Schinckel.net

I’ll continue my service of linking to the best of xkcd’s comics: (This comic can be found at http://xkcd.com/c166.html) (Updated: Missing title.)

I’ve had some DNS issues with my ADSL connection, but it took me a while to work out that’s what they were. Basically, sometimes viewing a page would fail, but it would generally work the second time you refreshed. So, I checked out some settings. I was using the DNS addresses given by my upstream DHCP server, and these are either overloaded, or not working properly, or both. So, now I’m using alternate addresses, and haven’t had a lookup failure as yet.

How to Make a RJ45 Cable Tester Note to self: make one of these. Second Note to self: make one better, that cycles through each of the lines…and does bi-directional display.

I was having continual problems keeping my Wireless connection working, and just happened to disable 802.1x Authentication, which fixed pretty much all of the issues. I don’t even remember turning it on, but I think I must have. This is a Windows setting: you change it for each wireless network you connect to in the Wireless Networks tab of the Wireless Network Adaptor config applet.

I’ve had my ADSL reconnected, and was having some issues on my PC only. I didn’t realise they weren’t affecting the Mac, until I wandered around and tried it, and the stuff worked properly first time. It seems there were some issues with having a Firewire network and the Ethernet network (only one of which is actually connected to the internet). I’m not sure exactly what the story was, but it was timing out on requests, and occasionally working. Disabling the Firewire interface has fixed it all up. So, don’t have two overlapping networks, as Windows can’t figure out where requests need to go…

And, we now welcome back our ADSL service. Good to see you again, big fella.

Test run on 05/10/2006 @ 12:33 PM Mirror: Wild Internet Test type: ADSL Your connection speed: kbps: 210.38 KB/s: 26.3 Mbps: 0.21

Courtesty of Oz Broadband Speed Test. The only anomalies are that my static IP address Wild gave me seems to be wrong, and apparently I connected at 12:18 this morning, which I can’t have, as the modem wasn’t connected then! And the connection might still be a bit flaky – it seems to be dropping out every now and then.

I’m currently searching for some timber for use as skirting boards and architraves, and went to YellowPages.com.au to look for some suppliers. I entered Timber Supplies into the category box, and followed one of the examples of the location box: Adelaide. It then opens up the next page with:

Click on the correct location to proceed Do you mean? * Greater Adelaide SA * Adelaide CBD SA

I mean, seriously, if you put an example into your web page, for god’s sake make sure it works!!!

Land Of… • St. Germain • Tourist ★★★½

I’ve had to use a text-only browser over the recent days, since Internet Sharing is being screwed up by my router. I could, I suppose plug my switch back into the network, and disconnect the router, but then I have to worry about IP addresses again, since the router is also the DHCP server. Anyway, it’s been an interesting exercise. Some sites are well designed, and using them in links is possible, easy even. This site, for instance, shows up very well in links, and is easy to navigate around in. Credit where it is due, this is mainly due to Patricia, and the Wordpress team. The backend for instance is similarly easy to navigate around. Gmail is satisfactory. It whinges about missing JavaScript, but still seems to work. Not sure if the emails I have been sending have been working, but we’ll find out. Actually, I’ll take that back. It doesn’t seem to send emails properly. Dammit. Whirlpool and WildIT do not work very well at all. Sure, you can view stuff, but you cannot log in properly, which prevents you from seeing the really important data, and adding your own comments. Yellow Pages seems to work okay, as long as you don’t mind only looking at the first page of results. Well, hopefully my ADSL churn will come through in the next couple of days, as I’m sick of it already.

The AFL Grand Final was on this weekend, and no Victorian teams were in it (or even got close). This is particularly galling for the Vics, as the AFL used to be the VFL, and until very recently, the Victorian teams were still the powerhouses. Oh well. It’s all fun and games, isn’t it…

Biscuit o Portishead o Dummy 22

John Gruber, over on Daring Fireball, has posted about the name change of Lightroom to Adobe Lightroom, in Brand New, and seems to have hit the nail on the head with the discussion about rebranding and brand integrity. He’s also spoken about cross-platform applications, and how Adobe are the only real software maker that builds true single-source based applications that run on multiple OSes. I would have agreed with him, except that he talks about how Lightroom is built using Lua as a scripting language. There is at least one other cross-platform application, also built with Lua, that is updated regularly, is the same on Mac and PC, and even “shares the same manual”. That application is, of course, World of Warcraft. Blizzard, along with (some) other game makers, have a long history of releasing Mac and PC versions of their software. I assume the source code for these two is largely the same, as they continue to update it on a monthly or so schedule, and a significant proportion of the update code is the same on both platforms. Granted, Blizzard are very different to most other game development houses, in that they do write Mac versions of their software. And they don’t have to write code that uses the GUI hooks, in that they have their own UI. But, it’s still (almost certainly) the same codebase, nonetheless. Well, I’m hung over, and I need a Chicken Yiros.

I Close My Eyes And Think Of You • Paul Kelly • …Nothing But A Dream ★★★★