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ahdkaw
Overlord of the Dance
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Joined on 23/01/1999 and last visited on 02/09/2010
ahdkaw has posted 224 articles and 421 comments.
Latest Blog Entries
Independent Insurance Company Research? Nope
According to the oh-so-believable insurance companies, who we all trust and love so (you know, those kindly people who raise existing customers premiums regardless of claim history, and say things like, "insurance costs are going up for everybody," like that's any kind of valid response to a query for information), have today announced that the number of "Crash for Cash" claims are higher than ever before.
And what wise sage words of wisdom can these companies give us?
Of course, that's why our premiums constantly rise in cost, always outpacing inflation, year on year, nothing at all to do with insurance company greed (insurance companies, as we all know are some of the most trustworthy private organisations in the world - LIES!). Yes, better to list legitimate claims as scams, because this stuff eats into their profits - can't payout, that would just be wrong.
And I believe everything private insurance companies say, it's obvious to me that if someone drives into the back of my car, it's my fault and I'm just fraudulently claiming that I was in front. BULLSHIT! You greedy, trough-snuffling insurance companies. At the end of the day, if you are riding up someone's arse (too close to the car in front), and the driver in front does slam all on, then it is the driver to the rear who bears all responsibility for not stopping in time. Can't do that? Get the hell off my roads, I don't want your car in the back of mine thanks.
Even if I slam on my brakes intentionally, it is still the driver behind who is to blame. Sorry, but if you disagree you should maybe re-sit your driving test (or maybe we should get the government to take away your right to drive - at the behest of private companies).
And what wise sage words of wisdom can these companies give us?
Quote:
The scams cost insurers about £350m in 2009 and added £44 to the premium of every driver in the country.
Of course, that's why our premiums constantly rise in cost, always outpacing inflation, year on year, nothing at all to do with insurance company greed (insurance companies, as we all know are some of the most trustworthy private organisations in the world - LIES!). Yes, better to list legitimate claims as scams, because this stuff eats into their profits - can't payout, that would just be wrong.
And I believe everything private insurance companies say, it's obvious to me that if someone drives into the back of my car, it's my fault and I'm just fraudulently claiming that I was in front. BULLSHIT! You greedy, trough-snuffling insurance companies. At the end of the day, if you are riding up someone's arse (too close to the car in front), and the driver in front does slam all on, then it is the driver to the rear who bears all responsibility for not stopping in time. Can't do that? Get the hell off my roads, I don't want your car in the back of mine thanks.
Even if I slam on my brakes intentionally, it is still the driver behind who is to blame. Sorry, but if you disagree you should maybe re-sit your driving test (or maybe we should get the government to take away your right to drive - at the behest of private companies).
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This post was last edited on the 21st of August, 2010 at 7:26am
A political splurge
C'mon work! Sat here waiting for work to start, really need more coffee.
Hmm, that's not long enough for here, I might get away with that on twitter, but not here. Must add further content irregardless of the relevancy or value.
As a "pirate" I suppose I should maybe provide some of my political views on all the copyright madness going on right now (and frankly has been going on for quite a long time now).
I am opposed to disconnecting in any situation. The Internet is now vital in many peoples lives. If I lost my connection for example (will never happen), it would ruin me as most of my work is based on this thing (and has been for a long time).
In my youth (I'm not old now though, I mean younger youth) I bought a lot of music, mostly vinyl; imports, white labels, small indie labels (probably around £10k or more over the years), and repeats on "new media" like cassette and eventually CD. I used to be quite the vinyl junkie. So I already have more than enough music thank you. Nowadays I tend to spend on gaming, merchandise, and gigs.
I used to spend in the cinema's and buy DVDs too, but due to the way that Hollywood views it's fans, I chose along time ago to decline to fund such an industry. The same is true for the music industry. Their "fight against piracy" is the one thing that stopped me buying.
However, I still do buy DVDs, because I have no choice but to buy Four Lions (I'm a relatively big fan of Chris Morris, but I hate the word "fan" when applied to myself, so I use it with this disclaimer). I'm not going to wait for it to turn up on iPlayer (which it likely never will). I will buy independent stuff, I love it when people try new ways of doing things - The Yes Men and Pioneer One being two prime examples.
Notice how I didn't say TV back there? That's because I haven't watched TV in a year now, I prefer to watch my programmes on the Internet. I get no adverts, no enforced breaks, and I can pause it, rewind, ffwd. That's what I like, and I really think that anyone who thinks it should be different is living in the Stone Ages.
Admittedly, at the moment I actually can't watch iPlayer on Ubuntu x64 or frankly any other x64 *nix OS (although the news and sports work, which is odd), thanks to the wonderful world of closed source Adobe Trash. We have a better one now BBC, you can stop feeding in to the Adobe machine. You already know about HTML5, right?
Instead, I have to use get_iplayer, which the BBC doesn't like, but I don't like what the BBC is forcing me to do to watch the shows I have paid in for.
There, I think that should do it, I've gone on long enough now.
Hmm, that's not long enough for here, I might get away with that on twitter, but not here. Must add further content irregardless of the relevancy or value.
As a "pirate" I suppose I should maybe provide some of my political views on all the copyright madness going on right now (and frankly has been going on for quite a long time now).
I am opposed to disconnecting in any situation. The Internet is now vital in many peoples lives. If I lost my connection for example (will never happen), it would ruin me as most of my work is based on this thing (and has been for a long time).
In my youth (I'm not old now though, I mean younger youth) I bought a lot of music, mostly vinyl; imports, white labels, small indie labels (probably around £10k or more over the years), and repeats on "new media" like cassette and eventually CD. I used to be quite the vinyl junkie. So I already have more than enough music thank you. Nowadays I tend to spend on gaming, merchandise, and gigs.
I used to spend in the cinema's and buy DVDs too, but due to the way that Hollywood views it's fans, I chose along time ago to decline to fund such an industry. The same is true for the music industry. Their "fight against piracy" is the one thing that stopped me buying.
However, I still do buy DVDs, because I have no choice but to buy Four Lions (I'm a relatively big fan of Chris Morris, but I hate the word "fan" when applied to myself, so I use it with this disclaimer). I'm not going to wait for it to turn up on iPlayer (which it likely never will). I will buy independent stuff, I love it when people try new ways of doing things - The Yes Men and Pioneer One being two prime examples.
Notice how I didn't say TV back there? That's because I haven't watched TV in a year now, I prefer to watch my programmes on the Internet. I get no adverts, no enforced breaks, and I can pause it, rewind, ffwd. That's what I like, and I really think that anyone who thinks it should be different is living in the Stone Ages.
Admittedly, at the moment I actually can't watch iPlayer on Ubuntu x64 or frankly any other x64 *nix OS (although the news and sports work, which is odd), thanks to the wonderful world of closed source Adobe Trash. We have a better one now BBC, you can stop feeding in to the Adobe machine. You already know about HTML5, right?
Instead, I have to use get_iplayer, which the BBC doesn't like, but I don't like what the BBC is forcing me to do to watch the shows I have paid in for.
There, I think that should do it, I've gone on long enough now.
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This post was last edited on the 20th of August, 2010 at 11:17am
and has 6 comments, the last was posted by ak on Fri 20 Aug 2010 at 4:00pm
Quick fix to login script
The member login form will now redirect you back to the place from whence you came. Not much else to say really, it was very easy to implement (v11.0.51).
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This post was last edited on the 6th of August, 2010 at 8:34am
and has 2 comments, the last was posted by ahdkaw on Thu 2 Sep 2010 at 10:07am
Everybody wave Wave goodbye
Google Wave is being killed off.
Google drops Wave because of lack of users
sensibilium.com had heavily tested the platform for numerous tasks and projects, of course, and were a dab hand at constructing waves and finding problems.
It was kinda shitty, so we won't miss it. :)
Google drops Wave because of lack of users
sensibilium.com had heavily tested the platform for numerous tasks and projects, of course, and were a dab hand at constructing waves and finding problems.
It was kinda shitty, so we won't miss it. :)
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This post was last edited on the 5th of August, 2010 at 10:15am
Ubuntu x64 as a desktop replacement?
If you have been regular reader of this blog for a while, you'll no doubt be aware that I have had my forays into Linux before today, but only really ever used it successfully as a server or as a virtual machine during testing. I've played with (and still use to this day) CentOS, OpenSUSE (failed desktop replacement tests), Ubuntu (mainly as desktop-replacement tests in a VM) and a couple of others that I can't remember the names of right now.
At the moment I am going through an installation and test setup with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS - Lucid Lynx (x64), after a successful dry test of 10.04 x86. This will be an informational post that mostly details my tasks, and how they were completed, mainly for my own use when it comes to trashing my w7 install (I will be keeping my w7 games OS and dual booting via the BIOS). If other people find this useful, well that's just a bonus.
First up, install from the ISO/DVD, set username, etc. and login once done.
Either wait for the Update Manager to appear, or run it yourself from:
System -> Administration -> Update Manager
Install all updates. Restart if required.
Installing VirtualBox Guest Additions (this only applies to Virtual Machines)
If using VirtualBox, the Guest Additions must be installed to get a decent screen resolution. Open a shell prompt and install the dkms package first:
sudo apt-get install dkms (press enter)
Wait for install to finish.
Mount the Guest Additions to the CD drive, locate the folder using your shell prompt, which is usually:
cd /media/V* (press enter)
followed by
sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run (press enter)
Then wait for the install to finish (takes a little while). Restart computer.
Upon reboot, Guest Additions will be running as expected (hopefully - does for me).
Install additional software requirements
Use Ubuntu Software Centre to add further software, below is the list of software I need to install each time. Search and you will find:
Wine (all this for one tiny program I need)
Eclipse (software development environment)
Gimp (image manipulation)
Flash (obvious really)
ntfsprogs (access Win NTFS partitions)
Eclipse Plugins Installation
I'm not too sure about this, and whether any further development tools are necessary (especially in the case of the C++ development environment - though this knowledge will come with usage over time), but below are the plugins so far required for myself.
Eclipse C/C++ Development Tools
PHP Development Tools (PDT) SDK Feature
Eclipse Java Development Tools
JavaScript Developer Tools
Install each of the above individually, and restart Eclipse after each install.
Configure stuff
Configure the system (Firefox, Gwibber, Eclipse, Wine, etc.).
At the moment I am going through an installation and test setup with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS - Lucid Lynx (x64), after a successful dry test of 10.04 x86. This will be an informational post that mostly details my tasks, and how they were completed, mainly for my own use when it comes to trashing my w7 install (I will be keeping my w7 games OS and dual booting via the BIOS). If other people find this useful, well that's just a bonus.
First up, install from the ISO/DVD, set username, etc. and login once done.
Either wait for the Update Manager to appear, or run it yourself from:
System -> Administration -> Update Manager
Install all updates. Restart if required.
Installing VirtualBox Guest Additions (this only applies to Virtual Machines)
If using VirtualBox, the Guest Additions must be installed to get a decent screen resolution. Open a shell prompt and install the dkms package first:
sudo apt-get install dkms (press enter)
Wait for install to finish.
Mount the Guest Additions to the CD drive, locate the folder using your shell prompt, which is usually:
cd /media/V* (press enter)
followed by
sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run (press enter)
Then wait for the install to finish (takes a little while). Restart computer.
Upon reboot, Guest Additions will be running as expected (hopefully - does for me).
Install additional software requirements
Use Ubuntu Software Centre to add further software, below is the list of software I need to install each time. Search and you will find:
Wine (all this for one tiny program I need)
Eclipse (software development environment)
Gimp (image manipulation)
Flash (obvious really)
ntfsprogs (access Win NTFS partitions)
Eclipse Plugins Installation
I'm not too sure about this, and whether any further development tools are necessary (especially in the case of the C++ development environment - though this knowledge will come with usage over time), but below are the plugins so far required for myself.
Eclipse C/C++ Development Tools
PHP Development Tools (PDT) SDK Feature
Eclipse Java Development Tools
JavaScript Developer Tools
Install each of the above individually, and restart Eclipse after each install.
Configure stuff
Configure the system (Firefox, Gwibber, Eclipse, Wine, etc.).
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This post was last edited on the 29th of July, 2010 at 8:33am
and has 8 comments, the last was posted by ahdkaw on Thu 5 Aug 2010 at 10:18am
Great bittorrent shares
You know when it comes to file-sharing, it's all well and good for the kids who'll watch any old crap that Hollywood likes to sput out in an endless way, but what about us older folks? What about us politically-charged, long time Internet users? What if we don't want to download music because we've already got plenty? Well, we have our own buzz, and it's things like software and so-called "legal" torrents (all torrents are legal, you can't criminalise a hash).
First off, hats off to Vodo who only a few weeks back (possibly a month or so) brought us the first ever bittorrent science fiction TV-format series, Pioneer One which received more than enough donations to produce the next few episodes in it's first week of release. And now they have brought us The Yes Men - P2P Edition, which I must say was very enjoyable. If you like political tom-foolery and activism, this will be right down your street. I propose getting the HD versions.
I suppose I need to provide another bittorrent link - LinuxTracker - Bloody good if you like Linux.
Anyway, go to vodo, and share. Share to your hearts content.
First off, hats off to Vodo who only a few weeks back (possibly a month or so) brought us the first ever bittorrent science fiction TV-format series, Pioneer One which received more than enough donations to produce the next few episodes in it's first week of release. And now they have brought us The Yes Men - P2P Edition, which I must say was very enjoyable. If you like political tom-foolery and activism, this will be right down your street. I propose getting the HD versions.
I suppose I need to provide another bittorrent link - LinuxTracker - Bloody good if you like Linux.
Anyway, go to vodo, and share. Share to your hearts content.
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This post was last edited on the 24th of July, 2010 at 2:59pm
I'm a member of PPUK now. Gulp.
It has finally happened, I have waded into the murky world of politics and become a fully paid up member of The Pirate Party UK!
It's quite a step really, although I have supported them in the past purely in spirit, now well, that's all changed. I now have access to all the member areas that I used to have access to before they went proper official after the first successful internal elections (in which I voted).
Not had a lot of chance to go through and catch up with all the current stuff, what with work being essentially constant, but I'm sure I'll get around to it sooner rather than later. I may even have to try out the irc channels again, if they still have it (I would think so).
One little foible; I still have a 'Membership Pending' link on the homepage, dunno what that is about.
It's quite a step really, although I have supported them in the past purely in spirit, now well, that's all changed. I now have access to all the member areas that I used to have access to before they went proper official after the first successful internal elections (in which I voted).
Not had a lot of chance to go through and catch up with all the current stuff, what with work being essentially constant, but I'm sure I'll get around to it sooner rather than later. I may even have to try out the irc channels again, if they still have it (I would think so).
One little foible; I still have a 'Membership Pending' link on the homepage, dunno what that is about.
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This post was last edited on the 21st of July, 2010 at 5:35pm
and has 4 comments, the last was posted by ahdkaw on Tue 27 Jul 2010 at 5:26pm
Feck Off Gone!
We've finally axed the historic Huge Feck Off Links List which has been a regular feature since this site began way back in early '99.
Nolef's Links List did die a while back actually, and was later resurrected as Ahdkaw's Link List, which was basically Nolef's mixed in with Ahdkaw's delicious links, and simply sputted out on the Feck Off pages.
But we've finally had enough of delicious, and after discovering a while ago that it is now owned by Yahoo!, this relationship had to end at some time. We don't like Yahoo! around here, ye hear me?
We've deleted all the related files to the Feck Off section, so any attempts to visit it will result in a 404 slurping. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
So, bye bye delicious, I used my wit and ingenuity to get all my bookmarks back, tyvm.
Nolef's Links List did die a while back actually, and was later resurrected as Ahdkaw's Link List, which was basically Nolef's mixed in with Ahdkaw's delicious links, and simply sputted out on the Feck Off pages.
But we've finally had enough of delicious, and after discovering a while ago that it is now owned by Yahoo!, this relationship had to end at some time. We don't like Yahoo! around here, ye hear me?
We've deleted all the related files to the Feck Off section, so any attempts to visit it will result in a 404 slurping. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
So, bye bye delicious, I used my wit and ingenuity to get all my bookmarks back, tyvm.
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This post was last edited on the 18th of July, 2010 at 10:08am
Westhaven tags added
After what seems like a very long time, I finally got around to editing each post in Westhaven and adding the much needed tags to each chapter. I only added generic tags, so each chapter has the same tags.
This means that members who posted within this story, all that time ago, will now have an updated Tag Cloud.
If you wish to check your tag cloud you can do so by going here, click the Articles link for your chosen member, and then click the Tag Cloud link (won't be shown if you haven't posted enough to generate a valid cloud).
This means that members who posted within this story, all that time ago, will now have an updated Tag Cloud.
If you wish to check your tag cloud you can do so by going here, click the Articles link for your chosen member, and then click the Tag Cloud link (won't be shown if you haven't posted enough to generate a valid cloud).
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This post was last edited on the 9th of June, 2010 at 4:53pm
HomeAccess Laptop & NetIntelligence
I have a friend, who happens to be on benefits, is a single mother of three, and has just received a shiny new Acer laptop from the government. It comes pre-installed with Windows 7 Professional, and a ton of other ultimately worthless additional software.
Firstly, let me point out that I disagree with the idea of using taxpayers money to fund the provision of hardware and software to the unemployed, especially considering the current economic climate, but if the government insist on continuing to run a funds-haemmoraging Labour proposal, then who am I to refuse work on such systems?
After running the laptop for the first time, my client immediately began installation of her favourite software (Firefox & uTorrent) which went normally, until she attempted to visit several different websites. At this point, software called NetIntelligence blocked access to these websites.
That is not acceptable in my book or my clients, no matter who provides the hardware, there is no way that anyone should allow the government to censor the web (and god knows what else) simply because they provided the hardware and software.
I worked on disabling NetIntelligence; unfortunately attempting to uninstall simply prompted the input of an unknown password (today discovered at unlinkable_link - arseholes of the highest order). Nevertheless, the NI software was blocking access to it's own KB pages, and eventually we were left with no choice but to reinstall the OS.
Didn't take long, and now her Internet is censor-free once more.
Hey Mr. Government, don't try and censor the 'net if you haven't received permission from the owner to do so, because we IT professionals will simply destroy your install and start again.
Firstly, let me point out that I disagree with the idea of using taxpayers money to fund the provision of hardware and software to the unemployed, especially considering the current economic climate, but if the government insist on continuing to run a funds-haemmoraging Labour proposal, then who am I to refuse work on such systems?
After running the laptop for the first time, my client immediately began installation of her favourite software (Firefox & uTorrent) which went normally, until she attempted to visit several different websites. At this point, software called NetIntelligence blocked access to these websites.
That is not acceptable in my book or my clients, no matter who provides the hardware, there is no way that anyone should allow the government to censor the web (and god knows what else) simply because they provided the hardware and software.
I worked on disabling NetIntelligence; unfortunately attempting to uninstall simply prompted the input of an unknown password (today discovered at unlinkable_link - arseholes of the highest order). Nevertheless, the NI software was blocking access to it's own KB pages, and eventually we were left with no choice but to reinstall the OS.
Didn't take long, and now her Internet is censor-free once more.
Hey Mr. Government, don't try and censor the 'net if you haven't received permission from the owner to do so, because we IT professionals will simply destroy your install and start again.
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This post was last edited on the 16th of June, 2010 at 1:19pm
and has 10 comments, the last was posted by ahdkaw on Fri 6 Aug 2010 at 7:51am
Opinion, Tattle & Shite
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ahdkaw: Not sure if anyone noticed (other than the spammer) that we had removed the reCaptcha code from the...
ahdkaw: another couple of bugs have been found, one bug only affect the display of certain posting...
ak: oh wow, it actually works! forget get_iplayer, the conversion to avi is messy anyway...
ahdkaw: Reluctantly, I will try Chrome...
ak: done & done (v11.0.52)...
ahdkaw: The commenting system is kinda messed up at the moment, I'm trying to enable usernames for...
ak: typical angus, commenting during comment page development. :D...
AngusThermopile: The work around is to use chrome, perhaps some other browsers too.
I dunno why chrome seems to...
ahdkaw: For anyone who turns up here looking for an uninstallation solution, then here it is...
ahdkaw: NAGUS! You were right! There are controls issues with BBC iPlayer in 64bit FF. Luckily I have XP in...
ahdkaw: ^ That was me...
Anonymous: here's a small pic I found...
ahdkaw: I fixed the Eclipse issue, I had to install the PDE (Plug-in Development Environment) first...
ahdkaw: I have finally made the plunge, and everything is going reasonably well so far.
The only big...
AngusThermopile: Hmm I dunno but i do have issues. Mainly with controls not working on certain flash things. Like i...
ahdkaw: Solution, see second post -
Instead of "rpm" try "yum install gnome-s...
ahdkaw: Well, I say I am editing, but I'm not, as I have just come a cropper with CentOS, which always...
ahdkaw: I had heard that, but I went to Youtube and that worked as expected, even with AdBlock Plus...
AngusThermopile: I'm using it on my desktop at home without issue. Not that I'm doing anything fancy or don't have a...
ahdkaw: That's a good question about the C-32 bill, it hasn't been passed... yet...
Horab Fibslager: i actually haven't heard much about that bill for a while now. either they're going to try and...
ahdkaw: Yeah, it's a shame they haven't taken the bull by the horns yet, after all zeropaid.com is Canadian...
Horab Fibslager: i've poked around the canadian pirate party website, but the activity is lacking.
the longest...
ahdkaw: server-side scripting 4 teh win!...
ahdkaw: Well... that's Javascript, a client-side scripting language with more security holes than a swiss...
lhacker: The image that I posted was an older image, it is now 83, so atleast they have improved it.
But...
ahdkaw: Lol, just noticed the 55/100 for the Acid3 test, and they proudly display that lame score...
ahdkaw: Ewwww! Internet Explorer? Let me just shake off my disgust. :p
I haven't had chance to have a...
Anonymous: Ah, thank you, for my first comments upon my first post you have done me proud! Be prepared to see...
ahdkaw: PS: Excellent first post, you done me proud!...
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