Again tonight I've played around with my NetMD unit, investigating the protocol a little more and trying to unlock its secrets. I've found some interesting things :)

I've also learnt a lot about XML in the last few days as I've been writing a live weather data parsing routine. It takes an XML file and extracts the weather conditions such as temperature, outlook, rainfall, humidity and wind status and displays them. I've got it working perfectly now. I don't feel like I've gotten too far where work's concerned though (although that XML weather parser is part of a current job). I think it might just seem that way because my current clients don't tend to be as consistently vocal as some of my other clients have been, which can slow down the development process a little. I'm just doing what I can where I can on the different projects, slowly moving along.

My brother and sister-in-law's house is moving along pretty well, although I have to say I'm sceptical that it'll be completed on time, heh. There are a lot of things that need to be done before it'll be complete, but they're moving here this weekend, so the builders better hurry up! :P It also reminds me of the chaos that will no doubt unfold this weekend. From the Gold Coast to here is a long way and they're going to do two trips. Oh what fun packing, driving for hours and unpacking a truck is! I'll be staying as far away from such things as humanly possible ;)

Meanwhile, anyone noticed the crazy printer prices these days? Buy an inkjet printer for $111 and then pay $120 for an ink cartridge! CRAZY.

Also the MPAA does it again, suggesting that all analogue->digital sampling chips should also have a 'cop chip' that detects watermarks in copyright material and shuts down the ADC chip to make sure people can't make any copies of copyright material (even if it is in fair use). What the USA government doesn't understand is that it's a totally unworkable thing to implement (besides it being just plain CRAZY). I guess that means you might be using your phone and an ad for a music artist appears on the TV and your phone stops working. LOL. The unfortunate part is that the MPAA and other companies are actually seriously trying to get these kinds of laws passed. Another thing they want to do is stop 'P2P' technology. Umm... what are they going to do, redesign the internet to stop client to client connections I guess? That'll mean you won't be able to contact anything on the internet - but of course they wouldn't understand that simple concept.

Maybe it's just me, but when I buy a some music, or a DVD, or a video or a poster, or ANYTHING, I expect to be able to use it in whatever what I want. Take MiniDisc for example... it relies on people being able to 'format shift' media (e.g. record a CD to MiniDisc). Sony has relied on this ability for years, providing software with their products to do just this and advertising it as a major feature. But the same company, with another division - Sony Music - is creating copy-protected CDs that try to stop CDs being used in CD-ROM drives and other devices such as DVD players, car CD audio players, etc. I wish they'd make up their minds and get their priorities straight for once. The funny part is that you can break their CD copy-protection by drawing on the disc with a pen on the outer corrupt data track. Philips (half creator of the CD format) doesn't particularly like the whole thing either, because they say Sony has no right to use the Compact Disc logo on copy-protected CDs because they don't comply
with the Compact Disc standards. They've even told Sony and other audio disc manufacturers that they're not to place the CD logo on copy-protected discs, and that they want a warning placed on the outside of the case. It's just laughable. All these companies trying to make crazy things to kill people's fair use rights.

Well that's enough of a rant for tonight. Tomorrow night I'll choose another topic and go at it - there are too many to mention in one update that have been playing on my mind recently.

And now for some unconscious sleep stuff.

My cold, while still hanging around, is better than yesterday. I think some of that home-made pea and ham soup must have done the trick :D~~~

Today's been consumed with messing around with the three new computers. Time for a happy-snap!



More stuff later :)

I haven't updated this since last weekend because I've been so busy and because I'm sick with the flu. What a great combination!

On the up side, my MiniDiscs and my NetMD unit arrived this week! I've been playing with them and examining the NetMD format (using a USB sniffer) since Thursday and I've come up with some interesting results that should make it easier for people to hack the format.

The rest of the week's been dominated by cold weather, large amounts of work and client relations, and this terrible cold and flu that I've been unlucky enough to catch. I really hope it clears up over this weekend because I'm going to be spending the entire time in bed otherwise. It sort of progressed very rapidly from having a sore throat on Wednesday to have a sore throat and bad cold on Thursday to being completely out of it and dizzy throughout today. Making matters worse, I woke up early today which threw my body clock out the window. As much as I'd love to stay up all night and download some stuff with the oodles of GBs I still have left for this month's data quota, I'm feeling so tired and congested that even that's not going to happen :(

Adding to the work load, the house of one of my client's burnt down (!!!) destroying all the work they'd completed on the content for the project that's due to be finished June/July. Uh-oh. This means that I'll be taking over the work. It's very bad for them (obviously) and while it is good in some respects for me (because it means another contract), it's bad because it adds to an already-large work load for this and next month. I guess things could be worse (though from the semi-conscious state I'm writing this from I can't figure out how just yet - I'll get back to you on that).

Nite! *stumbles off dazed and disorientated*

I've been in Brisbane and the Gold Coast for the last couple of days, but now I'm returning and playing away on my laptop. I'm literally surrounded by computer parts right now, with three entire computers and the laptop packed in to the car (including their monitors). I'm going to have a lot of fun setting them up tonight when I finally get back home... it'll be like a miniature render farm! :D I also picked up an 8-port switch to link them together (since the hub I have at home is already at capacity). The wireless cards I've ordered (two for the network between the house and the office and one for my laptop for snooping) should also arrive in the next two weeks. My room is going to have enough computing power to launch a small rocket in to space soon, heh.

I saw Episode II: Attack of the Clones again last night (because my brother hadn't seen it). It was a much better visual experience the second time around because it was in a BCC Senstadium cinema :P~ It was lucky we got there when we did... the place ended up packed. It's always interesting to watch the expressions on the faces of people as they enter a cinema and see that 99% of the seats area already taken because they arrived late, heh. There's a lot to the movie that a lot of people wouldn't notice... the subtle hints about characters in the music and the background landscapes, for example. It'll make a great movie for DVD and will really show off HDTV filming techniques. The surround sound is a great way to test out an audio system (in particular, scenes such as the asteroid field explosions).

My brother's set of Roland V-Drum V-Customs is again larger than when I last saw it. Soon it's going to take up his entire room! Now I have to con him in to laying down some tracks for me to play with on the computer. Never know, might even be able to make up a decent sounding song ;)

In just two weeks my brother, sister-in-law and nephew will be permanently living in the same town as us... this is good because it means no additional trip to the Gold Coast each time we go to Brisbane (not that I mind going, the Gold Coast is an interesting place to visit, but going to the Gold Coast and back is quite a drive when there's already an assured 8.5 hours of driving to go to Brisbane and back, heh).

The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions teaser trailer has been released and it looks awesome. My biggest fear with the sequels was them not living up to what The Matrix had already done, but the trailer makes me believe they're going to be even better! :D They're both released next year... :D

In other news, the Subway closest to my brother's place in Brisbane is closing... nooooooooooo...! >:/ Sif close a Subway :\

*sticks Gorillaz CD in* Time to sit back an enjoy the ride, heh.

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Ahh, just amazing. I want to go and see it again!

Today's been pretty cold... and I think I have some kind of flu starting up. Whatever it is, I feel pretty... tired. I've started work on my latest contract, though I'm having some difficulty getting the right look. I'm sure it'll all just 'click' sooner or later... it's just a matter of getting the right colours, it seems.

*ponders*

So I lied, I didn't get a chance to update it because I was working on another site at the time... and then I had better things to be doing with my time on Friday (including having another contract signed, yey!). However, there is some content in Infraction now! :D

I've ordered a couple of things in the last few days, including some cool MiniDiscs, and a MiniDisc unit (through auction), an N707 with NetMD. It'll be good to finally be able to try out NetMD and see if it's what it's cracked up to be. I'm also planning on putting together a page about the USB transfer protocol it uses (using a USB snooping program I found). Decoding the info should be a challenge.

The MiniDiscs are some that I've wanted for a while now, like Sony Neige discs and some of the rarer TDK discs.

I'll update this thing again later tonight :)

A couple of interface changes have been uploaded tonight. Sorry about the lack of updates but it's been one hell of a week! You'll notice that if you enter the site of a night time (Australian Eastern Standard Time, that is) then it'll be a different colour. I figured that since it's starting to get a lot colder here and winter is really sweeping in, it was time for an interface to "find the feeling".

I've also changed the name of Sub Recoil to Infraction on the side menu. This will actually have some content shortly (yey!) and I'll hopefully have the chance tonight to edit some video and stick that online as well (but that might be too optimistic, given the other things I have to get done first). I'll see how it goes. There will be some "Chroma Key" wallpapers from my CK site online in Infraction later for sure, though.

In other news I headed to Maryborough to meet with their Council last Friday. They seem quite optimistic about the idea of their new website and the possibilities of a local intranet for their Client Services division. I'll just have to wait and see if I get the job, I think.

*looks out window* There are ducks queuing on the back lawn for a feed! They seem more active now that the lake is back to its normal water level. It dropped quite a bit when another lake was 'joined' to it up-stream, but the rain we've had over the last week has helped to restore it. Fish are also jumping of a night time now that it's getting colder (I have no idea why they do this, it seems like very strange behaviour to me... although no stranger than streaking in front of a live audience and the Australian public on Big Brother last night, which is what a local resident did, consequently having himself evicted and charged, LOL).

Meanwhile, my two brothers, my sister-in-law and my nephew have been here over the weekend. My sister-in-law and nephew will be staying for a few more days too. I'm attacking my workload like there's no tomorrow, while trying to get some DVD reviews done. Speaking of which, I'm going to quickly upload this, and then get back to it! Cya!