2001: A GEEK ODYSSEY

Sun, Feb 25

<22:40> Linux 2.4.2 upgrade. In fact installed that yesterday, but only today converted the /home partition to ReiserFS. Just did a hard boot, no fscking as it's journaling. Should be faster and better overall - free space on the 2GB partition increased from about 45MB to 90MB, as it handles small files smarter - not a traditional block allocation system. Maybe this is progress for its own sake, but should be very useful on a large server.

<22:53> Extract from dmesg after a cruel hard boot:

reiserfs: checking transaction log (device 03:03) ...
reiserfs: replayed 5 transactions in 4 seconds

And what was your average fsck time on a 2GB drive? :-) Should keep my mouth shut while I can't bother converting / from ye olde ext2. But this is fun anyway.

<23:15> Yesterday, all my pure html writing days seemed so far away, but at least I'd conceived the 'wizard' myself. Here's the result - using table elements only, no graphics:

Admittedly it takes up more bytes than the equivalent graphics file, but isn't it just pure hack spirit? 8-}

Sat, Feb 24

<11:16> ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!

Thu, Feb 22

<21:10> Woo hoo! Got the result of this exam: alpha. =8-]

Tue, Feb 20

<22:13> Excellent meditation. So different, which I only found positive. It was like a good film, as I had visions of some good friends in a really peaceful mood. For instance, a succession of a few guys with real men's bellies, followed quite naturally by a traditional image of Buddha. However, two strange images that were there also in a brief meditation earlier today, can't explain. One was a green-black "flying saucer" and the other was a view of closed eyes, like someone in a deep, peaceful sleep. But without too much analysis, it was a fine experience. Really brought back some confidence in meditation, as it should never become a routine task, but an exploration into the mind.

Mon, Feb 19

<15:54> Funny. Tired and content. Nice weekend. Shopping in Camden, Lauri found himself a casual jacket, I got the New Rock boots fancied for a long time. A picture is here but instead of lilac there's gun metal colour. Pretty cool, eh? Surprisingly, they turned out great in the night's party at Johanna's place in Canterbury, themed 'paradise' with girls in bikinis and guys in sarongs, and the like :-). So my sarong/T-shirt/accessory belt combination worked out pretty cyberian with the boots. Met one more Finn, Katri who was actually an exchange student at Newcastle, and a few more Brits. In addition to the usual gang, Jussi and Jo from London joined us on the way to Canterbury. Nice, although our host Martti wasn't informed of this until quite late..

The following day we gathered at Johanna's again for some chill-out with Chinese take-away and the video The Big Lebowsky. A perfect Sunday afternoon. The trip back to Cambridge was a bit bumpy, as we had to wait in London for an hour and a half. Fortunately, there was a pub nearby. No surprise, we were extremely nacked to get back to Cambridge, but at least we knew it had been fun. 8-)

Sat, Feb 17

<01:56> Off to London and Canterbury in a few hours. Should be equally excellent pardey weekend to this one. Also, will be looking for the kyber boots at Camden on the way.

Fri, Feb 16

<01:11> Formal Hall at Trinity with the Finns was nice. Excellent food. Not the traditional kind of drinking night, which is good. Somehow it seemed apt to have a Trinity dinner to commemorate Feynman's death exactly 12 years ago, but it was also my sister's birthday... :-/ Whatever. It was great to meet some new Finns and also do a little planning, we might be one step closer to an official Finnish society in the University.

Sun, Feb 11

<03:05> Found some interestingly relaxing aboriginal music on the web, and the word Tuva was all over the song titles. Off to Google to find out what it's all about: it turned out Tuva was a tiny state within Russia and became famous when my favourite physicist Richard P. Feynman found out about it in 1977. The native two-pithed guttural singing is simply enchanting. See more about it here.

Thu, Feb 8

<23:54> Koyaanisqatsi.

Tue, Feb 6

<21:18> Horror at physics lectures: the Zeeman Catastrophe Machine. Equally threatening were the images shown to me yesterday at a psycho' test as I helped some psych students with their project. ;-)

Sat, Feb 3

<01:42> Watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with a couple of friends. A nice, different movie experience. A touching Chinese story with Matrix-surpassing fighting scenes that really go over the top. But given they might be that way just for fun, it's a great film overall. :-) And the ending verges on perfection, quite worthy of the bulk of the film. Score: ****