http://simon.geek.nz/home/ Scared of the Peacock Revolution since 2006 http://simon.geek.nz/should-i-care/ <p>I turn 19 in <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/countdown.php">this many</a> weeks/days/hours/minutes/seconds. Currently, I couldn't care less. Why should that state of mind change? Why should I care, at all, about entering some new inconsistent period of time?</p> Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:48:35 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/should-i-care/ http://simon.geek.nz/whats-the-point/ <p>I took a hiatus from church at the start of the year for a couple of months (until midway through April if I remember correctly). Reflecting on that period, it actually resulted in a higher proportion of Sundays that I actually enjoyed.</p> <p>Now, I don't really see a point in going to church. As I'm on sound most of the time (rostered on every second week, plus the cover/filler guy and I get special events too), I can't really get into the praise and enjoy it. I have to try and restrain myself from being moved too much by the sermon, so I'm not incapacitated for the praise after the sermon.</p> <p>I can partake in personal praise from my bedroom (in fact, I do that must of the time. iTunes is great) and get sermons I can take the time to enjoy and think over from podcasts.</p> <p>Next, people will probably mention the social aspect, and coming together to be part of the community.</p> <p>Let's see how that falls apart. In a normal service, I arrive sometime between 1630 and 1800. I pick a seat and wait for the service to start. If I'm lucky, a couple of people will have greeted me, with a potential conversation with Byrce before the service starts. If I'm not, I'll get a few waved greetings and nothing else.</p> <p>During the service, I sit alone. I'm usually sitting before anyone else is, so it's their choice.</p> <p>After the service, I used to try hanging around until the end so that people I would like to talk to weren't otherwise engaged. This got interpreted as me wanting a ride home. Go figure. So Matthew and Christian chat for a bit, with maybe one or two others, then I go home. Community fail.</p> <p>These means the main reason I continue going to church is to do sound. Mainly because there's no one else willing. Seriously, this is the roster for June-&gt;September. Weeks I'm rostered on are green. Positions I'm rostered on or covered for are red.</p> <p><img src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/Simon/_resampled/resizedimage450600-roster.png" width="450" height="600" class="leftAlone" alt="" title=""/></p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/whats-the-point/">(More)</a> Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:22:01 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/whats-the-point/ http://simon.geek.nz/shiny/ <p>I have a new shiny. It is called Shiny. That is all.</p> Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:56:47 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/shiny/ http://simon.geek.nz/how-to-make-facebook-better/ <p>Making facebook better is really easy. Edit your hosts file with your favourite editor with root access (like sudo pico! (start the holy war!)) and add:</p> <pre>60.234.72.4 www.facebook.com 60.234.72.4 api.facebook.com 60.234.72.4 facebook.com </pre> <p>For non-windows computers, your hosts file is /etc/hosts. For windows computers, you're screwed anyway, so too bad. Try <a href="https://google.com/">this</a> though.</p> Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:48:53 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/how-to-make-facebook-better/ http://simon.geek.nz/url-shortener/ <p>I've finally gotten around to making my URL shortener database driven, rather than mod_rewrite and mod_php driven. Next thing I need to do is add some stat whoring, but that can wait.</p> <p>It's such a basic implementation, that I used cat and echo to open source the code and one SHOW CREATE TABLE query for the schema. Complete source code, including the database schema, is available <a href="http://s.geek.nz/source.txt">here</a>.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/url-shortener/">(More)</a> Sat, 17 Jul 2010 11:30:21 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/url-shortener/ http://simon.geek.nz/php-upgrade/ <p>Thanks to <a href="http://www.dotdeb.org/instructions/">this article</a>, I will be upgrading this box to PHP 5.3.2 from 5.2.6, about nowish. This means things might break. Fun times!</p> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 10:09:36 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/php-upgrade/ http://simon.geek.nz/totally-stole-this-from-beth/ <p><a href="http://argonescence.wordpress.com/2010/07/05/into-the-airwaves/">See?</a> Totally stoled from her.</p> <p>Rules</p> <ol><li>Shuffle it up with your music</li> <li>For each question, press the next button, and the title of that song is your answer.</li> <li>YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS</li> <li>Put any comments in [brackets] after the song name</li> </ol> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/totally-stole-this-from-beth/">(More)</a> Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:14:15 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/totally-stole-this-from-beth/ http://simon.geek.nz/dfs-date-preparation/ <p>Yay for graph theory :)</p> <p><a href="http://xkcd.com/761/"><img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/dfs.png"/></a></p> <address>Source: xkcd</address> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/dfs-date-preparation/">(More)</a> Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:14:36 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/dfs-date-preparation/ http://simon.geek.nz/sneak-peek/ <p>I'm currently working on a site that you don't know about. Well, maybe you do. (Hi people that paid for my laptop?) But it's shiny. So you can have a screenshot, which some things removed so you can't see them. LIke the logo, which gives it all away.<img class="left" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/work/_resampled/resizedimage600401-Screen-shot-2010-06-26-at-5.50.25-PM.png" width="600" height="401" alt="" title=""/></p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/sneak-peek/">(More)</a> Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:54:01 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/sneak-peek/ http://simon.geek.nz/finally-licensed/ <p>I've finally stuck my blog under a licence other than the "this is all mine, don't use it" copyright that NZ law sticks it under. I've picked a CC-BY-SA licence, which means you can use my content wherever you want, including for commercial purposes, so long as you attribute it to me and any changes are also released under a CC-BY-SA licence. There's a link to the legal stuffs in the footer if you want to read the actual licence.</p> <p>You can get a waiver from the licence if I grant one to you specifically. All that legal disclaimer stuff.</p> <p><img class="center" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/Simon/cc.png" width="88" height="31" alt="" title=""/></p> Sun, 27 Jun 2010 12:27:12 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/finally-licensed/ http://simon.geek.nz/italy-lost-to-bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz/ <p>So, yeah, Italy came bottom of our group.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/italy-lost-to-bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz/">(More)</a> Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:12:59 +1200 Larry http://simon.geek.nz/italy-lost-to-bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz/ http://simon.geek.nz/could-be-why/ <p>A comic from Cyanide &amp; Happiness this time. Possibly explaining why I'm by myself most of the time.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/could-be-why/">(More)</a> Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:14:17 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/could-be-why/ http://simon.geek.nz/go-nzl/ <p>So, New Zealand just drew with Italy. So current rankings in our group are:</p> <p>#PAR: 4</p> <p>#ITA, #NZL: 2</p> <p>#SVK: 1</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/go-nzl/">(More)</a> Mon, 21 Jun 2010 04:09:06 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/go-nzl/ http://simon.geek.nz/photos-finally-2/ <p>So, I went to the IOI <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/off-again/">last year</a>, and took some photos while I was there. Well, those photos are finally available for public viewing on <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/simon_w/sets/72157624182733413/">Flickr</a>. I didn't want to have to name + describe everything twice, so waited until I had <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/yogurt/">something</a> that could upload them, maintaining that information.</p> <p>I may get around to uploading Robert's photos sometime as well, but they're not mine, so I'll have to ask him if I'm allowed to. As they're currently not in iPhoto, and it was so long ago, they wont have descriptions, even if they do end up somewhere on the internet.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/photos-finally-2/">(More)</a> Sat, 19 Jun 2010 20:13:32 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/photos-finally-2/ http://simon.geek.nz/something-weird/ <p>Something weird happened today. Now you can guess what it was. It was rather weird.</p> Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:31:45 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/something-weird/ http://simon.geek.nz/yogurt/ <p>I have a new shiny. It's name is Yogurt (warm fuzzy feelings for getting the reference) and it is shiny and fast :D</p> <p>There's photos on Flickr, starting with <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/simon_w/4684556884/in/set-72157624235965442/">this one</a>, that show me unpacking it.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/yogurt/">(More)</a> Sun, 13 Jun 2010 19:17:29 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/yogurt/ http://simon.geek.nz/phone-2/ <p>For those of you that don't know, I have an iPhone. My current plan is $80/month and is supposed to give me 600 texts, 120 anytime minutes and 250 MiB of data. Currently, it gives me 3 GiB of data and 1000 PXTs as well as the texts and minutes. I'm currently halfway through the second to last cycle on the current contract, which means it's almost time to renew.</p> <p>I've compiled some stats (because I was bored and stats are fun) to show just how much of that plan is wasted. This nice table is taking from bills at the end of the cycle during the given month.</p> <table border="1"><tbody><tr><th>Month</th><th>Texts</th><th>Minutes</th><th>Data</th><th>PXT</th> </tr><tr><th>July 09</th> <td>71</td> <td>23:38</td> <td>243.3593</td> <td>3</td> </tr><tr><th>August 09</th> <td>81</td> <td>22:24</td> <td>1207.9297</td> <td>1</td> </tr><tr><th>September 09</th> <td>120</td> <td>16:42</td> <td>435.4492</td> <td>3</td> </tr><tr><th>October 09</th> <td>97</td> <td>13:48</td> <td>375.2441</td> <td>1</td> </tr><tr><th>November 09</th> <td>91</td> <td>07:00</td> <td>178.4961</td> <td>0</td> </tr><tr><th>December 09</th> <td>81</td> <td>12:15</td> <td>133.0273</td> <td>0</td> </tr><tr><th>January 10</th> <td>46</td> <td>02:00</td> <td>558.0274</td> <td>1</td> </tr><tr><th>February 10</th> <td>49</td> <td>15:58</td> <td>632.6367</td> <td>3</td> </tr><tr><th>March 10</th> <td>123</td> <td>02:00</td> <td>263.4277</td> <td>1</td> </tr><tr><th>April 10</th> <td>96</td> <td>24:57</td> <td>282.5586</td> <td>1</td> </tr><tr><th>May 10</th> <td>76</td> <td>08:50</td> <td>230.1367</td> <td>0</td> </tr><tr><th>Total</th><th>931</th><th>149:32</th><th>4540.2928</th><th>14</th> </tr><tr><th>Averages</th><th>84.64</th><th>13:36</th><th>412.75</th><th>1.27</th> </tr></tbody></table><p>Which shows I use squat all, except for data which is regularly going over my normal limit.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/phone-2/">(More)</a> Tue, 08 Jun 2010 09:01:07 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/phone-2/ http://simon.geek.nz/pretty-pictures/ <p>Man, my head hurts after typing this out:</p> <pre>\begindc{1}[19] \obj(0, 5){$s$}[\west] \obj(4, 1){$s_2$}[\southwest] \obj(4, 9){$s_1$}[\northwest] \obj(9, 1)[1]{} \obj(9, 9)[2]{} \obj(17, 1)[3]{} \obj(17, 9)[4]{} \obj(13, 5)[5]{} \obj(22, 1){$t_3$}[\southeast] \obj(22, 5){$t_2$}[\northeast] \obj(22, 9){$t_1$}[\northeast] \obj(26, 5){$t$}[\east] \mor{$s$}{$s_1$}{30} \mor{$s$}{$s_2$}{16}[-1,0] \mor(4, 9)(7, 4){5}[-1,11] \mor{$s_1$}{1}{} \mor{$s_2$}{1}{2}[-1,0] \mor{$s_1$}{2}{7}[-1,0] \mor(4, 1)(7, 6){8}[1,11] \mor{$s_2$}{2}{} \mor{2}{1}{22} \mor{4}{2}{19} \mor{3}{1}{24} \mor{2}{5}{3} \mor{1}{5}{24} \mor{5}{3}{16} \mor{5}{4}{7} \mor{3}{4}{13} \cmor((4,9)(10,11)(17,9)) \pright(10, 11){$\to$} \mor(9,10)(11,10){18}[1,11] \cmor((4,1)(10,-1)(17,1)) \pright(10, -1){$\to$} \mor(9,0)(11,0){6}[-1,11] \mor{4}{$t_1$}{2} \mor{4}{$t_2$}{7} \mor{3}{$t_2$}{12} \mor{3}{$t_3$}{15} \cmor((9,9)(15,11)(22,9)) \pright(15, 11){$\to$} \mor(14,10)(16,10){4}[1,11] \cmor((9,1)(15,-1)(22,1)) \pright(15, -1){$\to$} \mor(14,0)(16,0){4}[-1,11] \mor{$t_1$}{$t$}{6} \mor{$t_2$}{$t$}{19} \mor{$t_3$}{$t$}{19}[-1,0] \enddc</pre> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/pretty-pictures/">(More)</a> Thu, 03 Jun 2010 22:39:21 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/pretty-pictures/ http://simon.geek.nz/where-s-your-towel/ <p>Tomorrow is towel day. Make sure you know where your towel is.</p> Mon, 24 May 2010 09:52:19 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/where-s-your-towel/ http://simon.geek.nz/random-number/ <p>Last Sunday, a certain someone told me to remember a pointless, somewhat random number (it wasn't one of the stereotypical human numbers as well, though it does contain two of them). It's been stuck in my head since then, with me trying to figure out some interesting (for some people's versions of interesting) facts about it. Such as:</p> <ul><li><span style="color: #333333;">It's the product of two primes, that are 100 apart.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #333333;">Its last two digits are the square of the first digit.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #333333;">The first digit plus the square root of the second is equal to the third.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #333333;">The square of the second digit minus the first is equal to the last.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #333333;">Summing the digits, then summing the digits in the result, and so on, until there's only one digit gives the square root of the middle digit.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #333333;">Summing the squares of the digits, then the squares of the digits in the result, and so on, eventually leads to 42.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #333333;">The two digit number made from the second and third digits minus the first digit equals 42.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #333333;">The square root of the middle and third digits are one apart.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #333333;">The number amount of days after my baptism is the day that Sarah goes back to Christchurch.</span></li> </ul><p>Maybe I've been thinking about it too much.</p> Tue, 11 May 2010 21:03:44 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/random-number/ http://simon.geek.nz/the-last-13-years/ <p>I've finally received the cumulation of the last 13 years of my life. I can only read one of the things because I know what it says. Simon doesn't contain two 's's. Gosh.</p> <p><a href="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/paper/IMG0361.JPG"><img class="center" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/paper/_resampled/resizedimage715536-IMG0361.JPG" alt="UE certificate" title="I got UE. Yayness." width="715" height="536"/></a></p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/the-last-13-years/">(More)</a> Wed, 05 May 2010 18:10:27 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/the-last-13-years/ http://simon.geek.nz/why-you-should-stop-using-xp/ <p><a title="Dilbert.com" href="http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2010-05-04/"><img src="http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/000000/80000/9000/000/89034/89034.strip.gif" alt="Dilbert.com"/></a></p> <p>Need I say more?</p> Tue, 04 May 2010 19:01:03 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/why-you-should-stop-using-xp/ http://simon.geek.nz/boring-code/ <p>Every so often, I get bored of code. When this happens during competitions, I have to make it interesting. Last time this happened, I decided to add a dragon, COMP102 students and a worm hole. (I totally stole the idea for a dragon and COMP102 student from <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/simon_w/4484464365/in/set-72157623632266939/">this</a>, the wormhole came from the problem).</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/boring-code/">(More)</a> Tue, 04 May 2010 10:25:48 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/boring-code/ http://simon.geek.nz/4-years/ <p>This is just reminding Simon that today's his 4 your anniversary of something. Go look in iCal!</p> Mon, 03 May 2010 00:00:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/4-years/ http://simon.geek.nz/what-i-do/ <p>Something else shameless taken from xkcd. Explains what I do all day rather nicely :)</p> <p><a href="http://xkcd.com/722/"><img class="leftalone" src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/computer_problems.png" alt="Computer Problems." title="This is how I explain computer problems to my cat. My cat usually seems happier than me." width="587" height="284"/></a></p> <p class="caption">"This is how I explain computer problems to my cat. My cat usually seems happier than me."</p> Fri, 02 Apr 2010 20:52:37 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/what-i-do/ http://simon.geek.nz/php-logo-win/ <p><img class="left" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/PHP/logo.gif" width="120" height="67" alt="" title=""/>Every year, the <a href="http://static.php.net/www.php.net/images/php.gif">PHP logo</a> does something on the oneth of April, as well as some other dates. Look at the <a href="http://svn.php.net/viewvc/php/">sauce</a> to find out which ones. Today's one is just awesome :D Blumpy and Sergey also approve.</p> <p>It's these little things that make PHP so awesome :)</p> Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:29:05 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/php-logo-win/ http://simon.geek.nz/finally-2/ <p>So, I finally got around to completely mimicking The Cactus Song.</p> <p>There are now 5 cacti and a bonsai tree on my windowsill :)</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/finally-2/">(More)</a> Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:26:09 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/finally-2/ http://simon.geek.nz/scratching/ <p>A nice quote from the PHP General Mailing list:</p> <blockquote> <p>Many open source projects are itches being scratched. More often than not you will not be alone in your desire to scratch. When that happens, and if you're a good sort of chap or gal, then others will come along and help you scratch. Soon, with the right kind of leadership and gameplan, you'll be fully embroiled in a scratching orgy with key members scratching the right part of the itch. Do you think one person writes all the compatibility stuff for any of the above listed systems? No, there's just a lot of scratching happening.</p> </blockquote> Thu, 25 Mar 2010 22:38:05 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/scratching/ http://simon.geek.nz/royally-pissed/ <p>Not the drunk type of pissed either.</p> <p>The IOI team just got announced. It includes a someone I can not mentally picture, that didn't register on either the FARIO or AIIO score tables. Turns out, he was a junior at camp.</p> <p>The juniors at camp were taught how to program.</p> <p>I am not in the team. I registered on both the AIIO (100%) and FARIO (3rd kiwi) score tables.</p> <p>I am pissed off. That's putting it nicely.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/royally-pissed/">(More)</a> Sun, 21 Mar 2010 20:31:49 +1300 Larry http://simon.geek.nz/royally-pissed/ http://simon.geek.nz/topless-ageing/ <p>Though not together, which some of you may be thankful for. I just decided to stick them into one post instead of having two distinct ones :)</p> <p>It turns out that <a target="_blank" href="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/elephants/IMG0339.JPG">this</a> awesomeness ages today and is now 2. That's really old, or so he keeps getting told.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/topless-ageing/">(More)</a> Sat, 20 Mar 2010 07:31:36 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/topless-ageing/ http://simon.geek.nz/stop-worrying-about-it/ <p>From the Word for Today:</p> <blockquote>When worry comes knocking on your door, stop it on the doorstep or it will move in and take up residence. 'Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you' (1 Peter 5:7 NIV). God cares about the things that worry you and prey upon your thoughts. He cares about them more than you do. Not one nagging, aching, worrisome, gut-wrenching, blood-pressure-raising thought escapes His notice. Because 'you are his personal concern', He watches over you day and night. What qualifies as a worry? Anything that robs you of joy, anything you can't change, anything you're not responsible for, anything you're unable to control, anything that torments you, anything that keeps you awake when you should be asleep. All of that 'stuff' needs to be transferred from your worry list to your prayer list. The Bible says, 'Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace...' (Philippians 4:6-7 NLT). Give each worry, one by one, to God. The more you practise doing this, the more exciting your walk with Him will become. You'll be amazed at how easily He handles things that overwhelm you. Remind yourself that He's able to handle it, willing to handle it, and waiting for you to give it to Him. 'Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you.' Those who live worry free are those who keep casting their burdens on the Lord until it becomes as natural to them as breathing!</blockquote> <p><cite><a href="http://www.thevine.co.nz/word/archive/2010/03/17">http://www.thevine.co.nz/word/archive/2010/03/17</a></cite></p> Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:50:41 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/stop-worrying-about-it/ http://simon.geek.nz/sheep/ <p><img class="center" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/Simon/_resampled/resizedimage715536-Photo-on-2010-03-12-at-18.33-2.jpg" width="715" height="536" alt="" title=""/></p> Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:43:15 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/sheep/ http://simon.geek.nz/google-chrome/ <p>I have now been using Chrome for roughly a day. I notice very little differences in speed/layout from Safari (isn't WebKit great?) but the browser itself has some problems that mean I can not use it as my main, or even secondary, browser.</p> <p>As such, once I've posted this, I will be switching back to Safari.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/google-chrome/">(More)</a> Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:48:40 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/google-chrome/ http://simon.geek.nz/stop-bugging-me-about-sarah/ <p><img class="center" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/Sarah/relationship.png" width="322" height="115" alt="" title=""/></p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/stop-bugging-me-about-sarah/">(More)</a> Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:24:11 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/stop-bugging-me-about-sarah/ http://simon.geek.nz/simon-s-life/ <p>So, I'm trying to kinda sort out some stuff in my life. Due to personal limitations and an inability for my brain to coherently go through the sorts of stuff I want to in my head, I'm writing them down and making it public. <a href="http://life.simon.geek.nz/purpose/">This</a> describes it better.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/simon-s-life/">(More)</a> Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:16:09 +1300 Larry http://simon.geek.nz/simon-s-life/ http://simon.geek.nz/spam-protection/ <p>So, I've finally switched from the MathsSpam question to reCAPTCHA. Now you just need to be able to read, rather than doing complex addition up to 10 + 10 in your head/with a calculator.</p> <p>Also, I'll be announcing something that's big for me soonish. I don't expect much of you to care about it though.</p> Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:55:58 +1300 Larry http://simon.geek.nz/spam-protection/ http://simon.geek.nz/winrar/ <p><img class="center" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/informatics/aiio_2010.png" width="570" height="141" alt="" title=""/>:D :D :D :D :D :D :D</p> <p>There's details <a href="http://orac.amt.edu.au/aiio/aiio10results.html">somewhere</a>, with more information getting added as Bernard figures it out.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/winrar/">(More)</a> Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:42:26 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/winrar/ http://simon.geek.nz/christmas/ <p>Garfield and Pooky have it figured out.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/christmas/">(More)</a> Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:49:38 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/christmas/ http://simon.geek.nz/flash-without-a-kernel-panic/ <p>Finally!</p> <p><a href="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/Flash/quit.png"><img class="left" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/Flash/_resampled/resizedimage715435-quit.png" alt="1226x745" width="715" height="435" title=""/></a></p> Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:38:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/flash-without-a-kernel-panic/ http://simon.geek.nz/oops/ <p>I did a really big boo-boo. Like, a really massive one. It was bad. Luckily I had a 2 day old backup so not all was lost.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/oops/">(More)</a> Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:08:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/oops/ http://simon.geek.nz/mmm-love/ <p><a href="http://www.explosm.net/comics/1176/"><img src="http://www.flashasylum.com/db/files/Comics/Kris/valentines2.png" alt="Cyanide and Happiness, a daily webcomic"/></a><br/>Cyanide &amp; Happiness @ <a href="http://www.explosm.net">Explosm.net</a></p> Sun, 14 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/mmm-love/ http://simon.geek.nz/home-playoff/ <p>Straight from the mouth of the <a href="http://yomcat.geek.nz/lifetype/index.php?op=ViewArticle&amp;articleId=1295&amp;blogId=1">yomcat</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>The Phoenix won tonight, so they are going to finish 4th. That means there is a home playoff on the 21st (that's next Sunday). Huge game.<br/>I'll be buying tickets on Monday, so I need to know numbers by then. Tickets are $35 for an adult, and $20 for child/student/old bugger. Tell me by email, phone, in person, however. I'll make a big list on my blackboard.<br/>Oh, don't be too greedy. I can only get 24...</p> </blockquote> <p>If you want to come but don't want to tell Michael, I can pass the request on.</p> <p>And (from the Stuff home page):</p> <p><img class="center" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/phoenix/Screen-shot-2010-02-12-at-10.44.58-PM.png" width="302" height="404" alt="" title=""/></p> Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:18:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/home-playoff/ http://simon.geek.nz/not-completely-stupid/ <p>Turns out NZQA thinks I'm not completely stupid :)</p> <p><img class="leftAlone" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/Simon/_resampled/resizedimage600102-results.png" width="600" height="102" alt="" title=""/></p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/not-completely-stupid/">(More)</a> Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:38:17 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/not-completely-stupid/ http://simon.geek.nz/cutting-edge-2010/ <p>Cutting Edge happened and, in the words of Caleb, was awesome. I can only share a few of the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/simon_w/sets/72157623159548777/">photos</a> I took publicly due to privacy laws, so have a picture of some moths that looked way cooler in person than in this photo:</p> <p><a title="Cutting Edge by welsh.simon, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/simon_w/4305054232/in/set-72157623159548777/"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2784/4305054232_71abffed54.jpg" alt="Cutting Edge" width="500" height="375"/></a></p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/cutting-edge-2010/">(More)</a> Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:15:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/cutting-edge-2010/ http://simon.geek.nz/testimony/ <p>At Cutting Edge, every leader had to give a testimony to the assembled masses. In typical fashion, I write some notes, read them sometimes and made more up. I feel like sharing with the internets as well.</p> <p>My notes were:</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/testimony/">(More)</a> Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:28:52 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/testimony/ http://simon.geek.nz/leaving-2/ <p>I'm leaving All Saints for an undetermined amount of time. Lets put this down to burnout for now.</p> <p>Also, to the one person that actively talks to me, thanks and you're awesome.</p> Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:23:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/leaving-2/ http://simon.geek.nz/the-sun/ <p>Is trying to kill me.</p> Tue, 19 Jan 2010 08:54:33 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/the-sun/ http://simon.geek.nz/camp/ <p>I'm currently winging my way back from camp. It was great fun and there was even girls there (not just the normal girl).</p> <p>Such a pity that it's the last camp I get to attend as a student. I mean, someone needs to provide wifi.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/camp/">(More)</a> Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:46:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/camp/ http://simon.geek.nz/socialising/ <p>If you invite me to something and spend the majority of the time talking about what you did with someone else that has no bearing on me, or talking to someone else about what you plan to do that excludes me, don't expect me to enjoy the occasion, have fun or want to be present at a repeat of the event.</p> <p>Try actually including me if you invite me somewhere.</p> Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:34:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/socialising/ http://simon.geek.nz/privacy/ <p>Man, Slashdot's actually got some decent commenters. Another <a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1495830&amp;cid=30627900">quote</a> from there, this time in relation to an article on the NZ Police's new <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3203448/NZs-cyber-spies-win-new-powers">MITM powers</a>:</p> <blockquote>I always think that privacy went out the window for a large percentage of the population (though more for young people) once they realised they could exchange privacy for attention or the illusion of getting attention on sites like Facebook.</blockquote> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/privacy/">(More)</a> Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:29:51 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/privacy/ http://simon.geek.nz/cats/ <p>It's been so long I'd forgotten completely about this.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/cats/">(More)</a> Sun, 03 Jan 2010 15:53:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/cats/ http://simon.geek.nz/new-year-s-resolution/ <p>Once again <a href="http://applegeeks.com/">AppleGeeks</a> comes out with a great comic. This time about new year's resolutions and the hilarity of them.</p> <p><a href="http://applegeeks.com/lite/index.php?aglitecomic=2010-01-01"><img src="http://applegeeks.com/lite/strips/aglite558.jpg"/></a></p> <p>I'm not even going to pretend to make that one.</p> Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:04:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/new-year-s-resolution/ http://simon.geek.nz/more-walking/ <p>Ripped straight from my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/simon_w/sets/72157622985446311/">Flickr</a> description (currently the only photos in that set) of the photos: Four of us went walking up the hill behind Jville/Broadmeadows/Ngaio (um, the geotagging was from a cell tower so isn't that great. Look at the maps) (Mt Kaukau, I think (so what, I can't spell it and can't be bothered googling for it)). I only had my iPhone, so the photos have had some fiddling with in iPhoto to make them look better.</p> <p><b>EDIT: </b>I found 5 more pictures that were hiding halfway between Larry and iPhoto. They have now been added to the aforementioned (and linked) set.</p> <p>I attempt to take one of Sarah, though iPhoto isn't the best at fiddling around, so the result is you can kinda make out her outline:</p> <p><a href="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/Sarah/face_.jpg"><img class="center" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/Sarah/_resampled/resizedimage600450-face_.jpg" width="600" height="450" alt="" title=""/></a></p> <p>I might get around to attacking it in FireWorks, which should have a better result.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/more-walking/">(More)</a> Fri, 01 Jan 2010 12:27:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/more-walking/ http://simon.geek.nz/i-m-on-a-mac/ <p>Contains Mac love. May not be suitable for Linus' or Bill's bed partners.</p> <p> <object width="640" height="385" data="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/T8FnACj25xM&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/T8FnACj25xM&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;hd=1"/><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/></object> </p> Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:30:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/i-m-on-a-mac/ http://simon.geek.nz/kittens/ <p>This wasn't uploaded that I could find, probably to save space or I fail at looking. Now that I've got lots more, up it comes!</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/kittens/">(More)</a> Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:19:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/kittens/ http://simon.geek.nz/comments-and-4chan/ <p>A rather insightful (for once) extract from <a href="http://meta.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1475404&amp;cid=30408166">slashdot</a>:</p> <blockquote>Or more simply, as the number of users approaches infinity, the comment quality approaches 4chan.</blockquote> <p>I guess my blog will be safe from that happening for a very long time :D</p> Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:44:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/comments-and-4chan/ http://simon.geek.nz/new-pet/ <p>So, I got a new pet for Christmas from Esther. I'm currently looking for name suggestions.</p> <p><img class="leftalone" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/rock/_resampled/resizedimage450600-IMG0167.JPG" width="450" height="600" alt="" title=""/><img class="leftalone" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/rock/_resampled/resizedimage450600-IMG0168.JPG" width="450" height="600" alt="" title=""/><img class="leftalone" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/rock/_resampled/resizedimage450600-IMG0169.JPG" width="450" height="600" alt="" title=""/></p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/new-pet/">(More)</a> Fri, 25 Dec 2009 04:57:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/new-pet/ http://simon.geek.nz/keyboards/ <p>For those that have seen me using my laptop within the last 54 weeks, you'll probably notice that I had two keyboards for some strange reason. That reason happens to be due to this:</p> <p><img class="center" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/schwipe/_resampled/resizedimage600450-IMG0165.jpg" width="600" height="450" alt="" title=""/>That's the connector between the keyboard and trackpad. There's a blurry closeup as well:</p> <p><img class="center" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/schwipe/_resampled/resizedimage600450-IMG0164.jpg" width="600" height="450" alt="" title=""/></p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/keyboards/">(More)</a> Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:19:20 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/keyboards/ http://simon.geek.nz/some-advice/ <p>This advice comes from the power above that is my boss.</p> <blockquote><em>(Pat)</em><br/>stay away from those girls<br/> no good for your career<br/> absitence is the way to go for you mate<br/> Cam had sex and look at what happened to him<br/> lost all his coding skill<br/> its a bit like maturbation will make you go blind<br/> except girls will make you lose your hacking mojo</blockquote> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/some-advice/">(More)</a> Sun, 20 Dec 2009 09:16:16 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/some-advice/ http://simon.geek.nz/three-years/ <p>Just like <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/two-years/">last year</a>, but one more year has passed.</p> Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:28:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/three-years/ http://simon.geek.nz/comment-updates-and-stuff/ <p>Comments now have an email field. At the moment this is only used to grab a <a href="http://gravatar.com/">gravatar</a> to display with your comment, but will soon be expanded to allow you to receive email updates and stuff like that. I don't it's compulsory yet, though I should change that.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/comment-updates-and-stuff/">(More)</a> Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:48:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/comment-updates-and-stuff/ http://simon.geek.nz/moved/ <p>If you can see this, it means your DNS cache has successfully been updated and you can now see my blog on its funky new VPS, kindly hosted by <a title="RimuHosting" href="http://rimuhosting.com/?r=87ea6e113dee10a7dddbb468e8e87c15">RimuHosting</a>. There might still be some teething problems, but the MX records seem to be working fine, so notify me about any problems.</p> <p>Very soon I will have time to actually work on the code base for this blog, so it should be undergoing a nice overhaul which you may or may not notice :)</p> Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:29:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/moved/ http://simon.geek.nz/moving/ <p>I've <a href="http://blog.rimuhosting.com/2009/11/20/twitter-competition-who-won/">won</a> $100 worth of hosting credits with <a href="http://rimuhosting.com/?r=87ea6e113dee10a7dddbb468e8e87c15">RimuHosting</a>, so I'll be moving from this <a href="http://mesh.net.nz/">shared host</a> to a <a href="http://rimuhosting.com/vps-servers?r=87ea6e113dee10a7dddbb468e8e87c15">VPS</a>. I haven't felt this excited since <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/off-we-go/">we won</a> :D</p> <p>So there may be a point in the not to distance future where your DNS cache will need flushing or you'll get old content. At the start, that'll probably be the only noticeable change, apart from a possible speed increase. However, I'll be able to have my live and dev code sync (I haven't updated the <a href="http://www.silverstripe.org/sapphire/">sapphire framework</a> on here since just after <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/silverstripe-announce/browse_thread/thread/99cc01d1f078f8b7">2.3.3</a> got released, I think) so I'll be able to work on my planned updates then push them with a lot more ease :)</p> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:00:04 +1300 Larry http://simon.geek.nz/moving/ http://simon.geek.nz/off-we-go/ <p><video src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/allwhites/save.avi" controls="controls" autobuffer="autobuffer"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/simon_w/4102943416/">Have a sucky Flash version</a></video></p> <p>They'll shoot, he'll save. It's Mark Paston!</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/off-we-go/">(More)</a> Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:37:18 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/off-we-go/ http://simon.geek.nz/compiling/ <p>As some of you may know, I have <a href="http://store.xkcd.com/xkcd/#Compiling">this</a> shirt, which is based off <a href="http://xkcd.com/303/">this</a> comic. <a href="http://xkcd.com/303/">That</a> particular comic is in <a href="http://store.xkcd.com/xkcd/#xkcdvolume">this</a> book, with an additional sketch that I really want on my shirt:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/simon_w/4091545031/" title="IMG_0123 by welsh.simon, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2760/4091545031_1fe793d4a9.jpg" alt="IMG_0123" width="500" height="375" title="" /></a></p> Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:39:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/compiling/ http://simon.geek.nz/how-to-use-an-apostrophe/ <p>Shameless ripped from <a href="http://apostrophe.me/">http://apostrophe.me/</a></p> <p class="panel first"><img src="http://theoatmeal.com/img/comics/apostrophe/header.png" /></p> <h3>Created by <a href="http://theoatmeal.com">The Oatmeal</a></h3> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/how-to-use-an-apostrophe/">(More)</a> Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:01:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/how-to-use-an-apostrophe/ http://simon.geek.nz/tweetle/ <p>A Wordle from my <a href="https://twitter.com/simon_w">tweets</a>!</p> <p><a href="http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1271837/tweets" title="Wordle: tweets"><img src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/1271837/tweets" alt="Wordle: tweets" /></a></p> Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:09:24 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/tweetle/ http://simon.geek.nz/ue/ <p>It's 0014 on Monday. I have just finished my reading log. The Level 2 English unit standard one. The one I needed to do to get my 4 reading credits for UE.</p> <p>This means that I should now be able to get UE as well as have my party this afternoon/evening. YAY!</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/ue/">(More)</a> Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:14:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/ue/ http://simon.geek.nz/musing/ <p>I've been doing some musing lately, (if you don't know what musing is, Sarah defines muse over in&nbsp;<a href="http://alphabetasaurus.blogspot.com/2005/09/muse.html">this</a>&nbsp;post) ending with me deciding that I really need to fix the text size in the tinyMCE editor so I can stop squinting. Aaah, that's better.</p> <p>This musing has helped learn a few tidbits about stuff.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/musing/">(More)</a> Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:22:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/musing/ http://simon.geek.nz/cookies/ <p>I made some cookies. They are om nom nom nom nom and green. Mmmmm, cookies!</p> <p><img class="center" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/Simon/_resampled/resizedimage600450-IMG0115.JPG" alt="Cookies!" title="Om nom nom nom" width="600" height="450"/></p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/cookies/">(More)</a> Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:45:34 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/cookies/ http://simon.geek.nz/ball-photos/ <p>Most of the photos from my ball should now be available for viewing&nbsp;<a href="http://s.geek.nz/ball">here</a>. This were taken by Kilvington, so I have no idea what license they're released under. Not my works, blah-blah-blah.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/ball-photos/">(More)</a> Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:00:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/ball-photos/ http://simon.geek.nz/the-valley-song/ <p>You have led me<br /> to the sadness. <br /> I have carried this pain<br /> On a back bruised, <br /> nearly broken.<br /> I'm crying out to You.</p> <p>I will sing of Your mercy<br /> that leads me through valleys of sorrow <br /> to rivers of joy</p> <p>When death,<br /> like a gypsy,<br /> comes to steal what I love,<br /> I will still<br /> look to the heavens<br /> I will still seek Your face.<br /> But I fear <br /> You aren't listening<br /> because there are no words,<br /> just the stillness,<br /> and the hunger<br /> for a faith that assures.</p> <p>I will sing of Your mercy<br /> that leads me through valleys of sorrow<br /> to rivers of joy. 2x</p> <p>Alleluia 4x</p> <p>While we wait<br /> for our resuce<br /> with our eyes tightly shut,<br /> face to the ground,<br /> using our hands <br /> to cover the fatal cut.<br /> Though the pain is an ocean,<br /> tossing us around around around, <br /> You have calmed greater waters.<br /> Higher mountains have come down.</p> <p>I will sing of Your mercy <br /> that leads me through valleys of sorrow<br /> to rivers of joy.<br /> yeah</p> <p>Alleluia 4x</p> <p>I will sing of Your mercy<br /> that leads me through valleys of sorrow to rivers of joy. 2x</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/the-valley-song/">(More)</a> Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:45:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/the-valley-song/ http://simon.geek.nz/rigging-a-http-stuff-co-nz-poll/ <p>I am disappointed in Stuff. Their poll lacks any server-side validation, with the only validation being a simple jQuery cookie check. (This post might end up getting a little technical for those of you that don't care. Script kiddies that copy this: you need to get out more. Leave your mother's basement already.)</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/rigging-a-http-stuff-co-nz-poll/">(More)</a> Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:00:00 +1300 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/rigging-a-http-stuff-co-nz-poll/ http://simon.geek.nz/energy-screen/ <p>Energy drinks + screen == way too hard to see.</p> <p> </p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/energy-screen/">(More)</a> Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:56:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/energy-screen/ http://simon.geek.nz/thinkgeek-wishes/ <p>I've updated my ThinkGeek wishlist (removing a fifth of the items, fixing sizes and stuff) and have split it in two. <a href="http://s.geek.nz/e.php">Shirts</a> and <a href="http://s.geek.nz/n.php">non-shirts</a>. Just a small collection of what I would like, mainly because I'm too lazy to go through their stock and add more wants to them.</p> Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:42:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/thinkgeek-wishes/ http://simon.geek.nz/ageing/ <p>The <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/countdown.php">countdown timer</a> says it all.</p> <p>So, I've aged another year. Do I expect my problems to be solved for some great purpose? Nope.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/ageing/">(More)</a> Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:00:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/ageing/ http://simon.geek.nz/burkina-faso/ <p><img class="right" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/sponsor/burkina_faso_small_map.jpg" width="234" height="251" alt="" title="" /></p> <p>For the majority of you that are unlikely to know anything about Burkina Faso, it is a country in Western Africa with a population of roughly 15.8 million people.</p> <p>Through TEAR Fund, I am currently sponsoring a young girl named Alice whom lives in Venemtenga, roughly 15 km southeast of the capital Ougadougou.</p> <p>This region of Western Africa is currently experiencing a relatively large (compared to normal) rainfall. VOA News is <a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-09-05-voa15.cfm">reporting</a> a 300 mm downfall in one day, with the yearly average of 1,2000 mm. Most people would agree that receiving a quarter of your average rainfall in a day, with more rain coming, is not that great.</p> <p>This downpour has caused widespread flooding, resulting in 7 deaths, the displacement of 150,000 people, structural damage to most of the infrastructure still recovering from the 2007 floods and the closure of Burkina Faso's major hospital. The government has declared a state of emergency and water-borne diseases are beginning to spread more rapidly.</p> <p>56 of the child development centres run by Compassion have been affected by the flooding and many of the sponsored children have lost their homes and possessions.</p> <p>TEAR Fund is asking for prayer for God&rsquo;s mercy on those affected by the flooding and that He will protect the children and their families from disease; as well as prayer for government leaders and Compassion staff as they address the overwhelming needs of so many flood victims.</p> Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:53:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/burkina-faso/ http://simon.geek.nz/untitled/ <p><img class="leftAlone" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/comics/122.png" width="760" height="378" alt="" title="" /></p> Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:18:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/untitled/ http://simon.geek.nz/looks-what-i-found/ <p><a href="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/elephants/ioi.jpg"><img class="leftAlone" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/elephants/_resampled/resizedimage600398-ioi.jpg" width="600" height="398" alt="" title=""/></a></p> <p>Aren't they so awesomely cute and cuddly and stuff?</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/looks-what-i-found/">(More)</a> Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:42:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/looks-what-i-found/ http://simon.geek.nz/tech-support/ <p>xkcd has provided a nice flowchart explaining how tech support works.</p> <p><a href="http://xkcd.com/627/"><img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/tech_support_cheat_sheet.png" alt="Tech Support Cheat Sheet" title="'Hey Megan, it's your father. How do I print out a flowchart?'" /></a></p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/tech-support/">(More)</a> Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:08:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/tech-support/ http://simon.geek.nz/the-secret/ <p>Snoopy has found the secret to a good life.</p> <p><a href="http://comics.com/peanuts/2009-08-22/" title="Peanuts"><img src="http://assets.comics.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/200000/90000/1000/200/291203/291203.zoom.gif" alt="Peanuts" /></a></p> Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:29:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/the-secret/ http://simon.geek.nz/finally-some-media/ <p>Congratulations to either the Herald or TVNZ (whoever posted it first) on finally posting something about the NZOI. The articles are&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&amp;objectid=10592000">here</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://tvnz.co.nz/technology-news/young-kiwi-computer-programmers-win-bronze-2930973">here</a>&nbsp;respectively. Congrats go to Jamie and Boris for getting and medals and to Jamie for doing better than all the aussies.</p> Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:04:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/finally-some-media/ http://simon.geek.nz/home-2/ <p>I'm home again. A write up may be coming and photos will be going to Flickr when I get around to it.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/home-2/">(More)</a> Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:02:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/home-2/ http://simon.geek.nz/alone/ <p>Since I wasn't told we were leaving for the Aqua Park (some big water theme park thingy. Kinda like Splash Planet, I guess), I spent the entire afternoon alone. I wouldn't have been alone, but Blumpy and Sergey were sleeping on my bed. Or were pretending to anyway. Spending that much time alone, able to do whatever I felt like doing (gosh!) without being distracted was remarkably refreshing. I should try to plan more times when I can be alone with my thoughts. The break from trying to interact with people was also nice.</p> Wed, 12 Aug 2009 07:02:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/alone/ http://simon.geek.nz/birthday-wishes/ <p>So, I've left the country and my&nbsp;<a href="http://simon.geek.nz/countdown.php">birthday</a>&nbsp;is coming up, and at the time of writing this (um, now. Lots before you'll see this) people seem to be making lists of what they want. So it's my turn :)</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/birthday-wishes/">(More)</a> Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:04:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/birthday-wishes/ http://simon.geek.nz/off-again/ <p>So, I should now have left Wellington. My trip's&nbsp;<a href="http://simon.geek.nz/running-away/">here</a>&nbsp;for those that want to see where I should kinda be. I'll still be able to be texted, emailed, skyped, AIMed, GTalked and tweeted at. I may even be on IRC some of the time. Which means I'll have Larry and will have Mail, Skype, iChat, Twitterrific and maybe X-Chat Aqua open.&nbsp;This is all assuming that there's someway to plug my laptop into internets. If I've left the country, don't expect replies at reasonable times for anything. Texts aren't likely to get replied to at all until I get back, unless I really feel like it.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/off-again/">(More)</a> Sat, 01 Aug 2009 09:12:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/off-again/ http://simon.geek.nz/running-away/ <p>So I'm either leaving soon or have already left. Hopefully these maps show you about where I am. The centred marker is either where I am or where I should be in-transit to. The red line is going there, the blue line is coming back.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/running-away/">(More)</a> Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:22:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/running-away/ http://simon.geek.nz/sergey-s-ageing/ <p>So, it's been a year since I got my second elephant,&nbsp;<a href="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/elephants/watching.jpg">Sergey</a>.&nbsp;He's still just as cute as when I got him :)</p> Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:30:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/sergey-s-ageing/ http://simon.geek.nz/work-antics/ <p><a href="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/work/demo.jpg"><img class="left" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/work/_resampled/ResizedImage600450-demo.jpg" width="600" height="450" alt="" title="" /></a></p> Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:04:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/work-antics/ http://simon.geek.nz/a-bus-lane-through-my-heart/ <p> <object width="640" height="505" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/z6f5rfuVzrI&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> <param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/z6f5rfuVzrI&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18" /> <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /> </object> </p> Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:48:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/a-bus-lane-through-my-heart/ http://simon.geek.nz/game-theory-has-won-at-love/ <p>Computer science has finally come up with the way to win at love.</p> <p><a href="http://xkcd.com/601/"><img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/game_theory.png" alt="Game Theory" title="Wait, no, that one also loses. How about a nice game of chess?" /></a></p> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:47:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/game-theory-has-won-at-love/ http://simon.geek.nz/mmm-face/ <p>My face used to look so much better. Then I had a wash.</p> <p><a href="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/Simon/face1.jpg"><img class="left" src="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/Simon/_resampled/ResizedImage715953-face1.jpg" width="715" height="953" alt="" title="" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://simon.geek.nz/assets/Simon/face1.jpg"></a></p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/mmm-face/">(More)</a> Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:44:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/mmm-face/ http://simon.geek.nz/saturday-morning-breakfast-cereal/ <p>Including tips on weight loss, being a better person, science and surviving as a clown.</p> <p><a href="http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&amp;id=591"> <img src="http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20060908.gif" /></a></p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/saturday-morning-breakfast-cereal/">(More)</a> Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:05:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/saturday-morning-breakfast-cereal/ http://simon.geek.nz/i-have-done-this/ <p><a href="http://xkcd.com/597/"><img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/addiction.png" alt="But if you unplug everything, it gets so quiet you hear that high-pitched empty-room hum. And then the whispers begin." title="But if you unplug everything, it gets so quiet you hear that high-pitched empty-room hum. And then the whispers begin." /></a></p> <p>Many times.</p> Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:13:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/i-have-done-this/ http://simon.geek.nz/are-you-sure-you-want-to-do-that/ <p>I'm reading through all the strings in the <a href="http://www.apple.com/nz/safari/">Safari 4</a> binary, trying to find a hidden preference to turn off the awesome bar ripoff that my location bar's changed to. I saw an interesting string that looked like it appeared in a 'Are you sure?' type of sheet or dialogue box. So I made it show up, which was really easy.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/are-you-sure-you-want-to-do-that/">(More)</a> Sat, 13 Jun 2009 09:18:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/are-you-sure-you-want-to-do-that/ http://simon.geek.nz/skeeterpellant/ <video autobuffer='false' src='http://spam.simon.geek.nz/lrr.m4v' controls='true'>Ha! You're sucky browser can't play this! Upgrade to something that can, like <a href="http://apple.com/safari/">Safari</a></video> Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:00:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/skeeterpellant/ http://simon.geek.nz/quiz/ <p>So Facebook's app thingy failed. What a surprise.</p> <p>So I'm moving the quiz.</p> <p>Current results:</p> <ol> <li><span>yomcat</span></li> <li><span>Mother and Andrew Barnes</span></li> <li><span>Andrew Walbran</span></li> <li><span>Sarah Bennett</span></li> <li><span>Matthew Bayliss and Esther Welsh</span></li> </ol> <p>Um, either answer in a comment or email me or something.</p> <a href="http://simon.geek.nz/quiz/">(More)</a> Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:10:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/quiz/ http://simon.geek.nz/just-alerting-you/ <p><a href="http://xkcd.com/15/"><img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/just_alerting_you.jpg" alt="Just thought you should know" title="Just thought you should know" /></a></p> Sat, 30 May 2009 17:47:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/just-alerting-you/ http://simon.geek.nz/telecomnz-fail/ <blockquote>Photo's will be up here soon - http://www.flickr.com/photo...</blockquote> <p>They really should stop failing in that way. @vodafoneNZ hasn't failed like that and has been tweeting for lots longer :)</p> Fri, 29 May 2009 08:07:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/telecomnz-fail/ http://simon.geek.nz/jung-test/ <p>Sarah got us doing the <a href="http://s.geek.nz/i.php">jung test</a> again.</p> <p><span>Introverted (<strong>I</strong>) 80% Extroverted (E) 20%<br />Sensing (<strong>S</strong>) 52.5% Intuitive (N) 47.5%<br />Thinking (<strong>T</strong>) 75.86% Feeling (F) 24.14%<br />Perceiving (<strong>P</strong>) 87.1% Judging (J) 12.9%</span></p> <p><span>So ISTP, just. Supposedly the second best type. So close to awesomeness! GAH!</span></p> Fri, 22 May 2009 20:52:00 +1200 Simon Welsh http://simon.geek.nz/jung-test/