This is just a quick note to inform people that I have a new PGP public key. You can find it on my About page. Any future emails you receive from me (that have haven’t been sent from my PGP-less iPod touch) will be signed with this key and not the old key.
Posted August 22nd, 2010 in Internet - View Comments
This is just a quick summary update to say I’m not dead and share some news.
The most wonderful news is that Prue is finished with the Muse’s Success logo and I plan to debut it during the beta of the coming updates (late July/early August) and push it with the rest of the updates once tested. Big thanks to Prue!
My WordPress plug-ins won’t be updated until Muse’s Success’ updates are successfully beta tested and found to be bug free. If you checkout the GitHub version of the eBook export plug-in, it does continue to create a lovely ePub ebook suitable for iTunes and other ePub book stores.
I seem to have left Facebook without many (2 people noticed) people noticing but I have had to go back a few times due to no one being available via anything else. Does anyone remember email? I don’t really want to delete my account fully – i have such a nice vanity URL but at the same time I want to fully delete it. I saw the trailer for the movie, looks interesting but not enough to see it – especially since the trailer spoils it.
I should be getting a new TV and my glasses two weeks from now, so I am very excited about those too. It’s been ages since I have worn glasses, but I technically need them. I won’t be straining my eyes as much to see, my right eye deserves the reduced workload since my left doesn’t do any of the work.
My big excited Japanese post a few months ago didn’t turn out so well – as soon as I finished the exercise book I was using to practice kanji, I stopped and have not done any since. I had reached around the 280 mark. I finally the other day bought several new blank exercise books, so I am getting back to it after the current assignments are in.
The new anime season started a few weeks ago. The shows that immediately have sparked my interest are Shukufuku no Campanella, Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi, Amagami SS and Nurarihyon no Mago. You should check them out.
Edit: Added Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi to interesting anime.
Posted July 18th, 2010 in Internet, Muse's Success, Site - View Comments
I have made the decision to leave Facebook. This is because of their recent changes in the way privacy is handled and the outrageous defaulting of every user who had not changed their Facebook settings from the defaults before the change to having everything publicly accessible. I’m also beginning to dislike the tone Facebook and it’s representatives are using both in the user interface, interviews and official communications. I have posted two of these below.
Interview with Elliot Schrage, Vice-president of Privacy at Facebook:
“Everything is opt-in on Facebook. Participating in the service is a choice. We want people to continue to choose Facebook every day. Adding information — uploading photos or posting status updates or “like” a Page — are also all opt-in. Please don’t share if you’re not comfortable. That said, we certainly will continue to work to improve the ease and access of controls to make more people more comfortable. Your assumption about our assumption is simply incorrect. We don’t believe that. We’re happy to make the record on that clear.”
The deactivate account page at Facebook:
Are you sure you want to deactivate your account?
Your 81 friends will no longer be able to keep in touch with you.
What This Means for My Facebook Friends:
Posted May 16th, 2010 in Internet - View Comments
This is quite embarrassing but after having got off to some great starts over the last month or two, I only just finished learning Katakana today. To say I’m finished is actually incorrect as without further practice over the coming months, it will eventually slip away. Something I’m quite proud of is that besides reading Katakana I’ve also learned how to write each of the characters from memory. With Hiragana, I only this ability with a select few of the characters, something I will need to work on in the near future.
Having finally completed Katakana, I am also required to begin Kanji, specifically the J?y? kanji – essentially learning kana 10 more times. It certainly is scary however I’m sure I can accomplish it. I’m planning to use the Remembering the Kanji method since I don’t have confidence that the more traditional method which I used to learn the kana will translate to 2000 more characters, many of which are increasingly detailed and similar.
The Remembering the Kanji method will teach a single English word for each Kanji. The actual Japanese readings can be taught later in context. At that stage, I’m planning to use the All Japanese All the Time method of 10,000 unique sentences which I will enter into Anki, which is spaced repetition software. My review method for these will be much like my Katakana, write the sentence, read the sentence, and then proceed to check my answer. In the case that I’m wrong, I will repeat the writing and reading a few more times before moving on to the next.
I’m planning to supplement the 10,000 sentences method with JapanesePod101 podcasts, Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese Grammar and Smart.fm‘s Vocabulary lists. The first and last of these will also serve as a great source of sentences for use in Anki with a reasonable likelihood that the translations provided will be correct. Eventually I’m also planning to use my anime and jdorama as a source of sentences.
I’ve gone over the planned method of action but I haven’t put forth my reasons for learning Japanese.
Posted February 9th, 2010 in Japanese - View Comments
This is a very very early development release of a plugin for WordPress to export a category as an eBook, currently only ePub. Some features don’t work and many are not implemented.
Anyway, use at your own risk.
Download Plugin
Posted January 28th, 2010 in Code, PHP, WordPress - View Comments
I’ve picked up the following series for the Winter 2009/2010 season. Stars are out of 5 and represent how much I’m enjoying said anime as of this post.
Posted January 24th, 2010 in Anime - View Comments
I wrote a simple caching library for CodeIgniter since database caching and page output caching were not suitable for my needs.
Usage:
class Test extends Controller { function main() { // load the library $this->load->library('simple_cache'); // key is the name you have given to the cached data // will check if the item is cached if (!$this->simple_cache->is_cached('key')) { // not cached, do our things that need caching $data = array('print' => 'Hello World'); // store in cache $this->simple_cache->cache_item('key', $data); } else { $data = $this->simple_cache->get_item('key'); } $this->load->view('hello', $data); } }
I don’t think I need to explain anymore? Maybe I will update with a better description later.
I’m releasing it under the GPLv3. Enjoy.
Posted January 24th, 2010 in Code, PHP - View Comments
This was written for an assigment for university and was originally published here at the blog I created for the unit.
The current governing political party of Australia, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) is seeking to introduce mandatory ISP level filtering, dubbed “Clean Feed” or the “Great Firewall of Australia” with the stated intent of blocking access to content that has been refused classification, specifically singling out child pornography and abuse material as its target although refused classification content covers far more than this. There would be no opt-out although it had been mentioned early on that there would be.
This filter has a of number issues that make such an attempt to filter en masse the internet use of Australian’s unpractical. These include that it could be easily bypassed using proxies and VPN, and a possible performance penalty that varies with the implementation. The filter would only target web-related content doing nothing to target content that goes over other protocols such as newsgroups and BitTorrent. The blacklist is tiny in comparison to the number of sites that would need to blocked in order to meet the Governments stated target. Perhaps worse, it could possibly create a false sense of security for parents who believe that the filter will protect their children from what has been deemed harmful but due to issues with internet filtering systems, manages to let undesired content through and into the eyes of their children.
With a mandatory filtering scheme, Australia would be following in the footsteps of other countries such as the People’s Republic of China, and Iran. The United Kingdom and select other European countries have also introduced filtering however these are different in the fact that the stated intention is only to block child pornography. This mandatory ISP level filtering would be the first of its kind in a western country. There is fear that this could set a dangerous precedent that could be used to promote internet censorship in other western countries.
The Electronic Frontiers Australia organisation has started the nocleanfeed.com campaign website that seeks to educate Australians and spread the word of the proposed mandatory filtering scheme. Activist organisation GetUP Australia has provided a way for Australians to contact the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. Additionally, there is a planned day of protest happening in March that will hopefully send the message that Australian’s don’t want nor need their internet access to be filtered.
Posted January 19th, 2010 in Internet - View Comments
Rose and I were interviewed about Muse’s Success by Anna M. Harte of quillsandzebras for her Café Wednesday series.
Anna is the author of Above Ground, you should check it out if you have enough time to be reading this!
Tags: interview, Muse's Success, web fiction
Posted December 10th, 2009 in Muse's Success - View Comments
Its the time of year again when I have to decide what I’m going to watch for the next 3 months. My watch list has recently been shortened considerably as various series conclude, signaling the impending start of a new round of anime. These are the anime I’m planning to watch that start in October 2009. I’m not the biggest fan of translating names, but for the convenience of my English-speaking or non-Anime watching readers, I’ve included translations or official English names in brackets. Links go to MyAnimeList.net where you’ll be able to get a summary of each series.
I’m excited about the continuations of existing series including White Album, Asura Cryin’, and Toaru Majutsu no Index’s spinoff Toaru Kagaku no Rail Gun. I have mixed feelings about Shugo Chara Dokki Doki. I loved the first two seasons, but the show was really concluded in those two seasons. I can’t imagine this third season being anything more then filler, or anime original content, which the first seasons already had their fair share of. My excitement for new shows is in particular extended to Kobato which is from CLAMP, a manga-ka group who I am a big fan of. I’m yet to watch a series by CLAMP which I haven’t enjoyed.
What are you expectations for this season? Do you have any suggestions?
Posted October 1st, 2009 in Anime - View Comments