Rubenerd

I just browsed the Ruby website today, looks very polished now. I remember just a few months ago going there and they still had that boxy, text based page.

ruby, rails, web development, scripting

The Malaysian evening thunderstorm recording.

Around the same time as recording Rubenerd Show 172 a very vocal (vocal?) thunderstorm starting brewing outside our house in Kuala Lumpur. Fortunately the mic and mixer boards were warmed up and ready to go, it was just a matter of plugging in a longer cable and stretching the mic over to the window.

Why buy an expensive relaxation CD or tape when you can download this? Don't answer that.

Download MP3 ↓ 11.5MiB 12:22

Designed by georgedorn and provided by Positronic Design.
Grab your own copy here.

bush, george w. bush, dubbya, george bush

bottles, humour

I hate the Windows version of MSN Messenger. Sorry I can't bring myself to call it "Windows Live Messenger". It's a poorly designed, RAM sucking, crashprone, unreliable, spyware riddled cesspool. The Mac version is actually pretty good, but I decided long ago to use Adium instead. I've resigned to the fact I have to use the MSN Messenger protocol because most of my friends use it (God bless them) but at least by using Adium I can connect to ICQ, AOL, Jabber, Google users etc.

Anyway I'm going off topic! I got an "official" Spam message today from Microsoft proudly announcing their latest version of "Windows Live Messenger". Only one problem: all the links and images were broken! It seems these folks can't even send an email that actually works. I do have images blocked in Gmail, but I "unblocked" them for this message and they were still broken!

EDIT: I found out why the images were broken: I use Adblock for Firefox. It seems it detected automatically that this Spam message was an advertisement and had its way with it. Still funny though!

msn messenger, windows live, windows life messenger, microsoft, spam, junk mail, junk email, adium, icq, jabber, aol, google, adblock, Firefox

We live in a global world.”
– GWtf Bush

Originally posted on MacHelp.

george bush, george w. bush, dubbya, bushisms, stupidity, republicans, conservatives

Podcast: Play in new window · Download

10:00 – Trying to recording a huge thunderstorm, Microsoft bows to the Belgians, celebrating Oktoberfest with my dad, Beer Review (Paulaner Oktoberfest Special), why drinking coffee is awesome, and why the robbing robber robbed banks.

The thunderstorm recorded during this episode can be found at Rubenerd Unplugged 001.

Recorded in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Licence for this track: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5. Attribution: Ruben Schade.

Podcast: Play in new window · Download

10:00 – Apologies for unplanned show hiatus, the Leningrad Cowboys, Frank's "New Time Radio" name kicks arse over Leo Laporte's "Netcast", the Overnightscape's weekly format, Dadaist on Google Reader, and the Finish national anthem done silly.

Recorded in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Licence for this track: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5. Attribution: Ruben Schade.

These are too good… pumpkins with Apple logos and themes carved into them! The one above is my favourite, for obvious reasons!

Apple Halloween Pumpkins

Song Playing: Makita, Toy Soldiers

Had probably the most productive day I've had today in a long time, and it had nothing to do with work or university. Sometimes I surprise even myself. Having lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for about a month now with my family again, and having my new Ikea desk and comfy office chair, I still never got around to actually setting it all up. The Rubenerd Show studio corner was set up with just the mixer, microphone and MadPlayer, and the other desktops were all strewn around everywhere with cables. Most of them weren't even working!

Now at 01:18am in the morning I've finished… almost!

For one thing there's internet, iTunes music sharing and file sharing on all the machines. I got our old D-Link 802.11b wireless access point we replaced configured instead as a wireless client which is then connected to a switch to connect cables to all the desktops that don't have wireless. The MacBook Pro and my custom built Athlon have their own wireless cards.

What was really satisfying though was getting my retro old iMac G3 Bondi Blue machine working! The very same machine that turned around Apple's fortunes; the one with the build in CRT; and here it is on my desk humming away doing Folding@Home… there's something about having one of your earlier computers from a bygone era running that feels really good. I know most mobile phones these days have more power than this desktop but it's piece of computing history; and it was the machine that turned me from a Windows user to a Mac-phile in the first place. Just think, before that machine I was on Windows 98… makes me feel dirty, yuk!

As for my mum, she won her really expensive bracelet on eBay today. I thought for something that will probably go into a drawer in a few weeks it was horribly overpriced, and with her medical bills still needing to be paid off is the last thing we need… but I haven't seen her this happy in a long time. I guess you can't put a price on happiness; I'm just worried that it will fizzle out pretty soon and we'll be left with the massive bill like some of her other gigantic spontaneous shop-aholic purchases. I know I sound cold, but that's the grim reality I'm afraid. I guess we'll revel in the happiness for now and enjoy it while it lasts.

Anyway spent the evening with my mum out in what we affectionately call "The Cafe" which is looking really nice now. It's the downstairs open air balcony, but we've decorated it with bamboo slat curtains that go from the ceiling right down to the ground, Balinese soap-stone statues, masses of pot plants and candles. In the evening here in Gita Bayu (our housing park in Malaysia) it's very pleasent. I'll have to post some pictures on Flickr.

Signing out,
Ruben

diary, log, ruben schade