Thirtyfootscrew’s Blog

I was very impressed that Microsoft have gotten a patch out so quickly (and out of cycle) for the VML exploit. It doesn’t affect me too much as I’m a Firefox user but I do use the Preview pane in Outlook so I am vulnerable to HTML emails. Whether you’re vulnerable or not, it’s a good responsible action by Microsoft and I think it shows that they’re taking security much more seriously than they used to – I also enjoyed the fact that it didn’t ask me to reboot either, always a bonus!

written by thirtyfootscrew \\ tags: Microsoft, patch, security, VML, vulnerability

I finally got around to playing Tetris on my iPod and I was pretty disappointed – the overly sensitive wheel just doesn’t work. I’ve been gaming for many years now and this has all the hallmarks of a ’stretch’, the iPod’s click wheel is bound to be good for some games and bad for others and this should have never happened. The QA guys should be throwing out anything that doesn’t work well, but Tetris is one of the most popular handheld games ever (if not THE most popular) so of course it made it through

I lost count of how many times I put a block in the wrong place, even though I know where I wanted to put it – the slightest brush of the wheel moved it along by 1 column and the rest is history (a tedious history, given that there’s no ‘restart’ option). At the time of playing, I was sitting still but this “click-wheel-tenderness” must be SO much worse if you’re on a train or bus – exactly the place you’ll probably want to play it. Now I know that people will say “you just have to get used to it” (or “lol, u is teh noob” depending how ill-educated they are) but you know – I really don’t, I have played Tetris on more platforms than I can count so why bother playing an ill-suited version, I’ll just stick to my mobile or DS.

Additionally – iTunes seems to have listed Pixar Short Films on iTunes, I’m not sure when this happened but it doesn’t say NEW next to it so maybe I’m missing out? Anyway, having downloaded one (For The Birds) so when I’ve watched it I’ll post my opinions.

written by thirtyfootscrew \\ tags: Apple, click-wheel-tenderness, disney, ipod, itunes, pixar, tetris

It’s gotta be a classic story…

• Discover Internet, spend years reading other people’s content
• Buy domain, build website
• Website gets updated regularly and even has regular visitors and forum posts
• Website starts to show it’s age but still gets hits, gets a shot in the arm from being slashdotted
• Outdated PHP script gets pwned by some script-kiddie hacker with a chip on their shoulder
• Website falls so far into obscurity, owner far too busy to maintain

At this point in the story I feel sorry for our out-of-luck protagonist, and in fact that’s what happened in real-life so I’ve decided to give Website a happy ending by rebuilding it. It’s a modest beginning but I wanted to avoid use of overblown GPL scripts that I can’t even hope to understand so I build something I could write in notepad, albeit with a couple of acoutrements (what’s a main meal without a side-order, I ask).

Well, I hope you like it – it’s literally just been rebuilt so go easy on it and please leave feedback (either here or there).

http://www.thirtyfootscrew.com/

P.S. Depending on when you visit it may redirect to the co.uk domain – I’m still tweaking things a bit so bear with me!

written by thirtyfootscrew \\ tags: classic, html, Internet, notepad, second chance, website

Downloaded iTunes 7 last night and I like the new style interface, just seems a little slicker and less clunky – hopefully it’ll stop taking 100% of my processor usage at random intervals but I guess that’d be a big ask.

The biggest and best addition in my eyes is the games, whilst it’s not the most awe-inspiring selection in the world I’m kind-of expecting it to grow in time as the current games get more popular. For now I bought Tetris and Mahjong – both classics to avoid disappointment.

I’ve not played Tetris yet but the Mahjong is excellent – exactly how the game ought to be and it’s a great way to forget about the fact you can’t get a seat on train from London to Peterborough. Thankfully it’s not a long journey and the grubby/bristly floor was bearable whilst I had the distraction.

As basic puzzle games go, this seemed to be a good example – graphics and sound are both good and the wheel controller seemed to work well (though I’m not sure how well it’d stretch to more complex games). As a gamer I definitely see this as a positive development, a new channel is always good and sometimes brings a bit of innovation along with it – I hope to see some innovative uses of the wheel in future games.

written by thirtyfootscrew \\ tags: games, gaming, grubby trains, ipod, itunes, itunes 7, mahjong, tetris

Having had the Mac for a good few weeks now I thought it would be a good time to post my experiences back on the blog. Initially I still found the user interface confusing as OS9 is quite different from Windows, I also had my suspicions confirmed in that there is almost no application support for legacy operating systems. To get round this I decided to take the plunge and get a copy of OSX, this is a decision I do not regret in the slightest – it’s great!

The install for OSX ran like a dream, though I’m not really sure how long it took as I was watching TV in the other room for the bulk of it. Once it was up and running I downloaded all the patches (being a Windows user this made me feel at home) then got hold of the latest version of Firefox so I could start using the Mac in earnest.

So far I’ve found it very enjoyable getting to know OSX, most things seem to be where you’d expect and I love that funny toolbar that pops up at the bottom for launching applications – much nicer than the Start Menu. I decided to make the Mac my primary web-surfing machine and have moved it into the living room, saving my PC for more hard-core use as well as my email (I’m currently tied-in to Outlook).

Every second I use OSX I am mentally comparing it to Windows and it’s obviously way ahead of XP in terms of graphical niceties and general usability. That said, Vista is hot on it’s heels and in honesty the whole Aero/Glass thing beats OSX’s graphical style hands down, MS are clearly taking their cues from Apple and hoping to go one step further.

Of course, Apple will have a chance to bite back with Leopard so I’ll keep watching that space and I’m sure Vista will usher-in a whole new world of security issues and bugs that need fixing – comments I’ve heard from Steve Gibson on the Security Now podcast have been quite alarming and I’ve stopped using my copy of Vista Beta 2 because of security concerns. That said, I will hopefully receive Vista RC1 soon but I’ll try that one inside a virtual machine if I can.

On a final note I had a very helpful and friendly email conversation with a guy from my local Mac user group, if you’re reading this – thanks, I may be in touch again once I’ve gotten to grips with things a bit more. Also, I still find the Mac press to be over-zealous and have resolved not to buy magazines any more (barring useful cover disks) – I’ll get my news from the MacBreak Weekly podcast (yet another great podcast from TWiT.tv).

written by thirtyfootscrew \\ tags: Apple, mac, macintosh, noob, osx, podcast, vista, xp