Schinckel.net

Radaractive: Darwin is Dead-The Carnival!!! Aargh! I could only read about two of the Creationist bullshit-filled comments, and my head nearly exploded. Hardly what I’d call Critical Thinking, chaps.

Chris Legend is using some files from my templates: mainly the guts of my Comments.html page. This is all well and good, but because I have customised the guts out of my site, there are some caveats. The first is that my Comments.html relies on a certain JavaScript to be called before it allows any Comments. That is, if you just use this file from my template, noone will be able to comment at all on your blog. I had to write this post, as I can’t find another way to let Chris know! To fix this, you either need to edit the template page, and put the following into the action field: "/wp-comments-post.php". If you don’t do this, no one can comment on your blog.

Here’s a nice little AppleScript I knocked up to grab all of the details of my podcasts, for the previous post:

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    tell application "iTunes"
    	set podcastList to {}
    	repeat with trk in selection
    		set thisPodcast to album of trk & " • " & artist of trk
    		if thisPodcast is not in podcastList then
    			set podcastList to podcastList & thisPodcast
    		end if
    	end repeat
    end tell
    
    set HTML to "<ul>"
    repeat with trk in podcastList
    	set HTML to HTML & "<li>" & trk & "</li>"
    end repeat
    set the clipboard to HTML & "</ul>"

Hot Toddy • Mindtrip • [Chillout Sessions 8][2] ★★

[2]: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Chillout Sessions 8%22

Podcasts are cool. I listen to them every day on the way to and from work, and I’ve got quite a few subscriptions in my iTunes list.

• New Scientist Podcast • New Scientist
• Ockham’s Razor • ABC Radio National
• Dr Karl’s Great Moments in Science • ABC Science Online - the Lab
• Dr Karl on triple j • ABC Science Online - the Lab
• The Science Show • ABC Radio National
• All in the Mind • ABC Radio National
• The Night Air • ABC Radio National
• Perspective • ABC Radio National
• Radio Eye • ABC Radio National
• Street Stories • ABC Radio National
• Quirks and Quarks from CBC Radio • Quirks & Quarks
• Background Briefing • ABC Radio National
• Big Ideas • ABC Radio National
• Craphound.com: The Literary Works of Cory Doctorow • Cory Doctorow
• National Interest • ABC Radio National
• The Philosopher’s Zone • ABC Radio National
• In Our Time • BBC Radio 4
• The Ricky Gervais Show • Guardian Unlimited

They also take up lots of data. In the past month, my internet usage has more than doubled. And I’ve only been pdcatching for probably less than half of the month!

Usage History for the Past 6 Billing Periods

Billing Period Ending Invoice Number Hours Used (hh:mm) Downloads (MB) Uploads (MB) Service Total
(Excl GST)

25 Feb 06 30700482 293:49 3848.98 293.67 $0.00

25 Jan 06 30068220 131:23 1245.89 144.91 $15.41

25 Dec 05 29435356 143:29 608.07 98.86 $15.41

25 Nov 05 28793690 109:02 655.58 98.06 $15.41

25 Oct 05 28154942 300:16 2586.63 275.67 $0.00

25 Sep 05 27528167 118:59 706.33 104.21 $15.41

It still amuses me how often I come across interesting little coincidences. The other week I heard the term “Selective Service” twice in a couple of days, after not having ever heard it before, on totally different media. One was OmniNerd, the other an ABC radio podcast. And today, while listening to the latest Ricky Gervais podcast (#12), a mention was made of the story where a guy wakes up as a “Giant Beetle,” and his travails from there. And then, in this week’s PostSecret:

The VCSi Forums - How dangerous is it to shoot straight up

According to tests undertaken by Browning at the beginning of the century and recently by L .C. Haag, the bullet velocity required for skin penetration is between 45 and 60 metres per second which is within the velocity range of falling bullets. Of course, skin penetration is not required in order to cause serious or fatal injury and any responsible person will never fire bullets into the air in this manner.

A couple of months ago, I was having a discussion with some friends about shooting straight up in the air. I can’t remember the result, but here is a nice article detailing the physics and results.

Boing Boing: Ridiculous product - toothbrush with replaceable bristle attachment I don’t see what is so ridiculous about it - I used to use a similar product about 5 years ago. It was great! I was really diappointed when Colgate discontinued them.

I’m trying to get some steel channel manufactured - I ordered some through Home Hardware (it was manufactured by Fielders), and when it arrived, not only was it the wrong amount, but one side had a horrible ripple, making it unsuitable for the purpose. The edge that was rippled needs to sit flush up against some timber, and the ripple would have stood out like “dog’s balls” (ironic, considering Home Hardware used a similar quote in an advertising campaign not too long ago). So, I returned the steel, and have been trying to find some other supplier. The guy from Home tells me “It always has a ripple like that,” which I think is a load of shit, considering the other side was perfect. Having done (and taught) sheetmetal fabricating, I know you can get bloody good results. So, I googled for some other suppliers. I’ve heard of TrueLocal (I’m refusing to link to it), which is a plan by News Limited to try and break into the local tradesperson market, and one of the hits came up. Eventually, I went back to this hit, and had a look. The first thing that annoyed me was that I needed to choose my local area. Surely, in the age of the internets, it is possible for a half decent search engine to figure out what my local area is. Google manages to do it well (and not just by pointing me at Google Oz, but also pinpointing where I am to within the state, if not city!). Still, I had to click “SA”, “Adelaide”, “Adelaide - City” before it even gave me a list. And then, what a list! I didn’t recognise most of the names, but was surprised that:

Your search for Sheet Metal Products Manufacturing in ADELAIDE, SA matches 200 businesses.

Wow! I didn’t realise there were so many manufacturers in Adelaide. Let’s have a look at a couple of them:

• Quality Value Constructions Pty Ltd 40 Franklin St, Adelaide, SA 5000 (08) 8221 5925
• Powell Bros 21 Owen St, Adelaide, SA 5000 (08) 8231 3823

Okay, they sound fine. But then, a little further down:

• Dimond’s Picture Framing 19 Adelaide Arc, Adelaide, SA 5000 (08) 8223 2034

Hmm. I suppose they could manufacture sheet metal photo frames. Maybe.

• Flash Coffee Gelateria 64 Hindley St, Adelaide, SA 5000 (08) 8231 5719

Okay. I’m fairly sure Flash don’t manufacture sheet metal. IIRC, they don’t even make that good of a coffee! Maybe their metal manufacturing plant is out the back. Oh wait, maybe TrueLocal is crap! Oh, and there were other stupid entries, so it wasn’t just like it’s Flash’s fault. Definitely something crazy going on there Mr. Murdoch. And I remember hearing a Podcast about how News Limited is getting ready to take on Google. My money is on the big G.

Boing Boing: If you love that goat so much, why don’t you marry it?

A guy in Sudan was caught having sex with a goat.

Reminds me of the old joke.

I worked for ten years building boats, but do they call me Pepi the boat builder? No. I worked for ten years painting houses, but do they call me Pepi the house painter? No. I worked for ten years fixing cars, but do they call me Pepi the mechanic? No. But you fuck one goat…

My results: I am Spider-Man

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz