carry on. Most of the pain has
gone from my ear, and been replaced by bleeding, but the trouble has not
affected my hearing or balance, and is confined to the outer ear canal. As
that seems to be subsiding, I will not pursue the Doctor about it. 'Probably
busy with all those daleks, anyway.


Did the washing up, and as I was finishing, the office clown came in and had
an episode. It got to the point where I was running through contingency plans
for immobilising him, but then he went off to sort photographs of trains into
piles.

I noticed that the underside of the open cupboard undertop of which the mugs
are suspended from hooks, is astoundingly dirty. So I took the mugs off,
cleaned that, removed the drips of detergent from the sink, and replaced the
mugs.

The office clown came back, "dragging" one of The Others with him, and later
remarked to him words to the effect that I had earlier been irrational and
threatening violence, and he was considering hitting me, but that then I went
off somewhere. Mirror, mirror, on the wall: Say something nice, or I won't
clean you at all.

I decided to hoover upstairs; the factory floor area, and the upstairs
enclosed office. Hoovering around the office clown saved me a lot of time.
Most of the "leaf litter" [bits of paper, crisps, and er, leaves,] are heaped
under wherever he's sitting.

Sharpened the loitering pencils, typed this bit, and next to trundle the
green waste home.


Friday 3rd April 2009

Rushed in to the office to prepare for an early-morning DWP interview, but
didn't study the letter properly beforehand, and found it was for mid
afternoon instead (phew!)

Did some programming quickies, then ventured upstairs. The Others have had
a clearout, but most of it bears the hallmarks of the office clown:

• The bin bags have been single-bagged, and tied in the way he ties them.
• A functional kettle base was chucked. (Retrieved.)
• Fresh unused cleaning materials have been chucked in the bin, ruining them.
  These were sitting by a worktop, ready for use. Someone thought they were
  rubbish instead of supplies. I wonder who that could be?
• Recyclable and sharp materials (cans, glass), have been put in the bin.
  Fortunately, I was able to enclose the glass within the cans.
• Fresh mains wiring has been run across to the office clown's digital TV
  & recorder, which he doesn't have a license for.
• It look's like the enclosed upstairs office has been burglarised, but what's
  new there?
• Items belonging to the office clown has been given pride of place.

The DWP interview was a quick jobsearch agreement review/renew, and then it
was off down the library to download job application forms that I previously
promised a potential employer over the phone to do.

[freedom]

Saturday 4th April 2009

Got to the office early afternoon, having refuelled properly at home in
preparation for excessive exercise. Found that the office clown has broken
the kettle again, and taken it away completely, saying that it is dangerous
to use because of a shorted plug, and recommending use of the microwave to
boil liquids instead.

Removed the noticed quickly, incase anyone tried that (risk of explosion
and/or serious scalding).

Now, the kettle was not broken (because I serviced it), not now or recently,
or infact ever in the lifetime of that kettle. It's suffered abuse, true, but
not to a dangerous extent (until somebody chucked it). If it had shorted, the
fuse would have blown. Sometimes it didn't active, but this was because the
level-switch was working correctly, not because anything was broken.
This is a safety feature that make sure the appliance is upright
before it tries to boil anything [preferably water]. I hope he's going to
buy or paid for a new kettle!


Uncorked the stilts for a bit of practice 'n' exercise.

Did for about 1:20 Hrs excluding breaks. Started off with some
standup/getdown exercises, alternate legs: Fairly good, but no cigar. And no
standing-up completely unaided, more to the point. Added a new method to my
falling techniques, making a total of one safe falling technique. Stretched
my leg muscles around the knee without injury.

Then did a lap of the car park, stopped at a post with a nearby sign, managed
a personal first of jumping on alternate hooves, whilst hanging on though.

Another lap, a hanging-on-bouncing, rest\sitdown on high brick structure, lap
in reverse, rest on chair (outside office). A few standup exercises, turning
down several offers of help "to get up". I know how to get up: I'm trying to
do it the hard way now, or rather bits of it.

Went along Old Road, on the pavement with high railings on above tall wall,
at Homebase's boundary. Practised running bounces, managed a slightly less
effeminate skipping gait than last year, chatted to people using what
looks like a skateboard snapped in half. Crosslining, or something.

Long rest on the chair, then a lap of the triangular block, including some
gentle inclines.


Monday 6th April 2009 (noon)

The cable run in the upstairs enclosed office has been reinstalled with
appropriate fittings, suggesting that someone-else may have a license. This
does not, however, explain why the office clown took it upon himself to
attempt to put it up himself, the first time round.

Still, essential equipment such as the kettle has not been replaced.
Fortunately, I brought my own kettle in today. This is a loan, as a temporary
measure.

There is a large piece of timber loafing around the garbage disposal area
that the lobby has now become. This morning I broke it up, that it may be
easily taken away. I also brought in two trolleys to take away as much of it
as I can, this evening.

The office clown "joked" that the timber was somebody's [model railway]
layout waiting to be collected. Not funny. It was partly broken up beforehand
anyway, shoved face-down in the garbage, and anyway he's not palming off
responsibility for putting it there on the guy who collects the rubbish.

Completed and returned an application for a computer "engineer" position with
a local company. Mostway-through another one for a homelessness hostel. 'Got
voicemail from someone I thought was a never-ring-back phonecharge scam
vacancy. 'Could still be a scam: I'm so trusting.


Tuesday 7th April 2009 (midnight)

The rats are very noisy tonight. I thought one of The Others was in, by the
sound of their heavy footsteps, but no.

I have my trolleys with me, and I'm gonna take away as much of the garbage as
will fit in my wheelie bin.

Earlier on, I did an epic amount of washing-up, including another avalanche of
cutlery. The people I thought had put it there though I had contributed it:
Where is this stuff coming from?

Tried setting the screen (on the RPC) to full resolution. Also tried my
blackground minitheme. Also looked at NetSurf v1.2 whilst using this:

Pinboard icons squashed into a corner abit. 'Knew this would happen; not a
problem as such. Screen does not take up all of monitor width. Could adjust
the monitor settings to fix this, but shaln't as won't be continuing at this
resolution.

Pinboard text a better size, Zap text a bit small. NS text was too small in
the first place, but as plotted at to a point size rather than a pixel size,
has kept pace. Put up standard NS fontsize to 12pt (from 10pt) nonetheless.

Switching Zap font display to Other(Quick)/System/15pt automatically corrects
the sizing problem.

My maximum colours have automatically gone down to 256 (because I have "only"
2Mb VRAM fitted). No apparent effect, but I suspect that'd change if I tried
creating a 256 colour sprite, or browsing the colour picker: No, it doesn't:
The dithering is flawless, particularly so at this high resolution. Only when
I switch down to 16 colours does it show up.

Enough of that now: Off home with the trolleys.


Took about 40% of the foyer garbage pile home, piled & taped high on two
trolleys; 100% capacity of my wheelie bin. Meanwhile, the office clown has
managed to fill 25% (est. 20 litres) of the bin capacity with food waste,
immediately after servicing.


Tuesday 7th April 2009 (noon)

I have uploaded my screentoaser/camstudio-simu test to YouTube

Now I will download it with TechCrunch, giving me a nice snappy flv file...
Techcrunch has been pulled!

YT say to stop copyright infringement. That's MY copyright they're infringing!!
They do this to keep community adverts &c going on, but I have to
browse via their site to search anyway! Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Busying searching for AVI to FLV converter, musing to convert to MPEG in
ffmeg first, then... Hmmm: ffmpeg
can do flv conversion...


Tuesday 7th April 2009 (afternoon)

Boxed the sharper (ie most of them) portions of the foyer waste, rebagged the
rest. Shifted it all to one side, swept & hoovered the floor, restacked. Also
removed the more stubborn nails & screws with a decent claw hammer I brought
in with me, and bagged those separately.

'Put notice on wall: "Free Garbage. Please help yourselves."


Wednesday 8th April 2009

Rushed to complete application form to BCHA...
"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..." goes' a stuck key on my keyboard.
... confirmed that they do have a fax number, and what it is, just in time,
and sent via that means, just making the deadline. Phew!

Parker pen played up after faxing, so detoured to DTBs for my free
replacement pen, only to discover they've closed down (the stationers, not
the pen manufacturers).


A Stronghelp version of the php manual would be nice, but nobody has
written one for me, so I tried my hand at doing a conversion myself.

"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..." pen down, keyboard down, what can you do? Defluff
that keyboard switch, for a start. Okay, done that now.


Started from php help file in chm format,
looked up previous searches for chm file format, found:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_ ... _HTML_Help

In there, description of built-in windows converter�(doubtless because CHM is
a format invented for windows):
hh.exe -decompile extracted php.chm

Ran that, ZIPped output, !Split trans to FDD,
Decompressed to raFS archive; conversion from HTML to Stronghelp.

-Or at least, that for was plan. Transfer to the RPC took an hour, because I
had to ZIP the directory of aprx. 6000 long filenames first, chop it up,
recombine the other side, and Sparkplug is slow with large archives. What
really slowed it down was raFS, which I have discovered (at a bad time to do
so), that it is a bit slow when copying large numbers of files. It's terrific
with everything else, though!

The other place the plan fell down was with the actual conversion: I've got a
Stronghelp to HTML converter, but not the other way around! Fear not, I've
found a reference to one, though, so all should be well (once I'm able to
connect to t'internet).

I am thinking I will do a direct version, and a version with the user
comments and other fancy stuff stripped out.


Meanwhile, on the PC, had a run through looking for lengthy junk in my
wikipedia downloads: Redundant graphics/javascript, junk stylesheets that
don't add anything, you know the sort of thing. I aim to write scripts to
automatically rid me of this dross, but for now it's the semi-automated way.
I dread to think how much for my storage space is wasted by these fillings.

[freedom]

Thursday 9th April 2009

Much downloading at the free intercafe, and the "fast" machine actually
lived up to it's name, speeding up at the end of the day instead
of slowing to a crawl just as a piece of work enters it's final,
critical phase. Unheard of: Quick, phone the Vatican...
(Or at least send them an Easter card.)

'Found a HTML to Stronghelp converter:
The author, Alex Waugh, has converted the php manual with it already!
He admits the formatting could be better.
The php syntax colouring hasn't carried-over, either.

I'll check if you can do that in SH... Yes, you can!
It's a two-part conversion, with the first as HTML to text in Perl.
The second is a command line executable, text to SH.
This means I should be able to include colour, as an option,
in the Perl. I'll try to opt-enable that only for php sourcecode bits,
and give a copy back to the original author.


Printed-off the order form for !MassFS.

Minor trouble from a large bumblebee in my office. Somehow it got in, and
when I switched on the light it revived after a few hours, and suddenly rose
up and started headbutting the tube lamp.

Switched on the light in the adjoining office, switched mine off, and away it
went. Then repeated that with the foyer light, and later on the Landlord's
agent did the same with a streetlamp.


Friday 10th April 2009

Despite being requested to attend my usual JSA signing, the office was
closed! Usually they make a particular point of notifying me excessively in
advance.

ADFS reports 4Gb used on my HDD. All counting programs report only 1Gb,
around the same as there's always been. Apparently nothing wrong with the
disc. Hmmmm. 'Will hunt for detailed disc verification/diagnostic App.

I thought it was a NS memory leak in the scrapdir but nothing doing there.


I was going to go home for more food before heading out leafleting, but the
office clown has left a huge quality of food well-wrapped in the bins, more
than I could possibly eat. The pattern seems to be thus: He buys a large
takeaway, eats half of it, and throws the rest away. Anyone else would put
the leftovers in the fridge and eat them the following day, halving the cost
and delivery time.


I accidentally cited the central, cross-platform, link
for ffmpeg. At noon, on Tuesday 7th, I was mainly referring to the
RISC OS version.

Not being able to transfer large files to/from the RPC also generates backup
problems. To alleviate this, I have compacted copies of my main work areas,
and deleted from those copies large easily-regeneratable files (all graphics
related). I combined the results into single files, and split those for FDD
transfer [backwards] to the PC, from whence they will live inside the PC
backups on memory sticks [for the time being].

I don't anticipate ever having to use them, but so the same goes' for all
backups really.

I've also reorganised my root directories a bit more sensibly.

'Off to post the order for !MassFS...

Minor difficulties at next cold start, because Pinboard etc couldn't find
half the things it was looking for, ditto one item in boot. 'Picked-through
easily enough.


Saturday 11th April 2009

Hoovered upstairs & down, sandpapered graffiti off fittings,
cut some scrap hardboard to bridge gap between my two desks.


Found something to PC is faster at: Copying files from FDD.
Time taken to copy a 1423kb file from/to floppy to main disk:
PC 40s, RPC 48/78s. Dunno why from FDD speed is aster on RPC.
This is using a MsDos format disk.
RPC times using a native ADFS F format disk (1600Kb), are:
From/to FDD 34s.

Ah. Not sure whether that counts or not. Yes and no, I suppose.


Transferred RPC partial backup across to PC, which in itself is kind of
backed-up already: If the RPC get's struck by lightening etc, I can restore
from the PC.

Nonetheless, I will back up the PC to memory sticks ASAP.


Monday 13th April 2009

Came in late, after an Easter break at home leaning things there instead, and
drained the old soap dispenser into the new, put the old aside for future
refills, and cleaned the toiletroom sink.

Hoovered downstairs, and loaded up my big trolley with as much waste as I
think my wheelie bin can take. 'Not sure if it's being emptied early Tuesday
morning or Wednesday, so I'll put it out both days.

Will test an idea I had earlier: I can't get !ffmeg to accept my raw AVIs,
but I remember GIF being one of it's accepted formats, and because animations
of screenshots generally look good enough in 256 (sometimes 16) colour modes
and subsequent blur-loss in video encoding makes dithering from higher colour
depths inconsequential, series' of GIFs should be fine.

!ffmeg accept the rough GIF I generated. Conversion okay to MPEG, AVI, direct to
FLV, and FLV via AVI. Some look better than others, none play on the PC though
(apart from the original GIF).

Need to try converting a short YT video the other way...

Now this is odd: The RPC plays back the converted video smoother than on the PC.
A message overlays for a few seconds as a red subtitle on the output though,
"You need shared sound version 2.0".

FLV is 0.3Mb; MPEG is 1.5Mb.

!KinoAmp (the player I'm using on the RPC) says the video stream is
MPEG1, 320x240 (YT size), aspect ratio 1:1, 359 frames @ 30Fr/s = 12s.

It doesn't like the alien AVI, though.

Found I already have the SharedSound module, now it says I need AMPlayer 1.36
to proceed. 1.26 I have... Infact, no, I do have 1.36 elsewhere, in my
much-neglected "audio store".

So now the sound works too.

Well, that's just dandy for playback, but it's editing and production I need!!
Still, never mind: A start, and only an hour of fiddling 'n' testing to do it.


'Will try converting from a series of PNGs - tomorrow.


Tuesday 14th April 2009

Downloaded the RISC OS GCC 'C' Compiler. Just finished transferring &
decompressing it; not so much as a hello world yet, but it's (virtually) all
there. I thought I'd have to pay for it, but it's free!!

Found & got version 2 of !ffmpeg: Some long filenames so had to use raFS to
store it - will grumble to the maintainer. Have to -later- go through
yesterday's video conversion processes all over again.

My wheelie bin was collected this morning afterall, so the garage mountain
has finally shrunk to manageable proportions. 'Still there, but small enough for
me to deal with completely next week.

Just had a barrage of complaints about my blog entry for the office clowns'
just of TV installation, saying that something about what I wrote makes the railway
club liable for a thousand Pound fine from the TV licensing authority, rather than
the reality of what is actually there. The TV is apparently a monitor. It still
looks like a TV. Saying it's a TV instead of letting someone examine it apparently...
rubbish.

I can't withtract anything because it's already been published. I can clarify, but
it still looks like a TV. I'll look up the model number. They say watching videos on
a TV is illegal (which I earlier found out is untrue), whereas watching videos on a
monitor isn't, but you can watch TV on a monitor, so where does that leave things?

I haven't done anything wrong, the office clown has done everything wrong, and I am
not going to apologise for it.

Yesterday, the Landlord noted that it was his decision to junk the old
kettle, for reasons of PAT testing compliance. -So it was the Landlord making
the very stupid decision, and not the office clown: 'Happy to clarify that.

Curiously, he didn't buy another kettle beforehand, the new kettle has one
less safety feature, and he seems to have disposed of the old kettle by first
tying it in a bin liner using the same knots the office clown does, then
stuffing it behind an old radiator in the same way TOC does.


As I was examining the video displaying equipment to determine whether or not
it is a TV (it is, a digital-ready one), the Landlord interjected that while
it is a TV (see, I told you), the receiver has apparently been removed. A
thing looking like a UHF encoder is cited as evidence. So I'll just look up
that part number next...

Shifted some of my pinboard applications into !Docktor, an application dock,
and !Docktor into my boot sequence. Taking stuff off the pinboard speeds things up
(slightly), adding a new application slows down... we'll retime and see...

3-Second boot, so slightly faster. My expenses spreadsheet has lost it's icon
definition, so that'll be Pipedream's icons needin copying into my common
mannual sprite pool, then. It must have been previously defined by pinboard
booting Pipedream, which would have slowed the machine by 1 second, so it
seems!

Boot seq now just under 3 seconds (plus 9seconds for the POSTs), expenses
icon still not showing non-blank, until I start Pipedream & refresh the
screen. Odd: I need to find out what Pipedream is doing that starts/stops
this. Still actions when clicked upon, but would be nice to have all
features.

Rerunning pinboard also pop's icon up: So that's it: Icon definition needs to
be before pinboard invokation. -I'll try... Nope; no effect in the boot seq
itself. 'Have to put up with that for now.

Solved that, in a way: Put expenses s/sheet & blog icon on !Docktor. The icon
types show correctly there.


Wednesday 15th April 2009

MassFS popped through the letterbox late this morning.
Bunged it in the RPC early afternoon; little works.
Help documentation says run the diagnostic command: This command does not exist!
Hmmmmm. 'Will collect system logs, own report, &c, and email off to CJE
for support.

Off leafleting next - no, really.


Abstracted more of my pinboard, a directory of !Lynx aliases, the directory
only onto the pinboard itself.

!Docktor doesn't show you the mains of its docks when it pops them up. have
to do/suggest something about that. Maybe null files with just descriptive
filenames at the starts of the docks for now.

Noticed "Go! Noodles" in Tesco - 55% the price of Pot Noodle. Got a pot to
try. Not bad, not bad at all. They're a clear rip-off of Pot Noodle, and they taste
slightly different (no bad thing). The noodles are softer (also good), and the sauce
is richer. All in all, a superior product. Another company tried to do a
similar thing a few years ago, but theirs were rubbish. Also you have to take
into account that Tesco sell little dried packets of noodles for 8p each, but
you do need to be awake enough to find a bowl, spoon, kettle, and some
fiddling about with a microwave to prepare them. That said, with Pot/Go
Noodle, you need to find a spoon, kettle, and some fiddling about with a
timer, but you can get away with it when half-sleep/drained.


Thursday 16th April 2009 (Silly O'Clock)

Found some CFSI-calling routines inside Quantum's archive. Also managed to
get the core of CFSI down to 55Kb (when used with mode 28r only).

Transferred over previous search results [from the PC] using the Archive CD
(which I now have in the RPC instead), concerning OS_SpriteOp.

Next, to put that all together, using sprite indirection and USAs (User Sprite
Areas). -I'll have my window-thumbnailing working invisibly yet!


I ought to mention that the part of the TV's receiver that signals detector
vans has been removed, and The Others are trying to find out if the DVD
player has another one in. The only people to watch it so far, have done so
without permission, only viewing a video, one of them is insane (and
currently possibly undergoing brain surgery) and the other one is a minor
under the age of criminal responsibility.

The video-watching setup has been placed in plain view of the window next to
the viewing platform on the bridge, so mentions in this blog hardly matter
anyway.

I wonder if detector vans have a license for the TVs they use?


Some of The Others were very angry that I previously innocently mentioned
about a possible illegal TV setup, which means what they did is immoral by
their standards, so they think I should apologise. That isn't what it
suggests to me. Things that occur instead:

1. freedom.is anti-corruption, and that some of The Others that enforce HMRC policy
   were being just slightly hypocritical about this,
2. and blackmail (not that I would, but that I could)

(Maybe that list is a little too condensed for clarity, but it's the end of a
long day.)

Earlier on yesterday, produced a draft colour special-purpose Trainwest poster,
but too late to show the Landlord, whom much to my surprise popped back from the
printers' with the first proof of the Trainwest 2009 exhibition booklet. So, an
appropriate time for these things, it seems.

[freedom]

Saturday 18th April 2009 (Silly O'Clock)

Finally got CFSI to output to sprite areas, only to discover it
won't input from them (probably because it doesn't trust its input
to be sprites).

So: I'll revert to simple scaled spriteareas for now, and bung in
an a cross-mode antialiased thingy with someone-else's help later.


Saturday 18th April 2009 (early afternoon)

And so, after working through the night, I find myself little closer than
when I started. I expect this means a solution is just around the corner.

I have been going through the larger saved web pages on my PC, knocking out
the excess material. So many spurious graphics I don't need, so much idle
javascript, and even after clearing all that from a series of pages, the text
equivalent will still be a few Kb as opposed to a few Mb. Time for many
automated scripts, I feel. And also, MsIE saves its pages from several files
in a directory sharing resources online, to offline, one file with it's own
copies of everything in it's own directory, repeated for every page
downloaded! This needs to be optimised, not just by a "post-script", but by
browsers that download economically.


Sunday 19th April 2009 (afternoon)

Strolled into the office on this bright, sunny, warm day, to find a female
model [clothed] draped across the boiler room windowsill and a photographer
and two arty types with some equipment, shooting her.

Informed the Landlord, he doesn't mind as long as there's no nudity [damn] to
bring the charities that use the building [further] into disrepute, 'gave
them his contact number, and back to the usual stuff with rubbish collection,
computer things and leafleting.

Decided, on the way in, to get around the problem of ChangeFSI not accepting
input spriteareas by intending to modify it so it accepts a memory area
instead of a file. Will do a full version conversion for this, sans the WIMP
[multitasking desktop] bit at the front and capable of accepting other
graphic input files in the (externally-defined) memory area.


Monday 20th April 2009 (very early morning)

Yesterday afternoon & evening, did a large amount of leafleting.

Mod'd ChangeFSI, and (successfully this time) also produced a cut-down version
of it. However. The memory area using version garbles' its output each time
it is run. It may also be re-using previous output from the fully-working
version's Dynamic Area.

So back to the scaling experiments. All this thumbnailing really
shouldn't take so long: It's the simple bit for gawd's sake.
Just to annoy, the complex bits have breezed by so far.

I've got to get an image-slicing program of some form (inelegant working if
necessary [rather than elegant non-working]) working, ready for the latest
round of posters to print, once they're finalised.

Added !Memorizer to my boot sequence: When I press a hotkey combination, a
window enabling me to reload any recent object pop's up. I think this will be
very helpful.


Tuesday 21st April 2009 (very early morning)

Getting closer to the !MassFS mystery: I do not have most of the basic USB
Stack (hardware configuration software) on my machine.

There may be some in the downloadable fancyboot thingy; I will look in my
copies of those... nothing in there about USB at all(!)

Well, it must be available from somewhere; I'll search online again, using
those terms, and ask for advice.

Hmmm. I do actually have these files, after searching the entire HDD
for *USB*, after finding that my existing recursive list of files didn't look
inside application directories. The files were in a section I thought
contained nothing useful but couldn't identify the contents, so I had packed
it away pending later investigation. I have lots of bits like that left over
because this is a secondhand drive.

After running lots of library modules, the command *USBdevices actually
works... but doesn't return any results. It's progress Jim, but not as we
know it.

At a later date, when I have more time, I will look at my options for
reseeding my boot sequence with USB gubbins, probably using the available
automatic installer for this, the worryingly-named !Snafu (Simtecs
Non-specific Advanced Flash Utility)... no, done basic !Boot merge
manually; a few copy-operations.

Okay; done that, reset machine, uninstalled and reinstalled !MassFS,
*USBdevices stopped working again, and strange error that
USBDeviceDriver$Path or something not found during boot predesk time. - This
is good, because at last I have a error that somebody else reported, and one
that means my boot sequence does not call my new USB Stack properly. Not
surprising, because I didn't link calls into it, not knowing what or where to
put them, as I don't.

More fiddling around running modules again... and USBdevices now runs
and returns data (always helpful with a diagnostic command).

Also, in !Boot.Resources.Configure.!USB.Support, ShowInfo2 produces a similar
display. This tells me what interface I have, and what is plugged into it.

Still missing !USBLib, though, although a whole bunch of superglobal
variables are now (temporarily) set up.

Trundle, trundle, trundle, Ohh! Now I have an icon, and I can read & write
to the drive. 'Still got boot errors, and so will need to lookup and call
things correctly, but looking good!



'Transferred that image on the stick!! -But it didn't show on the PC end.
It's still there, though, says RISC OS, and it is, because I read it
back from the stick again. Transferred the GIF on 'floppy instead.
Put a PC file on the stick, popped it in the RPC, and... it still only
sees the files it put on there, whereas the PC only sees the files the PC
put on. Hmmmmm.

'Have to call up CJE about that one. I may need a specialist Filing System
or add-on to see all files. Maybe one of the these machines has created an
extra partion without telling me or something.

Now this is interesting: The first RO file, a luckily a textfile, has been
partially overwritten with the contents of the PC file, and filled with null
bytes for [exactly] half a Kb.

So I will wipe the stick on the RPC, reput stuff on the PC, and look again
on both machines.

PC see's the file it put on there, unchanged.
RPC see's nothing there. 'Will definitely need to see about that, because need
the RPC to see everything, for the ability to clean USB sticks of any
possible [future] infection.

No, they can't explicitly see each other's files.

Nonetheless, I now have a backup device for my RPC, or at least I will once I
buy another USB stick for it. It would also help to be able to transfer files
with it, because that is one of the major reasons I brought it for! -
particularly now, so I can transfer incoming files from intercafes machines,
and start cutting the old PC out of the equation, which will also clear the
way for reinstalling XP on it. Still, 'early days.

Downloaded advice says: "USBDeviceDriver$Path is initially set up in
!USB.!SetupEnv (which is run by !USB when it itself is Filer_Booted)"

Yup; so I'll filer_boot !USB... and reset... okay, now no errors on boot.

Cold restart; USB bits start automatically; !MassFS starts if USB stick put
it, and drive appears/disappears from iconbars depending on whether stick put
in machine or not. Option to dismount, but it doesn't seem necessary.

Disc access seems slower than on the PC, although only tested for small files
so far, so no idea yet whether or not this is actually any kind of problem,
or simply a limitation of the naturally slow disc access on the actual stick
itself. Recognition and safe device-removal far, far slower on PC, automatic
and rapid on RPC.

Incase it helps anyone else, the first few lines of my user-set boot, in
$.!Boot.Choices.!Boot, are:

Code: Select all

Filer_Boot ADFS::HardDisc4.$.!Boot.Resources.Configure.!USB
/ADFS::HardDisc4.$.!Boot.Choices.Boot.Tasks.MassFS

The first line boots the USB Stack, the second boots !MassFS via an obeyfile
the USB Stack can presumably fiddle with as necessary.

The USB Stack files came from an archive with the filename usb-10dec0 (and
probably more after that, probably usb-10dec03 going by the date of its
contents), so I'll search for that: Maybe it can be downloaded somewhere,
which would help other people in a similar fix.


Enough of that now: Off with the bins. I expect to have total clearance of
the foyer garbage pile by dawn.

[freedom]

Wednesday 22nd April 2009 (morning)

Came in to see new available foyer space taken up by layouts prepared for
transit, ie what it's there for.

A quick browse of Stronghelp's OS_GBPB files, and I had a working
recursive catalogue dumper. Another quick browse of SH's OS_SpriteOp
(spritearea descriptions), and some comparison of sample sprites,
and I have the figures for making a mode 28 thumbnailer.

I have realised that I can force the mode the windows the source grabs for
the thumbnailer are drawn in, to be whichever [mode] I choose, the 8bpp one
with the same resolution as the current WIMPmode I can lookup. To further
simplify things, I can specify that the sprites have no palette, forcing the
automatic dithering routines to do all the hard work for me, and convert the
colours to the nearest in the 8bpp standard desktop palette. Because the
result will be antialised, any inaccuracies in the conversion will disappear.

All 8bpp sprites are similar, so my thumbnailer need now only convert from
mode 28 to mode 28. This means I can write my own fast antialising
thumbnailer fairly easily, and then compile it, for use as a workhorse.

I just need to check any differences in the formats of 8bpp modes with
non-mode-28 resolutions.

Ah now, that's interesting: They come out as all mode 28, just with higher
resolutions, and that's it! More simplifications!!


Wednesday 22nd April 2009 (evening)

Just finished upgrading and re-recording an experimental animation from
RISC OS. Tried all sorts of image to animation applications, but don't know
enough about them to convert to an MPEG natively. This is annoying, because I
now have !CineWorks, a RO video editor, working, which is a capable
replacement to Ms Movie Maker, apart from the saving. I also tried !MakeMPEG,
which indicated in the documentation that a series of images would be
accepted as PPM files, which ChangeFSI converted for me. Then complaints of
buffer overflows. So I gave it more memory, it complained of buffer
underflows; I gave it less memory, repeat until fed up. Someone knows how to
proceed on this. It may be almost as dark an art as printing (argh!) [prints
are never the same as screens, printers break down or go nuts more often than
not, professionals think I'm/they're moving in at busy times, etc, etc].

It looks like I'll be converting the AVI to WMV in windoze moviemaker again,
which I despite because it's like trying to teach an elephant to play
tiddlywinks - rather clumsy and more trouble that it's worth.

I will search online for a MsDos AVI to MPEG converter, and meanwhile,
continue rummaging through the features of the RO video converters I have
downloaded. !CineWorks can accept a multi-sprite srpitefile direct, but with
the saving feature all wibbly, that doesn't particularly help.

But, freedom*, why not just use one of the many handy x-format to y-format
video players around? Because I need the streams of uncompressed images for
fiddling around with making the videos in the first place, so I need to
convert and edit between uncompressed streams, not just watching the things.
That is, if YouTube'll let me: They'll be asking for a licence next.

I will, in time, write my own video editor. In the betweentime, I'll continue
most of my video editing in POV. Yes, I use a ray tracer for editing videos.
Don't worry, it all makes sense when you use image streams.

______________________________________________________
* -Which is what I'm referred to by on here. Going for consistency and calling
myself it makes it sound rather like a naff superhero name. I'm sure
Freakquency can identify. And particularly so now he's got stilts too.


Thursday 23rd April 2009 (St. George's Day, evening)

Realised that in the period while I am unable to change my pirated [without
my permission] copy of XP to my [new] legal copy of XP [because I'm still
buying backup space for the swap], the USB BaseT adapter's USB extension
cable is redundant, which means I can use it to bring the USB port on my RPC
round to the front, saving much bending and scraping (and wear & tear on the
sockets) while I experiment bringing my new RPC USB bits fully up to scratch.

(I didn't pirate it, BTW, I paid for it. This didn't do me any good, because
the guy I brought it from pirated it, then pocketed the difference. This is
all covered on here some time ago. The new copy is secondhand from someone
who no longer has a use for XP, and I had to search for months to find one,
because microsoft have stopped selling it, thus making it very difficult to
stay legal/moral with regard to their own products. That, and the old XP Pro
won't network with the new machine [due to it's extra invisible firewall],
whereas XP Home apparently will.)

Come to think of it, since microsoft now have my money for the new copy, it
probably makes the old copy legal, because I can only run one copy at a time,
as I own only one PC. It is, in effect, a license to use their software.
-So that's alright then. I'd still like to do the swap, though.

Eventually, I'd like to stop using the PC altogether, although I might keep
it to chug through raytracing jobs with, although although [ie, unless],
maybe [ie, if] I can run POV on Linux (I only just thought of that). Linux on
a PC? What an odd idea. Not sure about that though. Maybe a dual booter.


Friday 24th April 2009 (Silly O'Clock)

Plugged in the USB stick with a large PC ZIpfile on it. Rummaged around
in the iconbar menu for any options. No files show, but 2288Kb used.
PC says 1984Kb used on one file.

I shall try fiddling around with the flags...

Meanwhile, got the new large Targafile reader/writer working mysteriously
quickly. 'Will apply to a new version of PocketChop when next awake.

Found option for "Auto-open", which makes it not only magic up/off an icon
when it finds a stick is inserted/removed, and quickly about it too, but
automatically mounts the drive and open's a window for it.

This means testing consists of the following: Open the two files (driver
flags and backup/notes), add new combination, reset machine via hotkey, wait
a 16 seconds, insert drive, without releasing grip on drive, check window to
see if any files indicated, remove drive, and repeat.

To save wearing myself out selecting two pinboard items and dragging them to
the iconbar, I've added an obeyfile I can doubleclick instead, and put that
on the pinboard instead. Just to be sure, I've put it on the Docktor dock as
well, so I can singleclick instead if I get tired.

On second thoughts, zero clicks is better than once: I've added the action of
opening those two files to the boot sequence now.

Device info for the memory stick shows it as class 8 (Mass storage devices),
subclass 6 (SCSI). This is something, because SCSI is the best-supported
subclass of devices, or at least it is if you have a CTL podule, which I
don't.

Most flag combinations work as it turns out. Just none of them show the PC
files, that's all. Time to call support, but that'll have to wait until I'm
awake, because I'm flagging in more ways than one, now.

Suddenly it's ticked me off for not dismounting before removing, although I
had just finished a deletion, so it probably hadn't completely finished what
it was doing there.


Friday 24th April 2009 (evening)

I now find myself very often having the fan heater on cold, purely as a
whitenoise generator.

Rather annoyed with one of YouTube's help videos earlier on today. "Special
Effects: Green Screen." Ah, good; I can use that to write part of a video
editor. It went on for ages describing the colour green, where to get large
sheets of green paper from, handy walls, and oh - don't forget the duct tape.
Finally, "when you load up your video editor..." Yes? Yes??! "... simply
select the 'Green Screen' option, and you're done." Dammit!

Tried various things with the memory stick, managed to get some truncated
RO to PC transfer going, nothing spectacular though. Some pointers so far:

• Format to FAT16 as "FAT", but tends not to work on XP. Yeah, that's right;
  it doesn't work. Back to FAT32.
• MassFS is designed as a SCSI orientated filing system. (Good: Memory
  sticks are SCSI. (Which is odd, because physically they're USB).)
• Win95FS from Warm Silence Software may help.
• Castle produce some kind of utility to format to RO on RO, but I'm not
  sure if that'll help.
• Various SWIs are capable of accessing low-level disk structure (which I
  also need).

-'Back to phoning the UK Dealer/Distributor on Monday, with those points in
mind, then.


Saturday 25th April 2009 (very early morning)

Removed old pointless music from the PC, then software that isn't going to be
used until at least after the OS reinstall. This was just Ghostscript & GS
Fonts, because I need to locate and "copy to a safe distance" any files
associated with the other idling software.

To do standard PC backups (tomorrow, when awake), then to double-archive-off
old flv videos and similar unused material, as part of optimisation &
simplication of the PC HDD. Currently it's at 26% (now 27%) free space, and I
know windoze depends so much on it's HDD that it crashes when it drops below
some figure, 5% (or maybe 25%).

Twist-connected spare stranded wire between outer part of speaker cable and a
thumbscrew on the [metal] PC chassis. This meant I could have a working
speaker again, without having to keep the non-standard plug pressed in all
the time I needed to listen for audio output.

The speakers are designed to be plugged partly into a VGA cable and partly
into a niche monitor. The monitor broke some time ago, so the speakers have
been loafing around until now.


Saturday 25th April 2009 (afternoon)

Having worked through the night at the office, went down the library to look
for info about Radio One's thing in Swindon (they're (SBC [Swindon Borough
Council]) [are] closing all the roads), and contact pointers for the
stiltwalker in Portsmouth who's good at teaching running.

Searched for his contact details on the library machine, got next to nowhere
because facebook is blocked there, then found an article on him in the Times
- today's edition - How unlikely was that?. Raced round to the newsagents and
got a copy.

Yes, worked all through the night, apart from an hour or two when I dropped
off and didn't notice until I woke up, because I had a dream about being
awake and carrying on working. That was confusing.


Monday 27th April 2009

A not particularly efficient day, but slow progress at least. Much distance
covered, largely with stocking up. Last week slow (with mixed frenetic
episodes), but still two weeks to go before critical times, and things can
only go faster.

The office next door smells of a dead rat, which probably means another rat
has died there.


Thursday 30th April 2009

A bit under the weather for the last few days, staying at home. This was not
a formal illness as such, but semi-poisoned food, and an extreme lack of
freedom [to go out] at home. I couldn't get the calories when I needed them
nor the sleep when I didn't. I intend to fix this by stocking up with Tescos
alternative Pot Noodle at home and cans of pulses in the office, so I can get
a quick morning boost when I need it, and then make a proper meal healthy in
the office.

Passing through the office next door this afternoon, rat smell worse than
ever. 'Thought is was combined with the paint smell... but it seems this is a
new odourless paint, and it's all rat.

Brought some Warto Porozmawiać at Tescos; essentially, Polish Pot Noodle.
However, this was a something of a let-down. It's basically instant mash with
mixed dried veg, croutons, and flavouring.

Only able to pay half the rent today, thus incurring the
[pretend-but-still-not-funny] wrath of the Landlord�s Agent, who used to be a
zealous tax collector. Agreed to do some leafleting to pay for it instead of
paying at the start of next month... which probably means I will have to
declare it as income at the end of the month - not ugly accounting.


Saturday 2nd May 2009

Worked through from last night, not always as alert as I'd prefer.

Prepared to go to Swindon for a presurvey\research visit, but prepared too
long and decided to go on Sunday instead.


Sunday 3rd May 2009

Much surveying of Swindon, ahead of the Big Weekend.

Several things held surprises:

• The main ticket-holder's entrance will be the Lydiard Park Hook St track,
  not the Elm Plantation "Event Entrance".
• Hook Street, despite petering-out to a single-track with passing places
  after a cattle grid, is a very good road before then, with gentle slopes, no
  loose gravel, and lots of lampposts & telegraph poles.
• The subways are (probably) high enough.
• All the Park's paths, including the formerly-billed-as-exempt
  dog-paths, will be closed from the 6th until the 11th.
• The blue tent city is already at an advanced stage of construction.
• There are no restrictions on the movement of pedestrians, and far less on
  traffic than online sources lead you to believe. For instance, roads which
  are supposed to be shut or restricted are all still open to all vehicles.
• The "Residents' Permits" either do not exist, or have not been issued.

Tuesday 5th May 2009 (morning)

Against my intentions, I slept through yesterday. It was either like a very
minor illness or perhaps because of all the walking around Sunday.

But it doesn't matter, because it was a Bank Holiday, so the leafleting won't
begin until today, right? Wrong, I suspect, as a memo to ring the Landlord is
tacked to my office door today.

Fortunately, with the Dollar exchange rate in freefall and Job-Seeker's
Allowance up by �7.60 a fortnight (+�3.80/Wk), I have checked the effect on
my budget, and it appears I can afford the full rent this month afterall.
(Which also de-uglyfies my accounts 'n' declarations.) So I'll pay that ASAP,
which is sure to smooth things over, at least until I have to tell the
Landlord I don't have time to do his leafleting today due to other
commitments, and probably not tomorrow morning, either. Certainly not Friday;
Thursday's good, though - and Wednesday afternoon... probably.

Maybe I will have a job delivering leaflets, but not this pentuple-hectic
month obviously. Five unavoidable projects to see through all criss-crossing
in May. Not fair. And not sympathy from The Others, who have just the one
hectic project, with much more leeway. Not fair.

[freedom]

Tuesday 5th May 2009 (afternoon)

Done (designed) the front poster - easy enough, just a few simple adjustments
to a basic existing design.

Done the new bottom details of the rear poster... now to reorganise existing
data to redo a complex feature at a larger size. This is the [railway] engine
bursting out of the page.

Then comes the printing, curing, cropping, assembling, and storing ready for
lamination tomorrow.


Wednesday 6th May 2009 (very early morning)

Done the main design of the rear poster, including the fiddly resizing of the
"burst" feature. Now adding smoke & steam to the top section.

Just realised -- 'haven't checked to see if I'm using the rear height that
includes the bottom strip. If not, I will have to employ some cheap extension
tricks. Not a major problem.

Got advice before The Others left, on where on the train smoke and steam emit
from, but needed more; photos to work from. You might get away with smudge
'n' blur on the web, but high resolution posters need convincing form &
structure.

Looked at the photos and magazines lying around the office building: All of
modern trains, not moving, and those that are steaming probably aren't
supposed to be. Then saw a book, "British Steam Engines" by David Ross.
Colour photographs, all very handy. Pages 117 backwards, if anyone's
interested.

'About 0134 now, and completed the rear poster now, which I think was
using the correct extended dimensions from the beginning. Still more checking
to do there, however.

Not fixed then, but fixed now. Looked-up previous preslicing (chopping into
A2 input-sized sections), done that with the current data, producing 5-6Mb
targafiles. Fortunately, these Squash to around 10% size, making transfer by
floppy a viable transfer method. Red Squirrel does take a bit of time to
compress, around half an hour for four A2-sized Targas, but the RPC should be
faster. Maybe using PocketChp2 under RS would be more efficient... 'Will try
both methods and compare.

One of them squashed down to 250Kb, but one only down to 4Mb, and that took
well over half an hour itself. So. PocketChopping on RS.


RS doesn't have the memory the RPC does', so it can�t run my program. I need
to rewrite the prog so it is more frugal with memory, then compile it into
machine code. Because of this, transferred all the files (in ~two lots) to
the RPC, ran there, but about 30 disk swaps to get it back again!

Did the 20-disk transfer, then recombined the file aokay the other end, then
"No room to run transient" errorbox. never heard of that one before. I
suppose it's just another memory problem the RPC can do but RS can't.

--Which means I'll have to re-run the converter and transfer the files I
don't have, more simply this time.

And why don't I just rewrite the converter? Because I'm too tired to do it
reliably, and it has to be properly written and fully tested.

So at last, that's the transfer completed (again), and it's just a
crash-interrupted unarchive and a half-hour unsquash, which for some reason
takes ages on RS.

Then I can do any final prechopping/ordering before the print run.

Chopped bits finally somewhere they can be printed and/or examined from.
However, now it's 1000, so I am not going to be able to make it for today's
leafleting excursion. Time for a break, some food, a bit of a lie down, and a
groan.


Some quick test prints gave contradictory results, until I resorted to
printing calibration marks within test full-page documents: The damn fickle
printer had switched back to 72dpi on me!

Printers finally chugging busily away, at 1144 (Wednesday).


Nipped out for some Diamond tape [new age copydex], encountering a pleasantly
cool breeze. But then, I had had to turn my office into a kind of oven to
speed up the print curing time.


Thursday 7th May 2009

Slept yesternight; needed to more than I thought. No time for bath today,
quick stripwash instead, no spare shirt, old sweatshirt thingy one of my
[former] ladyfriends wanted me to wear.

Slicing going well, until discovered during final aligning that the printer
had switched back to 96dpi for some sheets.

Reprinting those sheets... (meanwhile, continuing assembly should take up the
new curing time, and some curing can continue post-assembly.)

Main laying out finished at 1136. Took a break by cleaning the soap spills
off the toiletroom sink, then a spot of hoovering.

Lamination finished at 1328. 'Printers required 30 minutes to warm up the
laminator, as expected.

Results very good. Next, to stock up on misc. supplies, check weekend crowd
data & travel data, adjust the sandwichboard leaflet pouches (so I can reach
them when in use & wearing wristguards).

Unable to spare time for leafleting again. 'Just no time. I am not under an
obligation to do this, although you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise,
as the Exhibition Organiser experiences increasing levels of absenteeism and
panic.

Later, of course, to attach the prints to the boards.

Just enough time now to squeeze in the internet data downloads I need (and
thus enough time also to upload this blog update).

[freedom]

Friday 8th May 2009

Got some study keyring thingies from wilkinsons (packaging calls then split
rings, which they are not), for use replacing and agumenting
snapped/inadequate zip handles, including the ones on the leaflet pouches
which I had at some point repositioned.

Infuriating time in the free intercafe early this afternoon, when time was
limited and I finished within the too-restrictive 40 minute limit, the next
guy in the queue complained that I was finishing. Huh? "hey, he's starting
something else now." Yeah, it's called logging off. Transfer files to
a drive, delete temporay files and browsing history. 'Not a single specific
operation, but not that slow either! Either complain that I'm not finished or
that I'm finished, but not both simultanously! I was within the timeslot,
too! No cause for complaint whatsoever, and exclaming away merrily. It's not
as if this is a leisure activity, either.

- * -

Rushed around picking up supplies for the Big Weekend; laces, insoles,
batteries, flapjacks.

And so here I am in he distance future (1804), when the leaflet pouches are
redesigned, the prints are mounted on the boards, and the desk is a bit of a
mess again.

Quieter preps from now on, aiming to be ready-packed before I tuck in early
[Ha!] tonight.


Saturday 9th May 2009

Up at 0435 today, then a load of misc preparation at the office and out in
the nick of time at 0720, arrived in West Swindon via bus 0825, and had
mounted by 0835. Mounting was at a bus stop jusjust outside the marshalled
area.

Turned into Whitehill Way, which was awash with crowd barriers, stripy things
sealing off the roads, and many many marshals. Outcroppings of police, too.
Much helloing to and from the marshals. I depend on their cooperation. Round
into the Hook Street entrance, and up the hill. I am virtually the first
visitor in, although I'm not a true visitor because I'm not going all the
way.

Bess Road is blocked off by a contraflow, so I will have to adjust my travel
plans tomorrow. After a short while, arrived at the lane outside the main
gate.

Made friends with the other people stationed there; a female marshal and two
guy selling cold drinks & snacks from a transit van. There was a smaller van
there too, but the occupants were in some kind of boredom trance, and
wouldn't communicate.

There was a crowd of marshals further in from the main gate.

Rather cheekily, I asked the chief marshal if I could position myself right
on the main gate as the crowd streamed in. He agreed - a great coup.

Hardly anybody came up the lane for the next hour or so, and then a dribble
of ones and twos, then clumps at each quarter-hourly bus arrival, and then
the clumps merged into a stream.

At 1030, a pink-clad lady climbed up the gate on my lefthand side, said
hello, was promptly joined by three friends, two on either side, backing
singer style, while a guy in front took a picture. Different [and I
see all sorts]. "Pink Brigade", they said. Pink Brigade? To google/flickr
that one. Advantage Six / CJE would probably be delighted if that one
circulates, for their advert was on the front board at the time.

Fifty-or-so "is he real"s, three subdued "jump"s.

At 1130 a man dressed as a giant chicken walked past, and did a double-take
at me.

1230, police horses. Much larger than Avon & Somerset's. Virtually carthorses
infact.

1400, Knocked off [probably not the best phrase for a stiltwalker] for the
day. Intended originally to come back later with warmer clothing, but began
to feel very tired.

Took a bus back [towards] home 1440.

Took some energy pills on the bus, and promptly fell asleep. 'Noticed a few
minutes later when I was jolted awake by the motion of the bus. Making an
effort to stay conscious, mainly to watch my luggage, but also in order to
get off at the correct stop, took another energy pill. Woke up half a mile
down the road. I may just send those pills back for analysis.

Dragged myself out to the [railway] station intercafe, to put a comment on my
stiltwalking mention in drobe, plugging my activity at the Big Weekend.

For some reason, managed to remain in the office preparing for tomorrow but
very slowly, until mid evening and beyond.

Tuned into the Radio One late evening: "There's a man dressed as a chicken
right next to me, dancing really fast."

Managed to get home before midnight, and so to sleep for at least five hours,
maybe six, which is two more than yesterday.


Sunday 10th May 2009

Last evening the Landlord, who used to work for the BBC, suggested standing
around the staff entrance in the early part of the morning.

No buses running this early on a sunday, so off by rail to be met by a
prebooked minicab/taxi thingy. Much discussion in the taxicar about the road
closures, and eventually dropped off at what turned out to be a better-placed
bus stop. Mounted there, and round the corner down Hay Lane.

The area wasn't closed to pedestrians passing by, and outside Lydiard Park's
north entrance, there was a big construction of scaffolding poles holding up
a white-on-green banner saying "Artistes Entrance".

The slightly-surprised marshals and a security guard allowed me to stand by
this sign, and we agreed 1030 would be a good time to move off.

Some hopeful fans had turned up, and were advised that they wouldn't see any
stars, because they'd be in tourbuses with the windows blacked-out.

Several large trucks with things like "Stage Logistics" written on them
rumbled in, lots of catering vans, and an ambulance. Lots of police vehicles
also, in and out, all the time, just like at the main gate.

The marshals were talking amongst themselves about where one of them had done
the G20. They had a pair of sturdy metal ramps for the leaders' cars.
President Obama's 15 tonne armoured limousine squashed them when it went
over, and they had to jack them up to move on.

A large van with blacked-out windows on the way out stopped by me, one of the
windows rolled down, and they said hi, which was nice. I've no idea who they
were, though.

Stiltwalked around to the main gate, taking an hour because it's not a direct
route, and resting at the bus stop outside Greendown School, whereupon I was
passed by a column of police cars which appeared to have set up a temporary
base camp inside the school.

'Next leg was the alternate walking route, which by now was thronged.

Met Maria, the friendly female marshal, halfway along Hook Street. Stopped
for a chat by one of the concrete cubes used to block off field gates.

Reached the main entrance and renewed permission to stand on the main gate.

The Snack & Sandwich Company Ltd let me lean on their van again.

A little while later, Maria came round to her normal post being a fluorescent
human bollard, directing the crowd round the corner into the main gate.

Much stiltstanding, and much conversation with Maria, who travels around a
lot, and lives in Telford. She suggested I take off my boards for a rest, and
positioned them where the crowd could read them, while I sat on a concrete
cube. I did some maintenance on my right stilt, clipping off a stray tyresock
wire. I went for a "stroll" without the boards, which were well-guarded, and
there's a thing that hardly ever happens.

Back to work, and it's a much hotter day, and standing is not chilly. I have
a vest on today, after the chill winds of saturday.

Later on in the early afternoon, a representation of SBC turned up and asked
me if I had permission to be there (it's a public road), a peddlers license
(I'm not peddling), and was generally annoying & unhelpful. We had formed a
little community, and we closed ranks against her at this intrusion.

I say my goodbyes to Maria, switch on my flashing red
hazard/warning/decorative sidelight (all vehicles going down Hook Street have
their hazard lights on, why should I be any different?), and stiltwalk off.

Down Hook Street, and the wrong way along the deserted dual carriageway of
Whitehill Way, which the marshals and police mind not at all.

A double decker drew in as I neared the stop [on Great Western Way], waiting
for the crossing lights to change, so I strode out, bringing the (sparse)
traffic to a halt along the Great Western Way, and blocking-in/flagging-down
[flagging in? blocking down?] the bus. He opened his doors and I tried to get
in, ducked, and scraped my helmet along the ceiling before I was halted by my
rear board banging into the outside of the bus. The driver was much amused by
this. I went for Plan 'D' [always have a spare auxiliary backup plan]; diving
into the bus from a step backwards outside, trying to brace myself against
the sides of the doors, and landing rather heavily on my [heavily padded]
knees.

I had to take off the boards before I could reach my cash to pay for a
ticket, then it was heaving myself up and flipping myself around on the
inter-deck stairs so I could unclip myself from the stilts, infront of
silently bemused passengers. Once I had my stilts stowed into the stilt-rack
(and don't they just think of everything these days? what else is that rack
for? (now you know)) and was safely seated, the bus moved off. All very
patient, but then it was a Sunday.

Back to the office to discuss my next move. Much discussion, largely
disagreeing with my dehydration plan, but you can't stop for a fluid-dropping
break on stilts now, can you? Particularly not with a bloody great sandwich
board bolted on the front of me.

Used my bulk-journey bus ticket to get back to Swindon, passing a huge line
of nose-to-tail double deckers parked up at Blagrove. There were Thamesdown,
ones borrowed from Stagecoach, and yellow ones that looked like they were
halfway through being repainted.


Mounted in the main Bus Station, stiltwalked across deserted Tricentre spaces
to the Flemming Way subway, the highest of the Swindon subways, found I was
too tall to enter, went round to the roads.

Walked up the hill to Old Town, bothered BBC Radio Wiltshire, secured an
interview slot for the coming week, after first roping some luckless bod from
a nearby Pub to ring the intercom for me. I couldn't fit into the porch.

Stiltwalked around Old Town, attracting very little attention from the crowds
that weren't thronging the streets. Loud gasps every time I passed a Bar, in
other words twice. Found no point in continuing up that hill, and too
dangerous to stiltwalk down, with probably being too awkward to carry the
boards down, so asked parked taxi to help. Chatted, then agreed I would
dismount at the bus stop round the corner, then come back to outside the bar
for the journey.

This plan fell apart quite badly. Halfway round the corner noticed a
newly-installed steel bench, curved in an artistic manner. Dismounted there,
and rushed back to the Bar, where I waited for several minutes for the taxi
to return, then set off down the hill anyway. Upon turning the corner, saw
the taxi I had been trying to find speed off from where it had apparently
been parked; by the bus stop where I had thought I would be.

Carrying the board all the way down the hill to the railway station turned
out not to be quite so arduous as I had imagined. Several stops to rest, but
quite practible.

The waiting "lounge" (infact a wide corridor with seats in) by the rail
platform was very crowded for Swindon on a Sunday, so I propped my board up
on an empty seat while I waited. Back to 'Nam and a rest 'n' groan etc.


Monday 11th May 2009

Absolutely shattered today, and with zebraed arms where the sun caught me
between my elbow pad straps, wristguards, gloves, watch strap, and wing
mirror. Permanent headache, tired, too tired to eat although I forced myself
to down a can of rice early in the morning.

Late evening managed to eat a cold meal, then straight back to bed.


Tuesday 12th May 2009

Feeling better late afternoon, and well enough to come into the office early
evening, to find that someone else has done the washing up - again!

Refilled the Brother's inkjet cartridges, washed the syringes, found out that
the Landlord has nicked my radio interview slot. This is probably just as
well, seeing as I know next to nothing about Trainwest, and he is the
Exhibition Organiser. However, I will now not be able to plug the worthwhile
thing (A9), nor my video CV.

The interview will be on Sue Davis' programme, and we have established that
just about nobody [we know] listens to BBC Radio Wiltshire, which explains
why I have never heard of her, nor indeed the Landlord's own broadcasts as
science correspondent.


Thursday 14th May 2009

A nice revitalising bath, during which the gas engineer called, a hot meal
and out, first spending too long on a "quick" intercafe visit.

Realised I am both recovered AND have a few hours free, so, aimed for the
North Bradford-on-Avon area, and took the train and a few leaflets out.

Stopped at Avoncliff, intending to do a Westwood, North to Winsley, and then
East into BoA if time, for the train back to 'Nam via bath.

At the Cross Guns [Pub] in Avoncliff, found lost friends, escapees from 'Nam.
Brought them news from the outside world, promised to visit later in the
summer.

Did a few barges East along the canal, then a few more round the corner, and
soon before I knew it, I was more than halfway to BoA along the towpath: They
didn't peter out until after the swingbridge. Raced back to Avoncliff before
dusk fell, dodging assorted geese, ducklings, joggers, boaters, watercats,
etc along the way.

Did the rest of Avoncliff & North Westwood, then with time disappearing
nipped back across the water to do the few habitations North of the aqueduct.
Finished off with a few barges West of the 'duct, then a short sit-down
outside the Pub before waiting for the train back.

Now, Avoncliff Halt, as well as being unlikely to exist in the first place,
also is a request-only stop. "Make a clear signal to the driver" it says in
the timetable booklet. So I took my very-bright headlight off and waved it up
and down in the direction the train should arrive. In the pitch-black
darkness. No train. I kept staring unblinkingly into the darkness, because I
didn't know when the train would arrive (and neither, apparently, did they),
nor how fast it would be going, nor what it would look like, nor when it
would be visible, what the line that way looked like in daylight from the
platform, whether they'd be able to see me, etc, etc.

Scarcely eight minutes later, the train arrived, going slowly past the
request stops and doodling its musical horn at me as acknowledgment when I
dazzled it with my hi-beam in the middle of nowhere.


When back within the office, found that someone has moved the washed items
into the to-be washed area, the unwashed items to the washed area, the spare
items to the normal area, and the normal items around randomly.

The office clown has screwed-up half the remaining expensivish posters and
buttered the kitchenarea worktops. Honestly, it's more like babysitting a
small child than admolishling a covolunteer.


I estimate only 120 leaflets I did get to put out, afterall. However, I do
believe these leaflets will have a higher takeup, due to the surprise and
delight with which they were received: These folks had never experienced junk
mail before. It's a bit of an unusual location. Maybe we ought to ticket
villages for the Calne Show.


Friday 15th May 2009

Got up to (guestimated) 10mph, by synchronising bounce-steps with actual
steps.

Up Southgate, or whatever it's called now, long chat at Queens Square,
someone tried to set some dogs on me while clumping up Milson Street,
resulting in two terrified dogs. Up past High & Mighty, through Walcot, past
Burrell's Yard, down London Road a bit to cross safely, over the bridge.

Cut through some back streets to avoid one-way system around Sydney Gardens,
up steep alleyway, into Sydney gardens main street, across Putney', loop
through "under" cathedral, through round near-Abbey streets that started in,
to loop through to dismount at bus stop by McDonalds.

Walked to the paid intercafe, half an hour there, fortunate enough to collect
"reply within 24 hours notification", unhelpfully sent just before a weekend.

Then had to rush for my train(!).

Tyresocks not all that worn! Still have to change 'em, but then would have to
do that before Melksham leg anyway.


Saturday 16th May 2009

Melksham stiltwalking. Got there via public bus. Did at least 3 miles:
Stiltstanding in the centre, loop-stuck in the car park again, exploring
various alleyways, detouring through the funfair, over a surprise hill in a
park (King George V Park) I hadn't noticed before, struck out accidentally on
the correct road outwards, and across Queensway, to the road to Bowerhill.

Gave rough directions to passing car looking for the same Pub I was going to,
paused to be a signpost a little behind a fixed temporary "Train Show" &
arrow sign on one of the big roundabouts.

Then on up the hill into Bowerhill, pausing for directions to the Pub, called
the "Pilot Inn" (Bowerhill used to be an RAF base), which turned out to be
far too small to get into, then back down the hill to the former aircraft
hangers of the venue.

Encountered one of The Others outside the venue, who brought me out a chair
with instructions to return it after use, and I was able to dismount, and
have a little rest 'n' groan.

Returned the chair, gatecrashed the Exhibitors' Lounge, and consumed my
flapjacks and water there, whereas I might get kicked out of the public
canteen for doing so. Rested and waited for the bus departure time. Talked to
a very nice guy who later turned out to be the bus driver I was looking for
in the first place.

In passing visited the exhibition to say I was off, and was virtually dragged
in by the Landlord/Organiser, who had posted a message on a modelling forum
supposedly banning me from the Show, although I knew that was political [ie,
not true]. He said I must see County Gate and Stoney Lane Depot before I
left, so saw those, all very impressive, and onto the free shuttlebus home.

Barely any wear on the new tyres! -They'll be good for the folk festival next
week.


Sunday 17th May 2009

Long wait for shuttlebus in railway station before returning to office and
rereading leaflet; no shuttlebus on sundays!

A long wait for the van to arrive, and then it didn't, and a trailer pulled
up instead bearing folding chairs and tables. It turned out that the new
stewards hadn't turned up [at the venue] either, but instead of army cadets,
the trailer carried two squaddies. And, er, the office clown. They were
wearing a mixture of old camouflage gear and what I can only describe as
"farmwear". So they were in camouflage and I was in HiViz.

The office clown "helped" them unload the chairs by dropping them randomly
over the office carpark, then stacked the rest so they'd fall over when the
trailer moved away. I restacked against the boiler room wall, ready for the
human conveyor belt I later participated in to load them into the boiler
room.

Trainwest 2009 was very busy both days, so some of us must have done
something right. Not the office clown though, whom, on being put in charge of
putting up posters didn't, and on being put in charge of leafleting, coloured
in roads he hadn't done and hid 3000 leaflets in the stables.


Monday 18th May 2009

Gingerly peeled off the padding and blister prevention dressings from my
legs. The anti-scraping plasters had caused total prevention, but the rest
revealed burst and bloodied blistering. Ran out of large plasters covering
those, used lint & tape to finish off. 'Off to buy more dressings tomorrow.


Tuesday 19th May 2009

Blip booting the PC; really must do a backup at the next opportunity!

Options for safe mode &c, then keyboard didn't respond entirely, then long
boot pause, so reset machine so I could examine any error messages (I didn't
look the first time around), then another long boot, so waited for that to
complete.

Long wait for desktop to appear; selected My Documents from the Start
launcher, then desktop popped up unbidden, so saved screenshot of that. Next,
started disk cleanup to remove any large temporary files, then to run a
chkdsk, then to defrag. then might just get some work done.

'Will select compress old files this time around, if significant space to be
saved, largely because PC HDDs need a large proportion of free space else
they seize. This is an OS problem [from microsoft's extensive collection].

125Mb temporaries (tick), 58Mb old files (not significant). Resulting in 26%
free space (3.8Gb). Defrag app taking a long time to analyse (only) disk
structure...

Took the now-old advertising off the sandwichboards.

... Some enforced chkdsk-ing again, corrections to minor disk damage, and
it's all back up to speed. Printed the new sandwichboard filler strip for the
folk festival weekend, and now just again defrag and a restart speed test.

I still have the "tiger stripes", although they're tan-brown instead of red
now. With the increased muscle mass, my arms look like Garfield's.

[freedom]

Wednesday 20th May 2009

A slow day, with the most effort sidelined into converting part of the
scanned CineWorks manual into HTML (so far up to page 22 out of 67; a third
of the way through). I have extracted all the figures, although most
if not all of those will have to be regenerated from CineWorks itself, or
faked using a template editor and the application's internal files.

In the evening, witnessed the office clown doing the [small amount of]
washing up. He showed no comprehension of the process or indeed what
he was saying, and didn't put anything away afterwards, but this is still a
giant and surprising leap forwards. (Some illusion, surely?)


Thursday 21st May 2009

At home, washing & cleaning many things. Managed to secure a small loan of
�50 from relatives to pay the rent early, in cheque form, then slightly
hampered by not making it to the office in time to catch the Landlord's
Agent.


Friday 22nd May 2009 (late morning)

Got the rest of the �30 loan from relatives in cash, Signed On, everything
cleaned and prepared and... no crowds. No work with no crowds.

Picked up some sunscreen spray and unperfumed antiperspirant since Boots
stopped selling it (after much searching, found Superdrug stock Mitchum 48Hr
unperfumed @ �2.60.

Bumped into one of The Others on the way to Tescos, in Island Park, which is
not a proper park and certainly not an island, the crowd still not having
built up very much.

Much to my annoyance, found a cheaper unscented antiperspirant in the form of
Tescos Basics at 41p.

Gave �2 of copper coins to my bank.

Did some more OCR stuff (84%-done now); not sure why, maybe I shouldn't have
and should have gone up the free intercafe' instead, or even got some lunch.


Friday 22nd May 2009 (late afternoon)

... CineWorks manual now 100% complete, at least as far as the text in and
basic HTML conversion is concerned.

There remains the fiddling around with floats and untidy unordered-list
markers, the adding of extra internal & external links, the regeneration of
the graphics, and the addition of a "Credits/Acknowledgements" section.

Then to put it online, and release the, er, Releases.


Saturday 23rd May 2009

Much scurrying around. First, out on stilts & down to where the crowds are...
but it's not a crowd, it's a procession. Normally I'm very happy to be an
inconspicuous part of the crowd when there's a procession, but now I find
myself on stilts. This doesn't really work, and it look's as if I'm a lost
party from the event, which is not what I want either.

While I'm weighing up the alternatives...

Stay put and crouch down (impossible), turn around and go back the way I came
(would take too long and look like I was joining the procession), South along
the river (too close to the water), North along the river (procession goes'
that way).

... Two stiltwalkers dressed in the traditional long trousers go past,
looking rather surprised (to see someone on their level). But they're
cheating: They're in plastering stilts, rather than wooden ones.

Then I realise there's a way out: Up the High Street a short distant "behind"
the crowd, and out through Borough Parade. So off I go.

Down Westmead and up the hill on the new road, through to the Rose & Crown -
which is open!!

Pottering about the High Street, now the procession has gone. Near the
crowds, but not too near the performers.

North along the river, into Island Park, where the outdoor arena & "shops"
are.

Out, and up the road to the Pub, back down again, to be met, much to my
surprise, by the festival organiser. Some misunderstandings smoothed over.

Apparently I am so distracting that the audience is looking at me instead of
the acts. And there was me thinking that Morris dancers etc would be a madder
sight than a guy on stilts. But apparently not. So now I am detouring around
large performances, and aiming for crowds in other parts.

Just after this, someone from the main event catering company wants to hire
me: He needs advertising to go around corners and up other streets, which he
can't do, being stuck in the centre as he is. A prime position, but no easy
way of calling further afield.

At some point in all this, took a break in the Brunel, which has doors just
high enough. They wouldn't let me sit on the bar "just sit on the chairs like
normal". Managed to balance on the some barstools with backs, which are
awkwardly-low, even with the boards off. Sat on them, but not like normal.

Managed to get back up again, put the boards back on, stagger back out
through the doors, causing a shared sense of panic, both for myself, and by
the people I might squash if I fell.

So, up to the near the office, and dismount near there. Benches outside the
nearest Pub too low, so I decline offers of help and head to the next set. The
someone attacks me, but it's just like a trip, and I recover.

Dismount at the seating, haul shell back to the office, pausing to glare
at the attack on the way. Stow equipment, freshen up, collect a few things,
go looking for the attack. He's escaped. But he's drinking; he won't go far.

Off down the festival central cabins in Island Park, to give the festival
organiser something I promised him earlier, and get details from the catering
guy. Got those; back up to the office, detouring slightly to buy food.

Burn several hours trying to find obscure fonts, no luck on either machine,
but also I image-enhance the printout of the caterer's company logo, and
the Image Outliner on the RPC to turn that into a smoothed vector version.

Reshape by Michael Attenborough pop's that into a curved setting, and
then I get on with fitting/sizing the rest of the design text.

Done on the RPC in !Draw, intended as a draft version only, but I find
it's easier to use that as the master. Draft prints printed out, and
'just in time to get down to the caterers for approval and alterations.

Back up to the office, thickened and retraced the font (by increasing the
line thickness of the midway version), producing a new version that will take
a thicker outline without being "pinched out".

That done, some tricky colour matching, a quick dose of PocketChp2, and on
with the print run. Some prints come out a bit stripy, so I pause the print
queue, run a cleaning cycle on the black cartridge, resume 'n' reprint the
streaky ones, and finish just as I run out of black ink.

That cartridge was refilled to the brim last week. I'm gonna have to find
somewhere stocking ink (my normal suppliers folded a few weeks ago) early
next week.

And now it's two in the morning on Sunday.

I may have to plasticfilm-over the prints anyway; there will be too many
flapping edges otherwise.

Had to take a three-hour nap in the office - I'd lose the contract
otherwise. Restarted the work immediately on waking (or rather, being woken
by my wristtop alarms).


Sunday 24th May 2009

Somehow got the A1+ rear poster printed, assembled, and coated with plastic
film. The client approves, and it was off for a five hour shift, after a
complimentary breakfast. Restaurants being a burned and buried book to me,
I just had some eggs & beans and off I hopped.

Stopped in the Angel after a bit for half a Lemonade with lots of ice. They
let me sit on the bar. In order to reach this, I had to duck under their 7.5'
doors and up three long steps. There was enough continuation of level after
each step to treat them individually, and a handrail, a chandelier to duck
under just before, and a very low flat archway afterwards, scarcely 7'.

So there I was, sitting on the Angel's trendy conservatory-style bar, with a
smattering of polite rich types and occasional waiters whizzing past carrying
edible sculptures with supporting one hand. The Angel is a hotel that take's
itself too seriously, and probably has the most expensive prices in town.
It's not exactly approachable normally, but this was not a normal day, and the
atrium bar installation helps open up the ground floor.

It made me feel like the feng shui dragon. In feng shui, you are supposed to
imagine a dragon moving through the space, and if he would bang his head on
the door and knock over this and that with his tail, you are supposed to
raise the height of the doorway, and move this and that out of the way.

I wonder if practitioners of feng shui have a "standard dragon", with
height, weight, length of tail, flammability of breath etc, all defined?

I wonder if I am taller than the standard dragon? It would be a Japanese
mythological beast, where everything is smaller anyway. I wonder if this
hotel has been feng shuied at all.

"Mind the chandelier!" said some of their residents, but I was more worried
about the steps. Chandeliers just swing about a bit if you knock 'em, anyway.
They're quite sturdy things, hence the phrase "swinging from the chandeliers".

I only swung from a chandelier once, with a very close female friend,
accidentally, whilst trying to change the lightbulbs. It was in the rival Bear,
across the way. 'Knocked one in Cardiff last year, though, accidentally
headbutting the thing out of the way, whilst wearing a mountaineering helmet
I hasten to add.

Back stiltwalking until knocking off time (probably a phrase I ought to
avoid). Felt very tired after a few hours, and had to take a long break. Up
Station Hill, which is a steep hill which left me feeling like I shouldn't
have done that, and dismounted at the Rail Bus Stop, then over the bridge to
the office.

Someone crept up behind me with a kazoo on the footbridge - I wondered what
the duck it was.

Went for a lie down in a darkened room at the office, to recover. And no, it
wasn't a sleep.

Got a Pot Noodle and a can of Rice from the corner shop, which was very
reviving, and off down town, on stilts again.

I had a job interview whilst on stilts for Table Top Circus, which I passed.
It's a new experience a minute down here today.

Passed by Chez Nous, but they were too busy to see me, and I couldn't really
dismount there, 'went back to the office, and found I was too tired to nip
back to Chez Nous before going home. Texted them about this instead, and off
home for a, solid eight hours sleep, as it turned out. -And in a bed, too:
'Luxury.


Monday 25th May 2009

Bounced out of bed full of energy at 0738 this morning [at home], in the
office [in the office] checked & serviced the equipment, inc. changing the
tyres [around [sides]], then hit what I can only describe as an "exertion
hangover", and had to go for another lie down again.

Too wobbly to use stilts, so sandwichboarded on foot for 2:30 hours.

Did some shopping for two small essential, stilt-related, supplies, whilst
earning - no clash - and did some slow strolls up & down the High Street.

I was attacked three times in a row by restaurateurs furious
that someone advertising a competitor had gone past their premises, so
furious that the first tried to bribe me, the second physically attacked me,
shoving me into the road (by creeping up behind me) with shouted threats, and
the last screamed abuse across the street. I was only outside each of these
for seconds at a time, stayed on public land, and I only stopped by the last
ones because they flagged me down. The last ones' shop was actually closed at
the time, too: They're insane. [Although probably not clinically insane like
the office clown is - they didn't try to knife me or anything.]

"We can't have you standing outside here... You can't advertise here, clear
off! **** you! We have to live here all the time! [The last comment implying
they thought I wasn't local, as if that made it okay somehow.]"

This is outrageous - you don't attack someone just because they're competing
against you. When a van goes' past your offices with a rival's logo on, do
you rush out and smash their windows? No, of course not.

Felt much better after a walk round in the fresh air and sunshine, and
was able to get back stiltwalking after 2:30 hours.

Visited to campsite, and had a trot round there. Everyone was packing up much
faster than the caravan site. Friendly officials at the gate.

Dismounted in the High Street, and off to discuss business with the client.

Chez Nous paid me for two days stiltwalking at reduced introductory rate,
free restaurant food, and a sympathy expense for the huge quantity of black
ink I just ran out of.

However, it currently seems that this money counts as company income, not
personal income. The company-to-be's accounts are in debit, so until they
balance, I do not have an income from it. Just to confuse, the company (the
one that doesn't exist yet) is in debt to itself, that is, more has been
invested it/by it than money it has taken in.

How the DWP will take this is unclear; I need further legal clarification.
Since the Signing form's declaration is a legal document, and the answer to
the question "have I done any paid work in the last two weeks?" is a legal
statement, and legally I haven't, it should be valid to carry on as normal,
then go for formal company registration, then clarify retrospectively.

Pragmatically, however, if I don't have a valid Sign On next week, the
company is toast anyway, and nobody get's any extra money and/or off benefit,
so the moral imperative, to get off benefits, is not in conflict.


Now the festival was practically over, "for you, ze festival iz over", and
I had a little bit of spare money, I took a little bit down to the Pubs.

The Bear was promoting a real cider bar upstairs (presumably the others are
pretend cider), which I saw whilst on stilts, but the whole place had closed
by the time I got back there. So I went in the suddenly-reopened Rose & Crown
instead. Half a cider in there, and accepted an invitation to look around.

Dance floor extended into some former backstage quarters, extra sidebar, DJ
box moved; not really major changes, but good ones. My fears that the Pub
had been transformed into more restaurant than Pub turned out to be unfounded,
probably because they came from the Gossip & Hearsay, and it was off out to
find another Pub.

This turned out to be The Four Seasons, which earlier had tried to bribe me
when I was off stilts and the regulars cheered me when I was back up on them.

The bribing manager, if he was indeed associated at all with the place, was
nowhere to be seen, some people I vaguely know invited me to join them
outside, I obtained another half cider, and conversation flowed if not
entirely without slurring.

They said small children earlier on had thought I was god, and so did they.
Well, this is an unexpected promotion, particularly for someone who'd be just
as happy with a half-price beer promotion, and also for someone who doesn't
really believe in god.

A little while ago, I proposed the logical extension to monotheism, where
people believe there is only one god; that of self-theism, where someone
believes that they are god. Wikipedia classifies this under mental disorders,
but it is no less nutty than other types of religious belief, and in many ways
a more sensible natural progression. It also raises the problem of whether
that believed-to-be-god actually believes in god, or themselves, and possible
conflicts arising.

Now here I am confronted by self-theism by proxy, or possibly alter-theism.
Well, it's more sociable, but not a religion I follow personally. I suppose
that isn't the point, though.

Like all trendy gods, I didn't notice the people worshipping me, or that
worshipping was going on at all until someone pointed it out. I've gotten
drunk and seen people, that must be it.

So in the same day, I get attacked outside one Pub, then worshipped as a god
by it later on. What more could one ask for? Women falling at my feet?
Infact, just before I dismounted for the last time, earlier on, a lady in the
distant tripped over and fell rather heavily on the pavement. She said she
was distracted by me. So there you go.


Ran off to see if the festival epicentre, in the Pub across from the office,
was still serving. This is The Old Road Tavern, and indeed it was. As I went
in, slightly drunk, I was mortified to bump into the crew of Chez Nous;
always on best behaviour infront of clients, and here I was a bit drunk.
Fortunately, so were they.

I mistook my tiredness for drunkenness, which had the effect that I sobered up
the more I drank. For some reason, the Pub gave me some free drinks later on.
Perhaps I am an alcohol god, if I have to be a god of anything in particular.
I think that's probably for my believers to decide, though.

Much drinking, into the early hours, and found that Chez Nous, like me, had
started drinking late, so were anxious to find some drinking establishment
open late. There was only my vodka stash at the office, [and the gallon of
whisky* but I'm not opening that,] which [I thought] sounded too much like a
cheap chat up line to the female person who enquired, or the expensive
E11even nightpub down the road. That wouldn't be open for much longer,
though. We all walked partially home together, parting at the Arches.


Tuesday 26th May 2009

A day of rest, but I didn't need quite as much as I thought. Finally able to
pass on the borrowed money in the form of a cheque to pay the rent early.

Collected the office trash and trolleyed it home, only to find I had somehow
got the wrong day for collection. Put it in the bin anyway. On the way home,
I was approached in the dark by a violent mugger wearing dark clothing and
carrying something that glinted on a chain. He paced me, then announced he
wanted to apologise, and as a part of that asked me where I had been, where I
was going, and probably would have gone on to enquire where any cash may be
stored if I hadn't refused to accept his apology and told him to shut up.


Wednesday 27th May 2009

Spent some time in the free intercafe today, checking my messages,
downloading client's websites (for logos for their boards) & tracking data
(for their locations), checking my messages, and -rather sadly- searching for
pictures of myself online.

Today in -theory- my account is enough in credit to pay my monstrously
expensive (for me) annual hosting bill, but I didn't have enough time to
complete the transfer request, because I had to access the internet instead,
and take took a couple of hours. I had to stay in the part of town where the
free intercafe is, in order to do this, which burned more time afterwards,
walking to anywhere useful, by which time it was too late to use the phone to
call a plumber. So it takes a few days to phone someone, two weeks for email,
etc; 'been through this before. This is modern age poverty for you: Too poor
to keep commercially-expected pace.

Besides which, my printer needs ink, which I cannot get in this town, so
that'll have to wait till tomorrow, when I will have enough time to get down
to bath while the shops are still open. I cannot use other printers, because
by the time I will have the documents ready, everywhere in 'Nam that has
public printers in working order (ie, just the library and the free intercafe
now), will be closed due to early closing day.

Quickly knocked up a demonstration site for Chez Nous, and did some more
checking with the CineWorks HTML manual. 'Made those ready to put online.

_______________________________
*'Gotta sell that thing - possibly to the 'Tavern.

[freedom]

Thursday 28th May 2009

Some more rummaging around on the internet for things needed and things
missed. Also ran Validation Checks and other diagnostics for my test subsite
for Chez Nous (good first time(!)) and the CineWorks manual.

Then saved the validation results, which I later discovered MsIE had
scrambled, so I had to work from memory a bit there.

Got the safety gear laundered, so there's a first.


Friday 29th May 2009 (a little after midnight)

A little more going over of the CineWorks manual HTML conversion.
Things like "5ets" missed by spelling chequer (Sinc.)

Converted some more of the graphics; 45% done there, counting by number of
diagrams, rather than dimensional size, filesize, or individual complexity.

To upload those updates in the morning, and also to revalidate, this time
taking care to ensure the result isn't scrambled.


Friday 29th May 2009 (around noon)

Did the annual SWIFT Transfer.
Made enquires about business accounts; collected data.
Stocked up on preparation-type supplies.


Sunday 31st May 2009

Did a quick "manual" file count of RPC HDD space:
50767 files in 1,111,653,971 bytes, ie 1060Mb, or 1Gb used.

This does not include latent space in chunk sizes, of course.
HDD Spec. says 10Gb capacity; free space reading says 4Gb used out of
9Gb capacity.

Odd but harmless, say technical experts.
Clearly, however, there is plenty of available space however you slice it.


Reading through the library of downloaded definitions for company formation.

Processed the huge pile of washing up.


Monday 1st June 2009

Lots of work to do today, and of course the bastards across the street have
turned their building into a ghettoblaster, music up high, windows open. I
expect it's lovely inside; outside the wandering waves interfere and end up
as a warbling noise. I've put the fan on, for white noise.


Looked at the progress of my CineWorks manual document conversion.

There are 71 GIFs to be converted, of which I am 45% of the way through the
average filesize of the old scanned files was 66Kb, whereas it's 7Kb for the
new regenerated ones.

All the old GIFs together were 4.6Mb, the current total GIF size is 2.6Mb,
and the predicated final total is 0.5Mb. The size of the HTML document is
87Kb. By the end of this process, the manual should comfortably fit on a
floppy.


Tuesday 2nd June 2009

A hectic, but ultimately successful, day of rushing around trying to find
stockists of printer ink. JR Inkjet's phone number is offline, but I have now
found an alternative number for them (01382 868137), and stockists of rival
JetTec (Woods & Inkspiration in bath, and also bath's WHS). JetTec does black
refill kits with 150% more ink at �7.99 instead of �9.99, but falls down a
bit with the colour version; 'same amount of ink, 150% higher price.

A quick bit of mucking around, and that's the printer working again. And
tested, and the colour cartridges are all virtually full anyway.

Looked at how ready I am to turn the skeleton business into a full one, not
so much to put flesh on the bones, as first making sure I have all the bones
a skeleton should have - and not a fossil. This has been given fresh impetus
by orders continuing to roll in - without advertising - by such simple
activities as nipping down the shop. The shop didn't have what I wanted (ink)
in stock, but they wanted to buy from me!

There are problems: I'm not ready on the supplies front (much better now),
some night to go on the pre-prepared materials front, and I have [virtually]
no money. The no money problem is odd because I need cash now to register and
things, and I am able to make money quickly. Clearly, I need to borrow some
from somewhere.

Meanwhile, I don't know if I can use the office as an official business
address, and neither does the Landlord, so he's calling a board meeting, or
at least a meeting of the Directors, with the legal guy in attendance.

Orange says they can upgrade my mobile to a nice one with a working battery
and picture messaging for only �50, still on Pay-As-You-Go, and can easily
transfer the number from the old phone. 'Must get a carry case with strap for
the new phone... Iexpect it'll come with that anyway. Basic phones go at �20,
so the small difference isn't worth quibbling over. I thought it'd be
somethinglike basic �30, picture �200, but no. So no worries there.


Thursday 4th June 2009 (a little after midnight)

Just finished making a new rear board cover. I need these things... Lots of
them. The number of spare supplies dictate I'll have to do with just one
extra for now, and a front one also.

I have calculated I will have �150 liquid in one week's time, when the next
JSA payment comes in. This should be enough to get going on the registration
front, with enough buffer in the new account to satisfy the taxcreature for
the first month at least. Further funds can come from new business, and then
it's off benefits, or from the benefit payment after that, and then it's off.

I've remembered I inherited an 1888 gold sovereign, and I need to get that
valued for possible use as security.

I have not been able to find out online (or off') a complete local list of
which party is sending which candidate in the upcoming elections. This is
rather annoying.

[freedom]

Thursday 4th June 2009 (further gone midnight)

Just realised that I didn't put in the last blog update... I brought a cycle
tyre, and have chopped out some new lengths for tyresock manufacture - more
preparation done.

Compressed two backup files ready for transfer, then couldn't find the memory
stick waiting for them. 'Will check at home to make sure I haven't left it
there instead. At least it is replicated on the PC HDD for the moment.

Awake enough to make a front board cover (both covers sans velcro for at the
moment), but now too tired to make a spare carrystrap [or to play hide and
seek with a memory stick].


Thursday 4th June 2009 (early morning, daylight)

Found the memory stick, which was in the (small) area where it should have
been, just shuffled into the other objects living there. Much easier done
when awake.

Incremental backup made, new (white) carrystrap stamped out 'n' tested; all
good.

Generated & printed new telephone number cover-slips for all the boards. The
new number is only proposed at the moment, so they can't go up yet, but
nicely prepared. When/if the proposal is accepted, the website'll have to
change, too.


Thursday 4th June 2009 (just before midnight)

Voted for Labour in the local elections (because they have the best policies,
in sharp contrast tho the national party), and Conservative for the European
Parliment, partly because they aren't Labour, but mainly to follow as I
intend to vote at the next general Electon.


Just finished plastic-film pseudolaminating the new cover-slips, still
without being able to approach my friend for permission yet.

Also quickly knocked together a stopgap lightbox. Cut down an old postage
carton, doubled the thickness of the walls, clingwrapped for transport to the
office. At the office, kept the clingwrap on apart from a small slot for
access. Lightly taped two sheets of plain A4 to the bottom, popped in my
leafleting headtorch, switched that on. Found some translucent sheet material
in the office, rested that on top, and was able to align some simple
high-contrast artwork (the cover-slips, in this case,) with much-improved
speed & more reliable accuracy. Very light pressure used, which was just as
well, because the plastic translucent material looks flimsy, and it certainly
isn't glass.

There were some problems: the light wasn't really strong enough or diffused
enough for detailed work, and the light source was too far away from the
projection plane, because I had allowed too much depth when cutting-down the
container.

On my journey through the office, passed by loads of translucent plastic
storage containers, so buying one of them and using it as a base would be
much safer and easier than messing around with foamboard &c. I could rest a
layer of glass over the top, and have it fully supported by an
already-diffuse plastic layer, which -if it was the lid- would also be easily
removable for torch switching and/or lamp maintenance.

The glass would still have to be toughened/laminated, because normal window
glass crunches at the slightest pressure, including being less flexible than
a plastic substrate, and it would still have to stand some pressure when
being cleaned.


The rest of the day was spent preparing for and downloading freeware fonts
and hires photographic images from t'interwebnet. POV Cannot access multiple
fonts stored in a single file, so weights as separate files were needed.
Also, 7-segment italic and similar fonts for a latent project, and a range of
decorative styles for design work. Also also, novel & slab type sans-serif
varieties for fiddling around with in 3D. Simple fonts work much better in 3D
than fancy ones. I am wondering if extruding fonts along a path other than
linear (for short distances only) will produce useful effects.

I also needed various textures and images, such as of the moon and of
biscuits, for various derivative drafts.


Friday 5th June 2009

Did a few conceptual drafts for later, working through the night and feeling
a bit wobbly in the morning.

Spent most of my remaining �1.80 spare cash on food (bread & pulses), did the
washing up, serviced the bins.


Sunday 7th June 2009

Tried to brush down the rear steps at the brothel, then gave up and dug them
out instead. Hacked back the overgrown front garden, but only got as far as
the first, "access", stage of the West side, then had to retreat due to a
sudden heavy downpour. Left a large pile of cuttings behind me, but it can't
be helped. It was destined to be dumped in the rear garden, anyway.

Got back to the office looking forward to a nice hot coffee, only to
discover that someone had put half a pint of poison, coloured to
resemble milk, in a carton in the fridge. Choking back the stench, rinsed it
out and poured that down the toilet.

Regenerated some more CineWorks GIFs. 13, infact. Also added dimensional
information about all new GIFs to the HTML. Three images turned out not to be
referenced from the HTML; these turned out to be simple omissions. Fixed.


Monday 8th June 2009 (just gone midnight)

Starting to pack up, and noticed something very odd - VERY odd: Caught by
the [waterproof] old and new board covers, there was a trapped pool of
liquid, as if it dripped through from the floor above. There is no odour to
it, and it's about the same colour as whisky, or possibly cola. The ceiling
is dry, there are no obvious holes anywhere, the floor above is bone dry.

It's just as well the covers were there, or it've soaked some filing, which
admittedly is sealed with clingfilm as cheap binding, but still...

There was at least a pint of liquid, some damage to the covers. Somehow it's
managed to seep inbetween some layers of one of the brand new covers,
suggesting it's been sitting there for some time. Total worth of covers
estimated at �50 (parts only).

Mopped it up with kitchen towelling; laid out the covers for cleaning/drying
& assessment.

I know the rent is cheap here, but I do expect it not to rain indoors.

Surface cleaner get's it off the plastic bits, but some of it seems to have
dissolved some of the weaker adhesive and settled in the thus-exposed paper
layer, so the brand new smaller front cover has been written-off in storage,
barely days after it was hastily manufactured.

The waterproofing is designed for rain water, and for it to run-off. They
are, after all, vertical when in use. Four layers of waterproof coverings
have protected everything underneath them, but some settling and
discolouration has occurred.

The velcro tape may need replacing, and you can't buy a roll of that for
under �20 these days, although The Others seem to use a little of it; I've
been meaning to ask where they get it from, although I've only ever seen
their backing film, so I don't know if they use the same high spec. stuff I
do.

I have various precautions against fire, theft, violence, etc, but didn't
assess flood as a priority, us being at the top of a steep hill and all.

We have several files in this evening, and they seem very interested in the
spill, suggesting it contains sugar.

For some reason, the liquid makes it easier to remove the double-sided tape
used for sticking laminated prints to the covers, although to what proportion
this is attributed to the water content, is unclear.

Virtually no damage to the brand-new larger rear cover, probably because it
was on the bottom layer, some waterlogging in the lower part of the older
front cover, but that shouldn't show.

-Which leaves the older rear cover, which is okay apart from some
waterlogging at the bottom.

So I need to replace as much of the new front cover as I can, and I may have
to borrow some more cash to get enough extra plastic film, but until the
shops open tomorrow, I can at least do the majority of the work with the
supplies I have in stock, er, once I've hoovered up the flies.

[freedom]

Monday 8th June 2009

Discovered, after rummaging around amongst the dusty floorboards upstairs,
that there are traces of water damage right in the corner, so it may be
tributable to the heavy rainfall afterall. However, there still is a raving
lunatic frequenting the premises, so both possible explanations still equally
likely.

I have placed absorbent material at strategic points, and 'will move the
chattels [from] under the drip point as soon as practical. I will also place
[empty] Pot Noodle containers at likely positions.

I am considering fitting internal guttering, if need be.

The Landlord thinks it might be a freak wind combined with the sharp
downpour, blowing the rain in an unusual direction. This would mean the rain
probably entering the building just above the midway floor, rather than
through the roof. Well, we'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, I
now have proper motivation to get on with the filing I've been putting off,
although I have to do it this week anyway, in order to concentrate on my
business-about-to-be.


Access-cleared the rest of the brothel's front garden, and dumped the
cuttings in the rear,�via the side pavement. It looked messy halfway through,
but it was a very rapid method, particularly considering the amount of green
waste to be shifted, and the lack of equipment apart from a small pair of
sequectuers and a pair of rigging-type gardening gloves.


Thursday 11th June 2009

Found, after much searching, a copy of the Memorandum and Articles of
Association online. This means I now have all the data to complete a
registration myself - with help from the nice librarian types at Companies
House. 'Just have to check the legality of the M&A document and any other
issues with the Landlord's Agent, before popping off to Cardiff. -And, er,
get the other Shareholder's permission.

Apparently I have just won some juggling balls for topping up my Orange
mobile.


Friday 12th June 2009

Backed-up all my phone numbers from my phone, by typing them into the RPC.
Rough record of the answerphone message, but lost the proper jack lead,
so a fumble with a microphone taped to the phone. Quality low.


Saturday 13th June 2009

Managed to record my answerphone message from an add-on earpiece taped to the
microphone, with all that wedged inside a roll of kitchen towelling, with
more kitchen towelling stuffed up either side, and the whole thing wrapped
inside my jumper and placed far away from the phone, mains interference, and
the PC's fan.

Increased the sound volume by 125%^17, ie 4441%, clipped the ends, then
ported it to the RPC, on which the speakers work properly.

That message needs updating anyway, with a new URL (freedom.is/miracle) and a
brought CD (rather than waiting for the chosen theme music to come on the
radio). Or rather, changing to freedom.is/BIG & my business'es new name.

The sound quality is good enough to dispense with shelling out �10 on a new
auto lead, with probably two adaptors either end.

'Off down Trowbridge way to buy some velcro tape now, then to stop off at
bath on the way back, to get a new phone with a better battery, a larger
memory, picture messaging, and some trousers. (The trousers feature is
not part of the phone spec.)

I will, infact, convert my voicemail recording as an MP3 and put it online:
It'd be a shame to waste it.

- * -

Got my new phone, PC Kit came free with it, turned down their offer of
getting the phone running in the shop, which may have been an error. Took it
out of the box when I got back to the office, late evening, after office
hours.

'Setup 'new phone. All very well, but tricked to get into idle mode, to make
a call... ah, apparently default mode is idle, so already there. Buttons
lousy, difficult to get the buttons to work. Keypad too cheap error.

Connected USB cable to RPC. Phone accepted power, then said replace card,
with no further explanation. Haven't run diagnostics on RPC USB thingy to
connect properly yet. Tried in PC. It didn't like that at all. Phone happy,
but PC said phone not working.

Put CD in PC. PC Couldn't read CD. Put other CD in PC - fine. Put phone CD in
RPC - fine. Files on CD said need shockwave flash to work, which I don't
have. Also say USB Driver shouldn't be needed on XP.

When eventually managed to dial a number, new phone said no credit. Old phone
still working, and has new phone's credit instead. It should have transferred
an hour ago.


Located USB driver on the phone CD, using the RPC. Transferred that to the PC
via FDD. No effect. Restarted PC.


RPC USBdevices doesn't even show anything at al for the phone when plugged
in, even though I set the phone to pretend to be a mass storage device.

Set to 'media player' phone now says 'connect to PC', although it's not a
PC... Diagnostic say nothing connected. PC Says USB error... mass storage
device found. Then it can't find it when I ask, and after a long pause, says
there's something wrong with the device it just "found".

Switching phone USB mode to 'Samsung PC Studio'. PC says new hardware found
and ready to be used. It can't find any portable storage device, despite
saying there's a new one around, but I don't know how to ask it more...
Trying the new hardware routine... Samsung Mobile USB modem... COM4. And
Samsung Mobile USB Device (still no idea how to access that one).



Copyright info says somewhere about Korea. I thought Samsung were Japanese.
'Have to check that.


Hyperterminal, tried dialling 01249 1234456. Display changed to those numbers
sans the area code, on the phone, then the phone said service unavailable,
and beeped, then switched it's display off.

Tried in RPC: Nothing seen.

'Ask on connection' option on phone just asks the phone user for one of the
last three.


Blue spinning screen when tried to make a call from the phone again, meant
that when I tried to connect from the PC and it echoed input contents, it WAS
trying to dial that input as a number.


Monday, I will try connecting the phone to the free intercafe machines.

I would be nice, eventually, to be able to upload pictures and videos (and
perhaps "audios") from my new phone to one of my computers, so I could, for
example, actually use the damn thing for what I brought it for.

One easy way would be to get a SansDisk reader for one of the computers
(probably the RPC), and save to a SansDisk from the new phone, then quickly
swap one over: What could go wrong there? No protocols, alien or otherwise,
to worry about.

Both the PC and RPC use USB1.1. Maybe the new phone expects USB2.0? Some
connection attempts work, though, so that's unlikely to be it.


I shot a short video with the phone: Moving the camera along one of the
railway layouts upstairs, starting near one end, along a track, across a
junction, up to the platform, then turning to look at a figure placed there,
then picking the phone up to stop the recording, which has the
helpful-but-strange effect of lifting-off and a smooth camera transition
into a bird's eye view of the layout.

However, it needs postprocessing. To hold the camera in position, I had to
shoot it upside-down, because of where the camera is on the phone and how low
down the camera needs to be on the model. Simple enough to correct. It's also
very dark and would benefit from good lighting, and/or image enhancement.

The video quality is set to "normal", "fine" and "superfine" are greyed out,
and the resultant filesize is 245Kb; quite good. Resolution unknown,
LCD-style image motion blur on the preview, unknown if this is a feature of
the phone's display or actually on "the tape".

Filesize of the 3 megapixel picture is SP_A0001.jpg 496Kb.
Video is SV_A0001.3gp 245Kb, 17 seconds. Er, what's 3GP?

Internal memory on the U600 is 60Mb, so enough for 120 still images,
or 71 minutes of video. Plenty. Always assuming I can use them, of
course.

That video'd look nice on YouTube. (Largely because the competition [mainly
badly-lit shaky happy slapping and idiots filming themselves committing
various crimes] isn't up to much, but still.)

Took a shot of my meta-advertising on the bare boards; set that as my
wallpaper (main screen). After some fiddling around and printing out,
generated a better wallpaper, and (after some more fiddling around,) aligned
it between all the obscuring text and icons.


Monday 15th June 2009

A (long) call to Orange, and the new phone is now working. I can also access
the internet, with a daily �2 cap, and I look forward to email/MMS ability.

'Not sure how to enter text into FORMs yet. When I try, it gives me a URL
entry box instead.

Noticed used about �1 already, so purchased �1 all-day browsing package,
valid for day of purchase only. This will be good for tests. T&C says 25Mb
limit, no use of computer modem during. How do I opt out of that for modem
use if I desire - apart from waiting 24Hrs? Not going to do this until
I can be sure of no virus transmission to the PC, anyway.

I've just realised - I can look up orange.co.uk/mms &c directly now, to see
about email &c... But this is not optimised for calling from Orange phones!
Turn on (non-existent) javascript, it says!

Browser is "Netfront".

Entering text into FORMs: Scroll down until INPUT field highlighted, select
with OK; cursor appear; enter text, select option-ok, scroll to submit
button, select button with OK.

Sent message to the office clown, asking him to forward the photo he took of
my arms earlier. Message sent okay, and it only took five minutes to enter
two short sentences, too. Sigh.

Will try emailing my hotmail account with a picture message...

Would be nice to upload/download piccies from flickr.

Tried to send email message with picture attachment -- as send selected
image, from image menu, but then it said "set account information first", the
input fields to which are unclear. -'Off to the intercafe to lookup more info
on this from Orange...


Two hours in the free intercafe, and it turns out that the Orange email
service for new activations is down for the next few days. Copied most of the
CD (400Mb, down to 173Mb less the foreign language help files, compressed to
140Mb) to a memory stick. PC recognises my phone when connected directly, but
requires the admin password, which we do not have. 'Off down to bath for
that, maybe.

The bank/business manager called while I was at the intercafe, and made an
appointment for tomorrow. He know's where the office building is, so there's
a first.

Reinstalled the USB drivers from the memory stick, on the PC. Retrieved the
old photo from the office clown's phone, via bluetooth. It asked for a PIN,
and apparently we both had to choose the same [arbitrary] one.

Trying reactivating various PC services I had switched off.


One way around this: CJE Sell a USB to smartcard reader for �22. That will
read SolidDisks, purchasable from Orange for about �20. The protocols there
are so simple, "nothing can go wrong".

Got PC Studio (on the PC) working, by reinstalling it, then changing the
phone's connection mode to -wait for it- "PC Studio".

Uploaded all the pictures & videos, and the junk demos. Enhanced the
wallpaper, and reset the homescreen to it again.

I'll try the SD solution later on, as well, because I'd quite like to
transfer files without waiting for the clunky PC to boot up.

Found that while PC Studio can enhance the video (and 'did that), it cannot
perform a simple 90' rotation, while the other editors can. However, they
can't load the video. So, 'will try putting in YouTube anyway.

Will try downloading from there, via drobe instructions, then rotating, and
re-uploading.

Searched and re-searched menu tree in vain, looking for option to listen to
voicemail, before realising this is still Orange, and it might be accessed by
calling 123.


Worked through the night finalising the business plan, cashflow forecast, and
starter "photo album".


Tuesday 16th June 2009

Started the process of opening a business bank account at Lloyds. They say it
should be up and running by the middle of next week, which is about the time
I need for the other processes to complete.

Much emphasis on how it will be primarily my responsibility to check the
accuracy and validity of the account, through my statements, available both
printed monthly and via text alert.

The office is looking very messy, following the shifting of material out of
the way of the not-leaking roof, and all the extra material to deal with.
Much preparation and filing ahead, along with the new accounting systems to
implement, both physical and computing, plus separate extra backups for them.

[freedom]

Thursday 18th June 2009

Found a tag cloud generator by Jonathan Feinberg, called Wordle.

Used the blog post before this as source text, then played with the
settings until it looked like a tree:



'Could have wider typographical and other graphic design uses.


Searched for touchscreen pros and cons with the new Samsung U600 I have,
which has a serious design flaw: Four of the keys are touch-sensitive, and
they are either difficult to trigger or fire without deliberate stimulus,
depending on what you are trying to do and/or doing at the time.

The two transducers most effected are the make call switch and the cancel
switch. This means the unit will either dial random numbers or delete a long
SMS message you've just slowly tapped in and flip back to the homescreen out
of a deep menu.

Online reviews note this, and that some people like it for ease of entry.
Less capacitive people, I expect. It's apparently fixed in the G600, which
also has a 5Mpx camera.

Orange no longer sells the G600, but I don't see why they won't allow a
switch to one brought elsewhere. I'll see how I get along for the rest of the
3-month no-switch contract clause, then I may switch if I've not found a
workaround by then.

- * -

In the office, one of the powerpoints has been smashed. Apparently by the
office clown, although he volunteered this information without being
prompted, so it might not have been him afterall. It's in a office he isn't
supposed to be in.

I tested the socket when it was switched off - and it was.

Then I went off to Sainsburys to get laces, food, and Coffee-mate, stopping
off at B&Q to photograph some surfaces for flickr textures use.

When I got back, the affected socket was hanging off the wall, below some
sections of mains cable ripped off the wall, bare wires exposed everywhere.
I couldn't easily/safely test if it was live, I didn't think to try, and
asked to check it was off. The office clown assured me it was, and I should
have stopped there.

The way the cabling was laid, it was necessary to dismantle the patress on
the other side of the wall, in my office.

The office clown insisted on entering my office and altering the mains wiring
to solve this, and I refused - point blank.

After he had left the area and I had locked the door behind him, I settled
down to work. I put on some thin disposable gloves as an extra precaution,
knelt down, and found he had taken the tools with him. Upstairs, confronting
him about this, he said yes, and he had hidden the tools so I couldn't get on
with the work, then let out a scream of manic laughter. So, oh yes, he's sane
and responsible. His idea being that I would have no choice but to let him
attempt the work. In fact, if I couldn't find tools, I wouldn't do the work
and I wouldn't let him. It would halt until someone sane and competent with
access to tools arrived. I found some screwdrivers, and then the office
'drivers which he'd hidden, and took two down with me. During this search, he
threatened to kill me if I used what he claimed were his screwdrivers.

I went downstairs, locked the door securely behind me, and settled down to
work. During the course of this, somehow I knocked two Live and Neutral
wire-end together by knocking the leads. The circuit breaker in the fusebox
tripped, and the lights went out. All the lights.

This meant that the section of the mains that I had previously confirmed as
being off, had been turned back on again. Confusingly, the sockets on the
other side has been tested as being off, and were still off. Somehow it is
possible to turn half the ring main off when there is a break in the middle
of it.

Nobody hurt though, so I rummaged around for a torch and then amongst the
circuit breakers, amidst much shouted abuse from the workshops upstairs.
Apparently the emergency lighting still works, though. I replaced the thin
gloves with thick rubber washing-up style gloves for further safety. (Later
derided by the office clown as not thick enough to stop mains voltage - not
true.)

The main circuit breaker is peculiar: You have to switch it past "off" to
reset and it's in series with a whole panels of other breakers, and I hadn't
had to do this before. There was no sympathy from upstairs.

After all that grumbling, a consensus was quickly reached to continue working
with all the lights off anyway, to stop anything like that happening again.
The office clown had somehow convinced the man in charge downstairs, the
Landlord's Agent, that the short was entirely my fault and nothing to do with
him. (I'm not saying I'm entirely blameless for it, it was though a simple
mistake that anybody could have made, and it was perfectly safe.) Because of
this conviction, Agent X first insisted that the office clown do the whole
job, then that he do the half on the original broken side, and I finish the
part on my side.

At some point I moved to check the circuit breakers, and Agent X stood in my
way. I couldn't protect him by squashing him, and then I realised that I was
also leaving the office clown unguarded, so went back to my original
position, having to leave it again briefly to show Agent X how to avoid my
mistake and reset the breakers again, so they must have tripped again at some
point, whom by I don't know (apart from it not being me).

Several times I was loudly blamed for causing the whole trouble, both by the
office clown and by Agent X whom he had tricked. Several times I refused to
let the office clown do particularly dangerous things - I haven't written a
will yet.

The office clown finished his side, refusing to help me several times [we
were sharing two short cables at the time], and leaving. I took several
minutes more, being careful, refusing to be rushed. Despite my care, I
managed to crack off the screw receptor on the inside of "my" patress, but
the sockets were electrically working again.

Noticed that the patress on the other side is cracked on the outside. For
health & safety reasons, the Landlord insists that the work is redone.

Switched the power back on, and went upstairs to discover all hell had
apparently broken lose outside. "Aren't you going to call the police?"
prompted the Landlord, rapidly backed up by all of The Others present.

So, at various points in time, I phoned the police on their non-emergency
number, got diverted to the BTP, went over into the railway station proper,
discovered nothing serious going on, phoned our mole in Network Rail, watched
the rowdy crowd depart on the next train, watched The Others knock off early,
and waited for the BTP to turn up. To break up a long sentence, I also
investigated the cause of the amber flashing lights in the distance [it's a
big car park] (a line painting truck rescuing someone with a flat tyre),
spotted the BTP turning up, and rushed over the bridge to catch them.

Just as I was telling them they were to late for the trouble they'd been
called out for, some bonus trouble erupted that they were early for, and off
they ran. That turned out to be a false alarm, then they spent some time
questioning other witnesses before returning and going through the same sort
of process with me.

All that over, I unlocked the office again and did some general tidying-up,
making-safe, and washing-up. This occupied me over the crest of midnight.

One lesson from this, someone pointed out to me earlier, is that you should
always try to fix equipment the lights depend on, in daylight hours.