Shadow of the Colossus

Ico was one of my all-time best gaming experiences. This is the new game from the creators of Ico. I don't buy many games at full price (Resident Evil 4 was the last one) but this I will buy on sight. This guy liked it. Ps, still waiting for any PAL Katamari. :(

My new .com

Yahoo Small Business has pretty cheap ($2.99 per year) domain names at the moment. I couldn't resist and shelled out for the ultra sexy simonbaird.com. I think I will slowly move my stuff over there. I would like to also plug ZoneEdit and Bur.st Networking.

Japan Photos In flickr

I was in Japan for three and a bit weeks in August. We went to a wedding and travelled around a bit with friends. It was an awesome holiday and of course I have a boat-load of photos. So I've got me one of those new fangled flickr accounts and I'm going to put a few up for you all to dig on. If you liked the pimp my ride posts from last month then check out Japan Transport.

Map a drive via FTP or WebDav

This is pretty cool. There's a utility called "Net Drive" from Novell that lets you map a windows drive via FTP or WebDav. This is better than using "My Network Places" for ftp because you can edit files in place on the remote site. Has to make your faviourite ftp client obsolete. Weirdly you can't find this at novell.com. (Discovered by Clint). Update
This made the front page at digg.com and got about 6,000 hits over the weekend! I've looked into the license a little closer. I believe Novell at some stage licensed a version of WebDrive to bundle with Netware. Even though they seem to be encouraging it's free distribution they're probably not supposed to. Read the EULA here. So you shouldn't use this unless you or your company has a Netware 6 license. [Listens for the sound of 6000 people uninstalling... ;]. Also note that WebDrive supports secure ftp while Net Drive does not.

TagglyTagging

I've "launched" the new version of TagglyTagging, my alternative tagging implementation for TiddlyWiki. There's a new tutorial and an FAQ. If you're interested in personal productivity tools, tagging data or TiddlyWiki then check it out. Also remember Scotland is lovely this time of year. If you are thinking about going on a trip, why not Scotland. ;)

New iPod

You probably don't need me to tell you about this but I'm excited. Buy It. Watch It. Bring It. Oh yeah! I'm definitately getting (an imaginary) one of these to compliment my (imaginary) nano. Ps, iTunes 6.

"Brick" as a verb

I like to keep my readers up-to-date with emerging new usage of the English language. Today's new word is:

brick (verb) - to make as useful as a brick, eg "Rogue patcher will brick your PSP", esp in relation to expensive, rectangular, electronic devices.

I like it.

Google Reader

May we be grateful for this latest morsel from the font of sweet google goodness. All hail our Google overlords. :)

Another one

Just in case Zooey was feeling left out...

A wet cat (as promised)

This is Daisy one of our two cats after her bath. Look at her tail. It's funny because it normally looks like this: Zooey had a bath too but she doesn't look that much different wet or dry.

Best value lunch in Townsville

I hesitate to do this in case word gets out and they have to cancel the whole deal, but I figure there's about three people reading this and two of them don't live in Townsville so what's the harm... I'm talking about the Upper Ross Hotel Mega Meal. Here's the deal. You pay $10. For you $10 you get:

• A meal (I think there's about four to choose from. I always get the Chicken Schnitzel with coleslaw, chips and gravy. It's damn good. Similar to the picture except imagine some coleslaw and some chips on the plate. I will get an actual photo next time).
• A ticket which entitles you to a free drink, either a pot of beer, a glass of wine or a softdrink
• Five one dollar coins. Seriously. You give them $10. They give you back five one dollar coins. It's not change. It's part of the mega meal deal. Actually I think they give you a ticket which entitles you to five one dollar coins. Then they give you the coins and take the ticket. This all happens in a split second. It can be quite confusing if you are unprepared.

Now obviously their target demographic puts the coins in the pokie machines or the keno but if you pocket those coins you have gotten yourself what I call the best value lunch in Townsville. Lets suppose your pot of beer is worth $2.00 then your food cost you just $3.00. Still want more? You can help yourself to free coffee and tea from the coffee machine. (Okay the coffee is basically undrinkable but you can have a complimentary cup of tea and get out of there like a bandit). And remember this is only about 10 minutes drive from uni across the new bridge.

Stuff I would blog about if I spent more time here

• Photos of my cats getting their triennial (is that a word?) flea bath
• The release of TiddlyWiki 1.2.33 closely followed by 1.2.34
• The fact that I am selling my car. Want to buy my car? 1993 Tarago, 180,000kms, 8 seater, dual air con. $14,900 ono.
• The Julien Temple Sex Pistols movie I watched on Tues night on World Movies (love my austar movie channels), which would be a great continuation of a theme...
• My frustration with IE's lack of support for my lovingly crafted set of methods like this one:

  Element.prototype.addNodeWithId = function(...) {
  ...
  }
  

• The AJAXie ldap controller thingy I'm trying to build anyway...
• My awesome new TiddlyWiki plugins at MPTW
• The fact that I rode my (not really mine) scooter to work for the first time today. It's 50cc but I was doing 70km/h with some grunt to spare. Oh yeah that thing is great! I can fill it up for about $7 I think.
• How good circuit training was on Tuesday, though Sam definitely needs to upgrade her CD player for an iPod shuffle. :)
• And the Cowboys of course. Go Cowboys!
• Some kind of rant about the uselessness of spam filters that give (any) false positives.
• Some kind of rant about the new breed of ringtone ads (it's not just the frog though I guess he started it all) that have made Channel V and MTV unwatchable for me. I miss those channels. :(

Maybe I'll retrospectively blog some of the above. Or maybe the list will grow and grow and I'll never catch up. Or maybe I just did blog all of the above. Hmm.

Christmas gift suggestion...

At the moment I can't think of anything I'd rather unwrap on Christmas morning. Santa, if you're listening, I think the teal. :) (PS, apologies for mentioning Christmas this early in the year).

End of the Century

I watched this last night on Movie Extra. I never really got the Ramones. I mean I can respect them for their massive contribution to the birth of punk etc, but I always thought they were kind of boring. But after watching this movie I understand better what the Ramones were about. The fact that they are aren't that good is part of why they are so important. The three (now dead) stars are Joey, the painfully insecure, obsessive compulsive; Dee Dee, the depressed ex-rentboy junky; and Johnny - well he was the "Spinal Tap" guy who didn't really like the others. (Johnny comes across as a heartless bastard towards the end of this movie). They showed that anyone could be a rock star no matter how 'uncool' you were. Highlights include great footage of the early days of CBGBs, the story of their first UK show, their encounter with a crazed gun wielding Phil Spector, Joey never forgiving Johnny for stealing his girlfriend and marrying her, the band being mobbed by fans in Brazil. The movie keeps you interested to the very end and somehow manages to avoid cliches and any resemblance to one of those VH1 rockumentaries. Anyway I give the movie a solid two thumbs up and recommend it if you have even the slightest interest music.

Miyazaki Interview

Thanks Chris for the link. He's quite a pessimistic sort of bloke isn't he. I wonder when/if Howl's Moving Castle will come to Townsville. I think the official release date is tomorrow. Doesn't look promising ...

Update: Reading Cinema is showing the movie but not in Townsville :(

Happy Birthday TiddlyWiki

TiddlyWiki version 1.0 was posted on the web by Jeremy Ruston on this day one year ago. What the heck is TiddlyWiki, you might be asking? You can think of it as an electronic notepad from the future. For more info try the TiddlyWiki entry in Wikipedia (which, I just discovered, mentions my own TW hacker site, MonkeyPirateTiddlyWiki).

Pimp My Ride Japan Style - Part 2

Check out this this guy I saw in Machida. Notice the how his helmet has the matching flame job and his shoe laces actually match his brake discs! Awesome. The bike has one of those super loud mufflers so that it can get your attention even from several blocks away. I won't mention the ever-so-subtle symbolism of the bike's shape. (Or is it just me? :)

Update: See here for more...

Pimp My Ride Japan Style - Part 1

Here's a pimped out minivan I photographed in Osaka. Obviously for use on flat roads only. Imagine what a speed bump would do to that.

Update: See here for more...

iPod nano

The iPod nano is clearly the greatest piece of technology ever created. If I wasn't so broke I would definately buy one for Sharyn to replace her iPod shuffle.

The fish tongue parasite

At first you might think this is the fish's worst nightmare. Mummy fishes scare their children by telling them stories about the nasty tongue grub, perhaps to get them to brush their teeth. But actually I reckon the fish is into it. He can scare away other fish by opening his mouth really wide and have his tongue yell at them.