tech talk
wifi
My own experiment with high-speed internet access was a complete failure (as detailed here), but I’m always willing to accept the kindness of strangers. A neighbor is currently providing a big, fat, unencrypted wifi signal, so I’m cheerfully taking advantage of it, and I will continue to, as long as it’s available.
As always, the main difference for me is that I can watch movie trailers (Frost/Nixon, Cadillac Records, Star Trek, Underworld: The Rise of the Lycans, and, of course, Watchmen). And I watched the video for Beyoncé’s “If I Were A Boy,” which is sort of the flip side of Prince’s “If I Was Your Girlfriend.” Oh and this, which is as amazing as ever (though it’s even better in context). I still hope that someday the whole movie will be out on DVD.
back to php
It’s been a while since I did any PHP, but, as I said in the last entry, I want to have printable versions of the mystery stories, and the text is currently in the database that WordPress uses, so I needed to do some PHP to get it out again and prepare it properly, including removing the links at the top and bottom of each part (and removing the graphics from the parts that have them).
All of this is fairly labor-intensive, mostly because of my reluctance/inability to learn regular expressions. But the first story (The U-town Murder Case) is available, and the rest will be coming. The formatting is minimal (there isn’t any), so you should have maximum control over typeface, size, etc. when you print.
I’ve been inveigled onto facebook, and it’s proving to be a somewhat interesting experience.
For one thing, I am apparently the only person in the interwebs who doesn’t have a ready supply of digital self-portraits. In fact, the only images I seem to have at hand are a few pictures of Poco, one frame from the movie eXistenZ, a picture of Johnny Ramone, a drawing made by a friend while we were talking on the phone, and a picture of Johnny Depp. Mostly on discussion boards I don’t use an image at all, but if I do, I use Johnny Depp.
Also, there are apparently a lot of people out there who feel that two people having the same last name is a basis for some sort of friendship. An idea which I don’t share.
college days
More of The College Murder Case is posted. The new parts start here.