When I got my new computer, I lost one of my favourite programmes, an analogue clock screen saver.  The old screen saver doesn’t work on intel-based Macs.  So I decided to try my hand at making one, and I’m pleased with the first attempt.  I used Quartz Composer, which comes free in the Xcode Tools software from Apple.  I learned how to make a clock screensaver from this website, and learned how to make a clock face with Adobe Illustrator from this website.  I made the hands myself in Illustrator.  Finally, I can’t take credit for the wheels in the background of the clock; those come from here (though I suspect they got it from somewhere else).  In tribute to my old clock, the swatches used for the back of the clock are taken from the old one.

You are of course welcome to use it yourself.  It’s open-source, I just ask you credit me if you develop it further. Download it here.  To use it as a screensaver, just unzip it and put it in "/Library/Screen Savers/".  If you want to put it on your desktop rather than your screensaver, follow the steps above and then use quartz desktop.

And if you’re on a windows machine, you can see what you’re missing in this movie.

I listen to a lot of music, of a lot of different types.  When I want to discover new stuff like the music I already have, I head over to Pandora.com.  Insert an artist or the name of a track and it will create a station that has music like that.  It's really amazing and so far I've been surprised by how much I've liked what I've heard.  I've put up a new section on the right hand side of my homepage where you can see what stations I have newly created.  There's also a link there to take you to my pandora homepage.  Enjoy!

I knew this day was coming.  My old iBook, the computer I built this website on all those years ago, the one that saw me through my Masters degree, the one that was my gallant companion on many treks around Europe and across the Atlantic, has lived out its days.  On Friday, it went into a coma. 

[pause]

*sniff* *sniff*

We were prepared.  Its will was in order, its assets had been transferred to a trust fund (aka external hard drive), and we both knew we were living on borrowed time.  My only wish was that it would get to see its successor, a refurbished Macbook Pro.

Well, as any good steward of hardware does, I decided to do a post-mortem biopsy to see if we could cheat death once more.  And as it turns out, we have! Upon an examination of the energy intake nozzle array (power circuit board) I discovered a screw had come loose and created a short.  No idea where the screw came from, though.   So, with a few screws short, and a few more probably still loose, the old iBook started up once more, although this time with a bit of a burnt smell to it. It’s alive!

And to cap things off, my new Macbook (click the picture for a larger version) arrived today and is very snazzy.  The best part about all this, though, is that setting up my new computer took all of 30 minutes, because it automatically copied everthing from my old one.  One click and I was up and running on my new machine.  I’m truly amazed.

So the iBook may yet have a few more days of life in it.  Christian, you want it?

[This post brought to you by Emily, who encourages everyone to go out and hug a cow.]

[Update 3 Feb: It died again.  Really Dead.  I mean, I don’t think it’s gonna to be much but a paperweight now.  That’s ok, though, because Apple sent me a voucher for a free shipment of it back to Apple for recycling.  *sigh*  Goodbye, my friend!] 

There are some services in society that must always be running, lest the society as a whole collapse. The police force, water supply, electricity (in industrialised areas). . . and of course, grad students!

Yes, after 5 years with my old host, phpwebhosting, I have decided to pack up my bits and move my home on the web to a new server, dreamhost.  The old guys were decent hosts, and their support was pretty good, so the choice to move wasn't an easy one.  But I found a host that provides a more user-friendly back-end to my site, and is also cheaper than the current guys, and should provide more graduated levels of security that I need. 

There will most likely be some moving pains in the next few weeks as I sort everything out on the new server.  Think of it like moving house.  The front-end of the site (what you are looking at now) shouldn't change that much, if at all.  It's kind of like furniture.  The back-end is like the house, and it takes a while to fit 5 years of stuff into a new arrangement!  One change that may affect you, however, is that email announce lists will be reconfigured because dreamhost has some strict anti-spam requirements.  You may have to resubscribe to the lists, but if that's the case, I'll send you an email.

 I've been looking forward to this move for a long time, and it's all thanks to a Christmas present from my sister Emily!  She's just bought the site for two years, so you'll see her advertising around.  Like here! This website provided by the generous endowment of Emily.  Thanks Ems! 

If you notice parts of my site that have gone down, please let me know so I can fix them as quickly as possible.

[Update: I've moved!  let me know (by commeting on this post) if there's a broken link.  I'm surprised how easy it was!]