Tom's big blog of fun.

With every door that closes, another one opens. Or something like that.
I'm sad to say that this will most likely be the last ever post I wright for my Big Blog of Fun. It wasn't an easy decision to make, but was one I've been increasingly leaning towards in recent months. There were a few key factors that pushed me in the end (and none of them was a fault with LJ itself)...

• Firstly: I feel that I want to be in control of my data
• Secondly: the puritan 'blog-only' LJ thing is too restrictive for what I need in a website
• Thirdly: my web-presence has been getting increasingly fragmented - I need a 'go-to spot'.
• Lastly: I, as a web-designer, really ought to have my own website. Laughably obvious really.

The only things that've been holding me to LJ lately are the soical aspect and the massive backlog of posts and comments. Well the former was (and will continue to be) taken care of by blog importing in Facebook. And the latter I fixed with being bothered to find a decent export tool.
So with one thing and another, I packed up my bags and waved goodbye to board the good train Wordpress once more. Without any further ado, please put your hands together for the new kid on the block:
Head on over for the new home of my blog, for some of my photography and eventually a whole lot more. Also feel free to let me know what you think.
It's been great guys and I'll always remember you all, but now I'm afraid it has to end...

Tom x

Francis Crick after discovering the structure of DNA trying LSD:

"All life is like spelled out in an alphabet of chemicals, man, two helices spiraling around each other and it's the same way for all the animals and plants and everything,"

While you're here: Check out "The 6 most badass stunts ever pulled in the name of science".
Thanyou and goodnight.

Ok troops, had to share this one.
Some of you might know that one of my favourite news sources is the wonderful, London-based, geek-rag, The Register.
They normally don't stray too far from the world of IT, but a few days ago they published this: "Home Secretary goes crazy on drugs... policy"
Let's ignore the fact that the subject is cannabis for a moment - that debate is far too heated - and marvel at the fact that it's a stunning summary of the slow-but-steady erosion of civil liberties in the UK.
Thank you El Reg, for your unique perspective on a very troubling situation.
And to who wants to know more, drop me a line and I'll lend you "Taking Liberties" which sums everything up nicely.
Tom

Here's one I made for Britney:

Know what really annoys me? People who spam email lists with this:

Hi, please delete me from the email list.

No, [name redacted], I won't delete you from this email list. Know why?

1. It's an opt-in list, you managed to add yourself originally
2. I'm not an admin on this list (do you realise how many people you sent this to?)
3. Even if I was I couldn't, because I don't know your email address, it's stripped out automatically

I get about a dozen of these every day (I'm on a few lists...) and it really pisses me off. Just go online and click unsubscribe. Or, easier still, on some lists the emails are appended with an unsubscribe link. And do these people realise that their message will be sent to everyone on the list? Surely they've received plenty from other idiots? Surely they realise that most people just don't care? Sorry to pick you out [name redacted] (whoever you are) and, since you've been a good sport, here's the link you were looking for: Unsubscribe from sussexautonomous

OK, so I finally got myself a shiny new phone. It's a stunner too (imho), take a peek: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/01/31/o2_xda_orbit_2_available/
It's a lovely little gadget, and I'm truly besotted with it!
The silliness, however, started (as anticipated) when I tried to get ubuntu to talk to windows mobile... Whoops!
I suspect this will be the beginning of a saga, so here's the first installment...
In order to get music onto my shiny new phone I tried the following:
1) Plug the usb cable in. Did it recognize the phone as a mass storage device? Did it bollocks.
2) Plug the micro-SD card into my reader. Was I able to write to it? Was I bollocks.
3) Install an FTP program onto the phone. Could I find a decent free one for WM6? Noticing a pattern?
4) Fire up lighttpd and make various folders in my home dir live on the network. Hooray! IE lets me download the files.
Stay tuned kids for another exciting installment of "the Windows Mobile adventure - how would you like to be annoyed today?".
Next week - Tom tries to sync his contacts; silly tom...

I've just managed to break my mouse.
It was an old mouse - it used a ball. In fact, it was this ball that lead to it's downfall.
Y'see cutting out people from pictures can be a real pain in the arse. Doing this with a dodgy old ball mouse is just plain infuriating.
I don't really remember how it happened, sorta the red veil effect...
Anyway, RIP dodgy old ball-mouse. You've served me well for many years, but you won't be missed at all.

I love this project...
Whilst having a wee skim through the calendar, I found this: http://www.ussu.net/epicentre/events.php?id=346