Posted June 30th, 2008 by Chris Clarke
Filled under: Life, University
Its in.
The assignment is in.
I’m not sure I covered everything or even referenced enough. I exceeded the word count though, but I suspect most of that is citations. Can you even exclude citations from the word count in MS Word 07?
I’ve been up all night again. Power went out yesterday. I lost some of my assignment. Teaches me for not saving. I spent most of the time working on deciding how to start the opening sentences of a few of the paragraphs. Did I mention that in the previous weblog entry?
I’m not sure what to do. Darkthorn suggests sleep as did Ebikun before she left. I should do that. Really.
I kind of have a headache. =/
I was informed that Madison was on holidays yesterday. I’m stuck with her for two weeks. Hopefully she’ll leave me alone.
Tutorial should be posted within the next few days for those hanging out for it.
Yeah, this is a post for the sake of posting.
Better then nothing though. 
Posted June 29th, 2008 by Chris Clarke
Filled under: University
This post is made in the spirit of glorious procrastination.
Assignment is coming along slowly. I’ll have a burst soon and get it done though. Really. I need to. I’m really picky about the wording of my sentences, and now I’m quietly debating on YouTube’s Business type with myself. This is stressful. The assignment really isn’t even hard. Its just the format and my wish to not start each sentence with YouTube is a SOMETHING because SOMETHING.
I’m going to be here all night and then some. So much for fixing my pathetic sleep.
Ruby mentioned KFC earlier. I so want KFC now. Mmm, KFC.
Found some awesome pics on DeviantART earlier which I won’t post here due to the nature of them. I have to keep the site family friend after-all. Yeah, I say that with the splash of blood prominently featured in the layout. OK, the other reason is I don’t want to be drawn further away from the assignment while I fetch the links. Its tempting. So is a lot of things actually. But NO! Assignment must come FIRST.
Oh, I got the newer layouts uploaded to my DeviantART account this morning. That was productive.
Can I sleep?
Posted June 27th, 2008 by Chris Clarke
Filled under: Life
Alas, not entirely true. I did fall asleep during Stargate Atlantis afterall. I woke up properly at 3:45am and have been awake since. Laying there, in my bed. Silent. Interestingly, even in my sleep I’m aware of the time. I had a false awakening that suggested it was 3:20am. Of course, I was still asleep. However, I was thirsty. As I’m laying there in an accurate representation of my room. I find it difficult to open my eyes. Of course, at this point I’m awake in my dream. It’s my eyes in reality that won’t open. This isn’t sleep paralysis. I’m fully capable of moving. Eventually, struggling with it. I wake up. Dream me was tired. Can’t say the same for me in reality.
Notable is that time has passed in sync with the false awakening and the real world time. The TV show shown - one of those Guthy Renker advertisements is also the same one that was shown in my dream. At this point, I’ve seen them all hundreds of times. Quite sad really, but it doesn’t come as much of a shock.
How do I know that I had not actually been awake? Quite simple really. Dream me had memories of sipping water before bed. The glass used had been sitting next to my bed within the dream. No such glass exists in my reality.
Logic going forward. If I am to get up for a drink, I’m going to get lemonade. I decide against it and attempt to go back to sleep. I regret this decision. Eventually, it reaches 6:30am. My alarm will go off in 20 minutes. I get up and get the drink. I lay back down, sipping lemonade from my cup. Finally, I’m tired again. But alas, I’m scheduled to get up in 20 minutes. Toasted TV is on afterall. That is oh so important. I’m soon distracted by the morning cartoon and anime. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Followed by Bratz but not really interested in that. I’m faced with a decision. Get up or sleep. I choose to get up for now. Might nap later.
Anyone had a similar experience? With the dream, I mean.
Pending assignment due Monday. I have basic notes at this point. Should make the deadline with ease. But it hit me during the night how close it is. Really hits when you have time to think. Really think.
Prue really wants to be mentioned within this entry. She’s speaking with me as I write this. *waves*
~ Chris
Posted June 26th, 2008 by Chris Clarke
Filled under: Web
I received an add request on MSN early yesterday morning from a user who had an alias which defaulted to eBay. Suspecting spam, I went ahead and added the user anyway. I IMed her about an hour after the add but was ignored. I logged on for a bit about half an hour ago, and she IMed me. It starts off innocently enough until I ask her what she is at which time I’m informed she is a Chinese trader.
Yes, suspecions were correct but I decided to continue the conversation giving her advice on how to improve her business which she did not understand. Eventually, “Alice” (AIMLBot anyone?) finally seems to get that she is not going to get a sale out of me and leaves. To her credit, nicest and most literate spammer ever. A pleasure to deal with.
I copied the entire log below.
(1:29:01 AM) ebay: hello ‘
(1:29:30 AM) ebay has nudged you!
(1:29:40 AM) Chris Clarke: hello
(1:29:47 AM) Chris Clarke: may I ask whom this is?
01:30
(1:30:02 AM) ebay: alice from china
(1:30:07 AM) ebay: you ?
(1:30:23 AM) Chris Clarke: chris from aust
(1:30:36 AM) Chris Clarke: are you a student, random, spammer?
(1:32:24 AM) ebay: nice to meet you chris
(1:33:02 AM) Chris Clarke: yeah, you too
(1:33:13 AM) Chris Clarke: (I think)
(1:33:45 AM) Alice: we are a big wholesale trade company in china
(1:34:21 AM) Alice: i’m a trader
(1:34:26 AM) Chris Clarke: yes. if your looking for a sale, you’ve come to the wrong person.
01:35
(1:35:26 AM) Alice: what do you mean ?
(1:35:34 AM) Alice: ADDRESS REMOVED - NOT HELPING THEIR SEO
(1:35:41 AM) Chris Clarke: wouldn’t you do better with more traditional marketting? this method just annoys people.
(1:35:47 AM) Alice: if you have more time please to see
(1:36:42 AM) Alice: high quality and low price
(1:36:59 AM) Chris Clarke: spelling mistake on your website. Sunglass should be plural.
(1:38:57 AM) Chris Clarke: Actually a lot of yoru categories should be plural.
(1:39:01 AM) Chris Clarke: *your
(1:39:34 AM) Chris Clarke: am I talking to a bot?
01:40
(1:42:24 AM) Chris Clarke: OK. The make or break question. How did you come across my MSN?
(1:43:00 AM) Chris Clarke: I won’t penalise you for it. I’m just interested in the methods companies like yours use to acquire e-mail addresses.
(1:43:16 AM) Alice: i find it on ebay
(1:43:40 AM) Chris Clarke: OK.
(1:43:46 AM) Chris Clarke: 
(1:43:55 AM) Alice: what do you like ?
(1:44:16 AM) Chris Clarke: tech, law, and art.
01:45
(1:48:52 AM) Chris Clarke: That’s all outside your website’s audience though. It’s as out of place as your cigarette category is. Which btw, not giving a great corporate image.
01:50
(1:52:29 AM) Chris Clarke: The fact that you sell cigarettes would stop me from buying from you as would this marketting method your using.
(1:53:15 AM) Alice: ??
(1:54:03 AM) Chris Clarke: I’m refering to ADDRESS REMOVED and why I won’t be shopping with them. You seem to represent them.
(1:54:29 AM) Chris Clarke: How can you charge €0 for jeans?
01:55
(1:55:20 AM) Alice: beacouse different country the shipping cost is different
(1:55:31 AM) Alice: so we not write price on it
(1:57:06 AM) Chris Clarke: Standard method is to display the price your selling the item for in whatever currency your dealing with (PayPal will handle the conversion), and then add shipping cost when the user checkouts (based on whatever they set there delivery address to during registration).
(1:57:32 AM) Chris Clarke: What your currently doing is hurting the usabillity of the entire site which otherwise is pretty good.
(1:58:22 AM) Chris Clarke: This is just my input. You don’t have to take it into account.
(1:59:15 AM) Alice: ??
(1:59:21 AM) Alice: waht do you need today ?
(1:59:38 AM) Alice: shoes 0r t-shirt ?
(1:59:42 AM) Alice: i’m busy
(1:59:59 AM) Chris Clarke: I don’t need anything.
02:00
(2:00:11 AM) Alice: see you
(2:00:35 AM) Chris Clarke: yeah. nice speaking with you. see ya.
Fun
Posted June 25th, 2008 by Chris Clarke
Filled under: University
I received more of my results for the final assignments for last study period last night.
Pleasantly surprised.
I received what looks like two high distinctions for the Final Website (44.5 / 50) and Learning Log (34 / 40) assignments respectively. So happy with these. I only have one more result I’m waiting on now, and well it doesn’t matter. I’m quite sure I’ve passed no matter the result. This is the best news in a long time. A glimmer of hope shines out from amongst the darkness.
I thought my parents were being annoying Monday, I think they went a bit too far yesterday. Monday pretty lax in comparison. Stupid.
Um, what else to say?
OK, a question to readers if any.
How much can you reveal on a public weblog? How careful do you have to be when you post? Do you really need to stay as shallow as I do or should you dish your heart out?
I’m finding it difficult to find a balance.
I want to talk about a few things. But its not stuff I want certain individuals to find out either. Maybe, I should post those on LJ? I don’t know. I don’t want to make my friends worry either. I already do that enough. Input?
~ Chris Clarke
Posted June 24th, 2008 by Chris Clarke
Filled under: Life, University
A word that sums me up pretty well lately. Don’t you think?
I don’t see that changing any time soon either.
Unfortunately.
That’s probably the problem at hand.
Last result for NET12 - Internet: Socio-technological introduction came back. Very happy with the result. I don’t see how I could not pass now. Still nothing for Internet Design or Communication.
Getting ready to start my first assignment for Media Business today. Yeah, start it. It’s due Monday. At which point I guess we’ll be beginning our group task. I’m totally dreading it.
I need to up my participation as well. I get half a post out, then lose interest. This is not good. That and work. Tad behind still - mainly with NED12 now. I know I’ll be super stressed but I don’t know what’s up. I’m trying to force myself.
Spent last night encoding movies to DVD for Dad. Took ages, and then network trouble. So used the other PC which took like 3 hours per movie compared to like 30 min each on this. Not sure why they take so long, maybe its the codec. I don’t know. Very processor intensive. Having two processor cores atleast ensured the PC wasn’t unusable while I was waiting. In fact, it didn’t feel any less responsive.
On that note, parents were annoying last night. Not going to go into detail.
I have another half completed tutorial, this time going through basic PHP forms. Expect that within the next week if ever.
Anyway, this post is pointless. Not accomplishing anything is it?
I’m tired.
Posted June 19th, 2008 by Chris Clarke
Filled under: University
I did write a whole post up about how worried I was and how I was so going to fail, but as I was writing it the results came in. They came in. I’m shocked. Its a good thing. I passed!
In fact, I passed with a distinction - 75% or 30 / 40. This result is beyond expectations. Way beyond. I was hoping for a 52% at most which even I thought was unlikely. This means that I should pass the unit though, so all’s good with NET12 anyway.
Someone dance with me?
Now I should get back to work with the current subjects.
Tags: curtin, feelings, inadequacy, introduction, net12, results, social, sociology, techlogical, technology, University
Posted June 18th, 2008 by Chris Clarke
Filled under: Web
Mozilla’s excellent web browser, Mozilla Firefox version 3.0 was released publicly to the world yesterday. New to this release includes platform specific themes, smaller memory footprint, the identity bar (replacing the old lock analogy for “secure sites”) and offline storage among others.
I’ve been using Firefox 3 since Beta 3 and thus didn’t immediently notice that it had been released. Wasn’t really expecting it soon.
I can say its much more stable then earlier releases which I can attribute to the lower memory footprint and various bug fixes. I am yet to encounter the bug that left me unable to change tabs in earlier versions which removes any complaints I had about the browser. However, its certainly not perfect. The UI could be a bit more native on each platform like utilising Aero Glass by default. I’m also disappointed that its difficult to display history in sidebar compared to earlier versions.
I’ve spruced up my installation of Firefox with various extensions such as Glassor and Hide Menu Bar which have made Firefox all prettiness.
So yeah I’m happy with the update and if you haven’t yet, I would encourage all of you to update to the latest version. Its well worth it.
Tags: 3.0, firefox, glass, mozilla, Web
Posted June 15th, 2008 by Chris Clarke
Filled under: Tutorials
I’m aware that this page broke during the move. I’ll fix it within a few days.
Do you have a standard website which has you sick of having to update every single page just to add a single link to your navigation? But you don’t want to upgrade to a full-blown content management system either? If your server supports PHP, then this may be the solution you’ve been looking for.
Read More
Tags: beginner, content, HTML, layout, PHP, presentation, separation, tutorial, webmaster tips
Posted June 15th, 2008 by Chris Clarke
Filled under: University
I’ve spent the last few days tweaking and designing for this website. Before and during that I was ill as well. Not to mention a severe lack of motivation to do anything whatsoever. But I need to get my act together and move on, get the uni work done and try to remain sane while doing so. Or even just avoid getting distracted.
Speaking with Prue last night, it became clear that I should attempt to get a schedule going again like I had near the start of study period 1 that was broken during the Internet loss. To do this, I need to get up a practicable time and work out a way to guarantee I fall asleep at a decent time. (Difficult, seriously!) Since I’m taking 2 subjects, Prue surmised that I should be spending 12 hours on each, and that I could break that up into 4 hours per day suggesting 2 hours in the morning and 2 at night. When broken down like it - study seems much more manageable.
I will attempt to embrace something similar, considering my sleep is out of whack at the moment, I will attempt the 2 hours when I wake up, whatever that time may be but giving myself half an hour to properly wake up before I do so. Then I will attempt two hours after dinner leaving the time between and after for me to waste time or work on whatever else I wish. Can I do this? Technically. Do I want to? Yes. Am I motivated? Slightly. Chances of succeeding? Okay, I guess.
I’m sure Ebi-kun and Darkthorn will be on my back to get some work done which increases my chances somewhat.
Goal: Be caught up with work by Thursday.
I need to call Centrelink tomorrow, too. Not looking forward to it.
