tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-229212372024-02-07T18:26:41.403+00:00Oh my god, it’s still breathing!Blog of me. I’m Alexander Jones.alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-7241364708410262722014-06-06T02:43:00.000+01:002019-08-08T02:31:52.007+01:00Consciousness, Abortion, Swarms and the MindI consider myself a man of reason and skepticism, fully invested in the scientific method. Such an inclination makes it quite difficult to justify even entertaining the kind of questions I am purporting to answer here, not least because my anti-theistic streak might make me somewhat hypocritical to even suggest that I have anything close to an untestable belief system. Regardless, we all ponder the questions no one can answer. Even the most hard-line rationalists such as myself.<br />
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What triggered these thoughts most recently was an article discussing the time at which an unborn child becomes a person, in the eyes of Arizona legislation. The suggestion was that according to the law, a child has rights at ovulation, even weeks before it has been conceived, which is laughably preposterous by conventional standards.<br />
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But still, it prompted me to consider (as I have done on numerous occasions before) what it is that makes us, the postnatal homo sapien, so apparently special. Yes, we have opposable thumbs, we walk upright, we have unusually large brains capable of complex thought processes, but what is it that makes us feel so entitled, as developed members of a species, to act on either other species or the unborn members of our own with such little regard for their own wellbeing? What makes it OK to abort a foetus or slaughter a <a href="http://thehawksmoor.com/">delicious cow</a>, but not to stab someone and take their money, or abduct and molest a young child to satisfy your own decadent desires?<br />
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When considering unanswerable questions, it does no harm to use a scientific foundation. In fact I would argue its case as a requirement, otherwise it becomes a futile exercise in quasi-intellectual masturbation, of little inherent value outside fantasy fiction (but let's leave religion out of this, for now). Scientific knowledge and logical reasoning is the best system of constraints within which to work, if we are to approach anything resembling a truth.<br />
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Biologically speaking, what separates us as humankind from the rest of life as we understand it is not a great wall or crevasse, but merely a fuzzy border embedded in the highly multidimensional, vast continuum of genome-space. The genome is sufficiently expressive to encode even the tiniest variations in life-building processes, most of which would be undetectable to the naked eye. Such variations may have compounding effects due to selection pressures, and at some point a new species may be considered to have emerged—to have <i>diverged—</i>when it is no longer possible for it to successfully interbreed with its cousins.<br />
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So we as humans may be considered "different", by the above standards at least, from modern primates such as the chimpanzee. However, inbreeding issues notwithstanding, had selection pressures been sufficient enough to effect divergence, yet relaxed enough to keep all intermediate species alive somewhere on Earth, enough of an overlap would exist such that it would be possible for humans to successfully procreate, albeit in a large number of intermediate steps, back up the "evolutionary tree" to the point of a <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090519104643.htm">common ancestor</a>, and back down to the chimpanzee. I'd imagine that the fruits of such labour—namely a continuum of human descendents who, at one extreme, are technically no longer a human, but are indistinguishable from chimpanzees—would be extremely challenging to most legislation!<br />
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But need we take such a long-winded path, or is there a more direct possibility? The "miracle of birth" is no longer much of a miracle. We now understand the biological processes that occur during conception well enough to avoid invoking the supernatural—for all except one thing: the creation of a consciousness.<br />
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Do we have any reason to believe the creation of a consciousness is limited to times when a loving couple copulate naturally? If so, we have to consider those born of e.g. rape or otherwise unloving sexual acts such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF, "test tube babies") to be somehow less human. But if not, we have to abandon the requirement of some magical process involving love, and conclude by accepting that artificial creation of life is equivalent to the natural phenomenon. Even if one were to (absurdly) attempt to argue the case for non-equivalence, what would they make of a child of a pairing of a natural born human and a rape child? Is the "consciousness allele" (to abuse the term <i>allele</i>) recessive or dominant in such circumstances? And is it manifest in any observable way such that it could be subjected to selection pressures either encouraging or discouraging its propagation? These questions are moral minefields, but for the sake of rigour I must acknowledge their existence.<br />
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So let's suppose that artificial creation of humans is sufficient to create a consciousness. In such a case, what if we perturb the genome in some way? What if we combine it in a fashion similar to that which occurs during sex? What if we mutate it so much that it is no longer possible to reasonably call it a "human" genome? And supposing it survives beyond a few agonising minutes, what do we make of the life we have created? <i>Is it a conscious being?</i><br />
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Due to the approximately continuous, infinitesimal nature of such genetic perturbations, if one was to argue the case for a lack of consciousness in arbitrarily created life, they would have to propose a threshold of human-likeness (or otherwise) under which consciousness was no longer possible. I believe this possibility to be highly unlikely—if the only way we could fall short of such a threshold is by mutating the genome, then consciousness would have to be part of a poorly understood part of the genome, or otherwise encoded within it in some undetectable way. The poorly understood parts are shrinking as we discover more about the genome, and I may simply assert that the Universe is not conspiring against us to invoke <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography">steganography</a> or similar deception techniques on the human genome. Therefore my conclusion is that artificial life created from an arbitrary genome does qualify as conscious.<br />
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If we are satisfied that both naturally born humans and artifically born, <i>arbitrary</i> lifeforms are conscious, then I make a small jump to generalise and assert that <i>all</i> life is conscious, to some extent.<br />
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People who accept the consciousness of other lifeforms might associate greater levels of consciousness with larger, more complex beings. We may use emotional language and say that humans have "feelings", whereas ants have none (or at least very little). Really, we're talking about the complexity of the brain and its capacity to process high level emotions such as love and empathy. Ant brains and nervous systems consist of around a quarter of a million neurons, a minuscule amount compared to the human's 85 billion. That's a ratio of 340,000:1. While this is not a fair representation of relative intelligence (the brain is not simply a homogeneous, single-purpose mass of neurons) it does establish some sense of scale. So if ant life and human life is considered similarly capable of consciousness, a fertilised embryo should be granted the same low consciousness level as an ant. How many ants, or indeed other insects did you step on this week? Did you even notice?</div>
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What makes ants an interesting vehicle for this argument is their tendency to swarm. While each individual ant in a colony is not capable of much, the colony as a whole is a highly intelligent entity, capable of devouring beasts and plant life orders of magnitude greater in size. (The BBC ran a two part nature series entitled <i>Swarm</i> documenting the incredible behaviours of a range of wild, swarming species. I strongly encourage people to watch it, if only for the breathtaking high-definition footage!)<br />
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It is fascinating to contemplate the power of combining such beautifully simple components into larger machines. We have ants comprising very little individual intelligence, in some cases completely blind and relying on pheromone trails alone (occasionally to their <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prjhQcqiGQc">ultimate demise</a>), banding together by the thousands or millions to not only survive but prosper. We have the humble 20 nanometre transistor, capable of switching a current on and off, etched a billion at a time onto a silicon wafer to produce a microprocessor that will compute billions of calculations each second. We have the human neuron, a simple nerve cell, connected to billions of others via synapses in the nervous system, allowing its host to contemplate <i>and type out</i> this essay.<br />
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All of these systems share the trait of being simple, massively connected entities. It's the co-operation of a large number of simple pieces that creates an otherwise impossible machine. I argue that it is this co-operative nature of a <i>network</i> of connected, highly interacting matter that quantifies consciousness in a being.<br />
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At this point, you may be gagging at the suggestion of a microprocessor—a <i>machine—</i>possessing a consciousness. Let's look at some more scientific facts.<br />
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The nodes in neural networks, namely the synapses, communicate through electrical and chemical signals for which we have proven physical theories. It is these same theories that allow us to create electrical components such as transistors, and by extension microprocessors. Fundamental physics—the most basic mechanisms of the universe we currently aim to understand—is all about interactions of the different physical "fields": the electromagnetic force, the strong and weak nuclear force, the gravitational force, etc. When you downcast the issue of co-operating networks to this level, there isn't a whole lot separating the interactions of neurons in the brain from the interactions of ants in a colony, or from those of transistors in a working microprocessor. What clearly does differ, however, is the nature of information stored in each of these three examples, which is what ultimately determines the behaviour of the being.<br />
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All of these networks exhibit programmed behaviour in response to external stimuli. A human is programmed to tend to a crying baby, an ant colony to seek out food, a microprocessor to calculate <a href="http://www.angrybirds.com/">curiously eyebrowed avian trajectories</a>. These behaviours are not inherent to the design of the networks, but are the result of evolution in the natural case, and intentional human design in the computer case. Other programmed behaviours in the human brain include the capacity to love, to feel anger, compassion and empathy, to respond to pain and to another's display of pain, etc. Many would like to think that these behaviours are aspects of the consciousness, but in truth we know that this can simply not be the case—to reiterate, they are <i>evolved behaviours</i> that would still exist even in the absence of consciousness.<br />
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So, we have reduced the definition of a consciousness down to something more fundamental, but far from trivial. It is the I in me and the you in you. Perhaps we are connected as one, but without the neural connectivity to realise it, we could never "know" that feeling on any human level—we don't just wake up with each others' memories. I like to think of my own consciousness as being the Universe's ability to experience itself through the lens of my mind.<br />
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In conclusion, I propose that all matter is capable of consciousness: the brain in your head, the ants in your garden, the unborn foetus in an expectant mother, the chair you are sitting on, the earth beneath your home and the stars in the sky. The degree of consciousness is a function of network expressiveness and bandwidth, and the boundaries of a network are perhaps not as simple as we may think.</div>
alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-55577250213703497512014-06-06T02:19:00.001+01:002014-06-06T02:19:20.410+01:00Tumbleweed<i>Wow.</i> It's been two-and-a-half years since I last blogged. It's not that I don't have any interesting (toot toot!) thoughts anymore, it's just that Facebook swallows them up amongst all the asinine nonsense I keep myself amused with. That's a shame.alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-5204157213610295742011-12-01T00:53:00.003+00:002011-12-01T02:20:43.878+00:00How to remove a password from a USB enhanced removable storage device in Windows 7<p>This took /way/ too long to work this out... so posting here in the hopes it will help someone else.</p><p>So basically my friend has Windows 7 Ultimate and had 'set a password' on her cheapo USB disk. She then found out she couldn't use the disk on anyone else's computer. She knew the password, she just wanted it removing so the disk would work on other computers again. The disk had no files on it.</p><p>Turns out this password protection is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1667">IEEE 1667</a>, and the only real world implementation of this appears to be in Windows 7. It's implemented at the hardware level, so if you try to use the disk on any other OS you get zilch. Nada. NOPE.avi</p><p>What we finally figured out is that if you type your password incorrectly upon plugging your disk in, you get an option to 'reset' the device. This wipes it clean and removes the password protection, and makes it work on other systems again. Obviously, note the 'wipes it clean' bit there -- you should back up the contents of the disk before resetting.</p><p>God bless Microsoft usability...</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-23019617316731466802010-08-19T00:04:00.003+01:002010-08-19T01:31:03.315+01:00All Grown Up<p>It's been a while since I blogged about anything, so I thought I'd fill the void with some personal updates.</p><p>I've finished my degree at Imperial College London. Those of you who are close to me will know that the few months leading up to my final exams were some very difficult times for me, least because of the pressure to do well in exams. Turns out I made it through OK, but I owe a lot to the very good friends who lent me their support. You know who you are, and I love you all. Anyway, my mum is now in possession of a certificate saying that I'm an absolutely first class master at physics, or something. Graduation is in October and she can't wait. Super.</p><p>After my massive snowboarding credit card binge this year (two holidays in the Alps and countless trips to the Milton Keynes Sno!Zone adds up to a <em>lot</em>), I didn't waste any time after exams finding a source of income. Since the beginning of June I'm very proud to say I've been working for one of the major players in the world of CG visual effects - Soho-based <a href="http://www.dneg.com/">Double Negative</a>.</p><p>DNeg have worked on many major titles of recent times including my own personal favourites <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/"><em>Inception</em></a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1060277/"><em>Cloverfield</em></a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/"><em>The Dark Knight</em></a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0440963/"><em>The Bourne Ultimatum</em></a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425112/"><em>Hot Fuzz</em></a>. I work as a Research & Development Programmer, and hack on the software that we use to make sweet shiz like <a href="http://www.dneg.com/showreel/">this</a> happen. I learn so much every single day and it's awesome to be given the opportunity to solve such unique and interesting problems. Still getting used to the whole "waking up in the morning" thing, though - in fact, I'm lucky to be there before eleven. It's a good job they are flexible on working hours else I would have been P45'd a long time ago. (For our US friends, that's a "pink slip", not some kind of submachine gun.)</p><p>I think, without question, the best thing about working for DNeg is that I get to sit on <a href="http://www.hermanmiller.com/Products/Aeron-Chairs">this beast</a>. I have not fussed about a chair so much in my life and I doubt I ever will again. You could probably buy a house in <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=&sll=54.528734,-1.553051&sspn=0.05937,0.181789&g=Darlington,+United+Kingdom&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=&ll=54.528734,-1.553051&spn=0.05937,0.181789&z=13">Darlo</a> for the price of one of these, but believe me when I say it is worth every last penny. I actually get a bit of a semi just thinking about it. If there's one office chair you save up for all your life, make this it.</p><p>Music is still on a break. I banned myself from producing till my exams were over and then when I've tried to get back into it I'm still not making anything good, so it's time to shake it up a bit. I'm going to get hold of a pair of <a href="http://europe.beyerdynamic.com/shop/hah/headphones-and-headsets/studio-and-stage/studio-headphones/dt-880-pro.html">BeyerDynamic DT 880s</a> (probably), Ableton Live, a few new synths (Sylenth, V-Station, Massive?) and some sample packs (probably get VEC3 because my drums feel somewhat outdated), and actually make a real effort to learn some theory and produce something good. I cannot actually believe I've let <em>four</em> years go by since my <a href="http://lxjmusic.com/tunes/road-test">LXJ remix of Dan Stone - Road Test</a> was released. While there have been a few tracks in the pipeline since, most of them have admittedly been pretty sub-par. Hopefully things will change if I get my act together. Wish me luck.</p><p>kthxbye!</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-22444176741492855282010-03-01T18:33:00.005+00:002010-03-01T18:39:15.611+00:00PHP wart of the day<p>Just spent about a half hour debugging this. It's such a shame that if you try to do anything neat in PHP, stupid behaviour foils your plan:</p><blockquote><code><pre>php > $n = NULL;
php > var_dump($n['something']);
NULL
php > var_dump($n[0]);
NULL</pre></code></blockquote><p>How this makes any sense is beyond me. It even happens if <code>$n</code> is <code>FALSE</code>...</p><p>Python, for comparison, throws an exception sanely:</p><blockquote><code><pre>In [1]: n = None
In [2]: n['something']
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is unsubscriptable</pre></code></blockquote>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-58421921887376961082010-02-24T22:30:00.007+00:002010-02-24T22:47:13.757+00:00Python tip: enumerate(list) vs. xrange(len(list))<p>For a long time, when wanting a counting variable with which to index some list in a Python loop, I've used <code>for i in xrange(len(some_list))</code>. However, I've since discovered the built-in <a href="http://docs.python.org/library/functions.html#enumerate"><code>enumerate</code> function</a>, so you can instead do <code>for i, item in enumerate(some_list)</code>. This has the benefit of already giving you effectively <code>item = some_list[i]</code> for each iteration of the loop, and also working on iterators that don't necessarily have a length. (<code>enumerate</code> simply gives you an iterator that returns each item of the input collection back together with a counting number. Far too simple!)</p><p>Hopefully this will help someone, but if not, it’ll remind me later!</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-42016199885018251212009-11-29T20:47:00.005+00:002009-11-29T21:11:16.121+00:00Some Short Tune Reviews from TATW 296<p>Thought I'd review the tracks played on this week's <a href="http://www.trancearoundtheworld.com/">Trance Around The World</a> to force me to listen properly! Here it goes.</p><dl><dt>Dan Stone "Fahrenheit" (Anjunabeats)</dt><dd> Arbitrary piano over stock pads and plucks with a standard bass progression. As expected from Dan Stone, crisp production, but can't help think that this track is born of a need to get another pay cheque in from Anjunabeats. 2/5</dd><dt>Hydro Aquatic "Moon River" (Monster Tunes)</dt><dd>Overused techy side-chain-compressed bass line with a Nitrous Oxide "North Pole"-style theme that Above & Beyond are absolutely caning right now (see "Anjuna Beach"). Nothing much going on here. 2/5</dd><dt>Angelic "It's My Turn 2009" (Darren Tate Remix)</dt><dd>Not much to offer over the older versions other than an updated sound set. Nothing very interesting above that. 2/5</dd><dt>Boom Jinx & Jaytech "Milano" (Anjunadeep)</dt><dd>Wouldn't expect anything less than lush, edgy sounds from Boom Jinx and Jaytech, and they deliver on those grounds. Reasonably funky bass pattern, but gets boring quickly. Good warmup material. 3/5</dd><dt>Mat Zo "Rush 2009" (Anjunabeats)</dt><dd>I'm still caning the original of "Rush", and I was surprised to see an updated version so soon. Borrows even more from the world of tech house. Mat's production is as always very refreshing, but I feel this remake deducts more than it adds. I will forego this one for the original. 3/5</dd><dt>Temple One "Sahara Nights" (Steve Brian Remix) (Enhanced Recordings)</dt><dd>Typical Anjuna-fodder. Good production, but totally generic sounds and theme. Also, the guy has two first names. 2/5</dd><dt>EverLight "Colours" (Cressida Remix)</dt><dd>Delightful themes with a blissful atmosphere. Adventurous accompanying parts give this track some nice originality. Great flow and solid production. 3/5</dd><dt>Everything But The Girl "Missing" (Greg Downey Remix)</dt><dd>Greg delivers a typically techy concoction balanced with the iconic breakdown lifted from the original Todd Terry mix. Absolutely fantastic take on the theme, I just wish he could have made something out of it for the main part instead of resorting to pretty generic tech trance beats. Regardless, how can this not go off in a club? 3/5</dd><dt>Edu pres. Time Traveler "Save The Planet" (Cramp Remix) (Levare)</dt><dd>Arbitrary piano and more boring plucks on the break, but the build up seems to pay off. The theme brings a smile to my face, even though it's quite simple. 3/5</dd><dt>Filo & Peri feat. Aruna "Ashley" (Alex M.O.R.P.H. Remix) (Vandit)</dt><dd>Heavy peak-time tech trancer with pretty good vocal work and disgusting(-ly good) bass programming. Not much love, but very functional. 3/5</dd><dt>Chapter XJ "Resurrection" (Jorn van Deynhoven Remix) (Monster)</dt><dd>Almost-arbitrary piano breakdown, but completely forgiven by a real crowd-pleaser of a theme. This is big-smile, textbook trance. I have been going absolutely nuts for this in the clubs. 4/5</dd><dt>Paul Keely "Cloud 9" (Anjunadeep)</dt><dd>Eighth-note progressive house. Functional, but somewhat uninspired percussion. A gorgeous and well programmed 4 bar theme, but not much going on other than that. 3/5</dd><dt>Jerome Isma-Ae "Hold That Sucker Down" (Pilot 9)</dt><dd>Tech house beats with a classic-sounding, dark and moody theme. Pretty cool, but I don't feel much emotional attachment. 3/5</dd><dt>Sunny Lax "Misgrey" (Anjunabeats)</dt><dd>Now this is a side of Sunny Lax I didn't expect to see. Techy beats and fresh, interesting sound work. I absolutely cannot resist the theme! Mesmerising bass, decorated beautifully and tastefully. Just try and keep me off the dance floor. 4/5</dd><dt>Markus Schulz "Do You Dream?" (Grube & Hovsepian Remix) (Coldharbour)</dt><dd>Nice theme with a big spacious sound. Ticks all the boxes, but somehow doesn't really do that much for me. 3/5</dd><dt>Mark Pledger feat. Melinda Gareh "Time Stands Still" (Solaris)</dt><dd>Gorgeous sounds and and a theme that, if a bit indulgent at times, practically melts my spine. Hypnotic, progressive and full of the trance sensibilities I long for. A genuine, refreshing arrangement and form, though, like "Fallen Tides" I am left feeling a little lost in the theme sometimes. Looking forward to remixes. <del>3</del> <del>4</del> <del>3</del> 4/5</dd></dl>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-57175069002031422712009-09-10T00:22:00.004+01:002009-09-10T00:46:20.288+01:00Today’s hack: CD wallet inlay track listings generator<p>If you’re a CD DJ, and, like me, you’re used to scrawling the names of the tracks you’ve just burnt down onto a piece of paper and slotting it into your CD wallet, you probably know how difficult it is to write legibly in a small space.</p><p>So, I hacked this Python tool together to generate a printable PDF from some simple text files. There is no graphical interface (yet), just a simple command line interface.</p><p>
</p><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFvlU4UtiudSd1Ca1u_-veGrBgu0gG7HWWf_s2rgJhqtgdQnEJKih4AG-1fBtk6QbeU7z9XN17IfEqapIG-TkCbufzCqi_C4knhFtDSTD4N_U3McfjFN1OiAAC4SZ5mvS-UoAr/s1600-h/Screenshot-output.pdf.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFvlU4UtiudSd1Ca1u_-veGrBgu0gG7HWWf_s2rgJhqtgdQnEJKih4AG-1fBtk6QbeU7z9XN17IfEqapIG-TkCbufzCqi_C4knhFtDSTD4N_U3McfjFN1OiAAC4SZ5mvS-UoAr/s320/Screenshot-output.pdf.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379615973161538418" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 302px; " /></a></div><p>All you have to do is:</p><ol><li><p>Create a folder full of plain text files like such:</p><blockquote><code><pre>LABEL GOES HERE
Artist 1 - Title 1
Artist 2 - Title 2
Artist 3 - Title 3
... etc.</pre></code></blockquote><p>that is, the CD label goes on the first line, and then the track listing goes on each line after that. The file names do not matter, but it's probably a good idea to use the same thing for the label and filename.</p></li><li><p>Run the tool as such:</p><blockquote><code>python /path/to/tracklisting.py /path/to/tracklisting/files/*</code></blockquote></li><li><p>Out pops the PDF “output.pdf” in the working directory. Print it off, and cut it out! Happy times!</p></li></ol><p>The code is up on Launchpad at <a href="https://code.launchpad.net/~alex-weej/+junk/tracklisting">https://code.launchpad.net/~alex-weej/+junk/tracklisting</a>. Please feel free to submit patches or suggestions for any improvements you may have!</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-33258196578771989802009-09-03T23:59:00.005+01:002009-09-04T00:18:49.858+01:00A Protest Against “Wall-to-Wall” Conversations on Facebook<p>Do people realise that when they write a “private” wall post on their friend’s or loved one’s wall, that it shows up on all of their friends’ home pages? Does anyone really care to read half a conversation?</p><p>As a mild method of comical protest, I’ve started hitting “Like” on such posts to politely remind and simultaneously freak out people who do this. I think everyone should join in the fun.</p><blockquote><p>Jane → Joe: night night darling ;) xxxxx</p><p>15 people like this.</p></blockquote><p>Send a message instead! No-one else gives a shit!</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-89068043597658328342009-04-23T16:03:00.002+01:002009-04-23T16:07:16.167+01:00Ubuntu 9.04 Released!<p>It’s that time of the half-year again. Get your torrents on!</p><p><a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">http://www.ubuntu.com/</a></p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-3649048874235557392009-04-19T01:03:00.006+01:002009-04-19T01:59:05.437+01:00Conservapedia: Infuriating and Malicious<p>Question: What do you get when people with a political and religious agenda decide to create their own version of <a href="http://www.wikipedia.org/">Wikipedia</a>? Answer: <a href="http://www.conservapedia.com/">Conservapedia</a>.</p><p>From their own “<a href="http://www.conservapedia.com/Conservapedia:About">About</a>” page:</p><blockquote>We do not allow liberal bias to deceive and distort here.</blockquote><p>The sheer hypocrisy of this statement is astonishing. Articles I have skim-read include those on <a href="http://www.conservapedia.com/Evolution">Evolution</a>, <a href="http://www.conservapedia.com/Atheism">Atheism</a>, <a href="http://www.conservapedia.com/Homosexuality">Homosexuality</a> and (just LOL) <a href="http://www.conservapedia.com/Great_flood">The Great Flood</a> and are completely biased far beyond anything I’ve ever seen on Wikipedia.<p></p><p>Make no mistake, this is not even an <em>attempt</em> to distill information of subjectivity. This is an attempt to shield people from consensual truths which right-wing bigots and religious zealots find uncomfortable or incompatible with their belief systems.</p><p>Now, it’s fair enough to have all of this “information” on a website; I’m a strong believer in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Speech">Freedom of Speech</a>. The most infuriating aspect of this is that somehow, there is a plethora of genuinely useful and legitimate information on there, diluting the bullshit considerably. Earlier today I had searched Google for “<a href="http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=matrix%20multiplication%20suffix%20notation">matrix multiplication suffix notation</a>” and the Conservapedia article <a href="http://www.conservapedia.com/Matrix">Matrix</a> was the <em>top result</em>. It is clear to me that the intention of this project is to blur the line between fact and fiction, to teach objectively and subjectively in order to mislead, and to cast doubt in the mind of the reader on issues that are as plain as black and white in the Real World.</p><p>I consider this one of the highest crimes of humanity; the corruption of the human mind. Alas, this is only really a 21st century extension of an age-old war, and with the Web rapidly supplanting all other formats as information outlets, I suppose it was only a matter of time before those who were brainwashed as kids by colouring books and Sunday School grew up and took it to the tubes.</p><p>Of course, the right way to combat this is to make sure that the best information is in its rightful place: Wikipedia. So that’s why I’m going there right now to figure out why Wikipedia wasn’t in the search results. Hopefully, other people will do the same.</p><p>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservapedia">Wikipedia article on Conservapedia</a> is an interesting read.</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-43304793616110694052009-02-18T01:02:00.002+00:002009-02-18T01:05:17.314+00:00The Signs of Autism<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn11vr2jPo-Jb9tdHBxbR0M2bbZFqVxIJEsFOHkL2dzkqG0HKwk3MXwc12BMUcP__cXM6Qf0PKg6oJGtDHSUW9j0mf_FE9aXIN1taNLQu1yVjCMKGFXbTKcjUqLOmBR1r5EB7D/s1600-h/091.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn11vr2jPo-Jb9tdHBxbR0M2bbZFqVxIJEsFOHkL2dzkqG0HKwk3MXwc12BMUcP__cXM6Qf0PKg6oJGtDHSUW9j0mf_FE9aXIN1taNLQu1yVjCMKGFXbTKcjUqLOmBR1r5EB7D/s400/091.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303936974740775378" /></a></div><p>A hot, young girl with pigtails == autism, apparently.</p><p>Anyone know what’s going on here?</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-21110969173771158712009-02-09T17:59:00.008+00:002009-02-09T23:16:37.283+00:00How to get beautiful, Mac OS X-quality text/fonts in Ubuntu<p>Want text to look its finest in Ubuntu?</p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiMLeWDXXj6gzu0qCZIvpu37Q_BFR8ivR2bzW4dBuAorQ2eDyyB4-WFEGYm6NXJHbk5cU1HTrCAq6YrhCb7FTeLkiVRMAQRCvma0rcfCwivyYbagVxLzOW6EQ4dKREl5IXE7Rr/s1600-h/crop.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 310px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiMLeWDXXj6gzu0qCZIvpu37Q_BFR8ivR2bzW4dBuAorQ2eDyyB4-WFEGYm6NXJHbk5cU1HTrCAq6YrhCb7FTeLkiVRMAQRCvma0rcfCwivyYbagVxLzOW6EQ4dKREl5IXE7Rr/s400/crop.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300938432835247362" border="0" /></a><p>You’re just a couple of steps away.</p><p>Firstly, in a shell, run:</p><blockquote><code>sudo dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig-config</code></blockquote><p>Select “None” for the “font tuning method”, “Automatic” for “subpixel rendering” and “No” for “enable bitmap fonts”.</p><p>For some reason, the default greyscale mode overrides the subpixel rendering set by fontconfig, so you also need to open System → Preferences → Appearance, select the “Fonts” page and choose the “Subpixel smoothing (LCDs)” mode.</p><p>You’ll notice that while the text has slightly less contrast, it actually preserves the form of the letter shapes much more faithfully, just like Mac OS X. As long as you don't have a low resolution monitor (less than 96 dpi), the characters will appear to be just like printed type, and you’ll forget you’re looking at a grid of pixels!</p><p>Enjoy!</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-6730277011557799522009-01-10T14:46:00.001+00:002009-01-10T14:48:03.472+00:00Facebook: Alexander became a fan of Jabber<p>Maybe you should too? :)</p><p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jabber/29336967655">http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jabber/29336967655</a></p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-80822630247657996922009-01-03T21:33:00.003+00:002009-01-03T21:38:08.328+00:00SomaFM Tag's Trip<p>I've recently started listening to Soma FM's trance / progressive house channel, Tag's Trip. It's awesome, and makes for a refreshingly less-inbred listening experience than Last FM. (Not that I don't still love Last FM!)</p><p><a href="http://somafm.com/">Soma FM</a> - enjoy!</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-70798983914937979002008-09-20T17:00:00.002+01:002008-09-20T17:03:44.858+01:00All the cool kids are doing it…<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbxo5QF3K4OfnVHG7kVfBQARhOzovPeyLJM1evRaHfIpY2A_IJ7aztC3-15BRI7X6bMCDBYs85pHS55Z8Pqy9JYQNFLOX6CFJUr8Sf_D8oeQxdAgpVSemveeexubGNuiXV2DtB/s1600-h/2008-09-20-165946.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbxo5QF3K4OfnVHG7kVfBQARhOzovPeyLJM1evRaHfIpY2A_IJ7aztC3-15BRI7X6bMCDBYs85pHS55Z8Pqy9JYQNFLOX6CFJUr8Sf_D8oeQxdAgpVSemveeexubGNuiXV2DtB/s400/2008-09-20-165946.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5248134364627052626" border="0" /></a>
<ol><li>Take a picture of yourself right now.</li><li>Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair… just take a picture.</li><li>Post that picture with <em>no</em> editing.</li><li>Post these instructions with your picture.</li></ol>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-38639429258222933542008-09-17T19:09:00.003+01:002008-09-17T19:29:00.713+01:00Re: Creationism!<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=28216849134">Jen</a></p><p>I was going to bite with a lengthy response, but I can’t be arsed to read all of your comments to make sure I’m not repeating. So a couple of quick points, instead, for future reference of your own, and other misguided folk.</p><p>You’ve made the classic schoolgirl mistake. Evolution is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory">theory</a>, yes, and so is gravity.</p><p>If you ask me, religion <em>is</em> a problem for humanity. Max Mosly’s Nazi S&M orgies don’t affect his ability to run Formula 1. Religious beliefs, however, tend to reflect on many things they really shouldn’t. And that’s why people should <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7619670.stm">resign from their positions of responsibility</a> if they can’t enforce a boundary. The Church of England’s treatment of Charles Darwin is a tragic, extreme, but perfect example of what problems we <em>still face today</em> in the scientific community.</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-50408180728733527652008-09-10T02:38:00.003+01:002008-09-10T02:53:08.498+01:00IE8 - Getting my web pages right, first time!<p>Just fired up <a href="http://ipinfo.info/netrenderer/">IE NetRenderer</a> to check the rendering of the new <a href="http://www.union.ic.ac.uk/arts/musictech/">ICU Music Technology Society web page</a> I was working on today.</p><p>Unsurprisingly, IE6 gets implicit font sizes wrong (base font size is 8pt, yet level 1 headings disregard this), ignores instruction to inherit colours (link colours don’t match the normal text foreground colour) and fails at alpha-blending PNG images.</p><p>IE7 blends the images properly, but that’s the only thing it gets right over IE6.</p><p>IE8 beta 2, however, gets everything right! Granted, the page is very simple, but I think this is the first time that any non-trivial page that I’ve coded has worked in IE without any extra work. I wonder if the scripting interfaces are up to standard yet... We may be out of the dark ages by the end of the decade if Microsoft roll this out to Windows users!</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-66446116988176715662008-09-09T00:05:00.003+01:002008-09-09T00:34:16.155+01:00The end of the world?<p>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider">Large Hadron Collider</a> at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN">CERN</a> fires up Wednesday. Reading uneducated musings about the end of the world on message boards is <a href="http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/end">LOLtastic</a>.</p><p>But something did get me thinking...</p><p>Perhaps the <a href="http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/">search</a> for extra-terrestrial life has shown up nought so far because every construct that evolves eventually becomes intelligent enough to destroy itself, inadvertently or otherwise, beyond detection. Curiosity is pretty good at killing cats—throw a high energy particle accelerator in and I reckon it could blow a pretty impressive hole in the Universe.</p><p>Whatever happens, it’s exciting times for science. The things we do for knowledge...</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-57754535340019617942008-09-07T20:20:00.003+01:002008-09-07T21:51:12.318+01:00070 numbers - NOT mobile phones!<p>070 is the prefix used for “Personal Numbering” in the UK. These numbers can be used like disguises for your real telephone numbers. Depending on your tariff, it may cost you an unexpected amount to call!</p><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_numbers_in_the_United_Kingdom">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_numbers_in_the_United_Kingdom</a></p><p>(Seen on Gumtree, probably scam-vertisements.)</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-78557335282505928442008-08-08T21:11:00.003+01:002008-08-08T21:29:59.072+01:00Sucata Run 2008<p>In less than two weeks, myself and two of my good mates, Edd and Jay, are going on the <a href="http://www.sucatarun.com/">Sucata Run</a>, a banger tour from <a href="http://www.sucatarun.com/route.html">Rouen to Cabo da Roca</a>. We picked up <a href="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170246123813&ssPageName=ADME:B:BCA:GB:1123">our car</a> on eBay, a totally clapped out Alfa Romeo 155 with 140,000 miles on it and built in dog smell.</p><p>The event is a fundraising gig for <a href="http://www.gemin-i.org/">Gemin-i.org</a> in its third year having started in 2006. We are trying to raise £1,000 for the charity, which helps to bring communications IT to kids in developing countries. You can read all about <a href="http://www.gemin-i.org/story.php">their story on their website</a>. If you feel like donating any amount to the cause, then please visit our Justgiving page: <a href="http://www.justgiving.com/the-fail-mobile">justgiving.com/the-fail-mobile</a>. It’s really easy to donate, and the money goes straight to the charity with added <a href="http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/gift-aid.htm">Gift Aid</a> if you pay tax!</p><p style="font-size: 300%; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.justgiving.com/the-fail-mobile">justgiving.com/the-fail-mobile</a></p><p>We are <em>The Fail-Mobile</em>, and it’s going to be an adventure of epic proportions!</p><p>Thanks loads!</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-21986449794710372242008-07-19T19:23:00.001+01:002008-07-19T19:25:23.608+01:00You’ve Been Framed!<p><a href="http://www.itv.com/Entertainment/comedy/YouveBeenFramed/default.html"><em>You’ve Been Framed</em></a> is funny again... thanks to Harry Hill! Get it watched!</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-46541366774372020712008-07-15T23:07:00.002+01:002008-07-16T00:08:28.969+01:00“SoCo for everyone?”<p>There’s a new Southern Comfort advert doing the rounds in the UK, subtitled “For Picture-Perfect Nights”.</p><p>The spot places absolutely no focus on the qualities of the drink itself, instead choosing to portray the scene of a trendy club playing trendy rock music, in which lots of pretty guys and girls flirt, dance, and order trendy mixers for each other.</p><p>Right, look. I am pretty libertarian in political orientation, so I’m hardly going to argue that glamorizing alcohol use on TV should be banned. Let’s be reasonable, the advert’s on after the watershed, it carries the “Drink Aware” badge, and we all know that susceptible kids who are unable to enforce their own limits are long since tucked up in bed. (Hah!) I’m sure the angry letters have already been sent to the <acronym title="Advertising Standards Authority">ASA</acronym>, so there’s no need to go down that route. But, what I find incredible is that this advert so purely and remorselessly promotes the recreational use of drugs, and because it’s “only” alcohol, that somehow makes it OK.</p><p>This double standard is beginning to grate me now. It is widely accepted amongst those with the credentials (I make no stronger claim than that) that alcohol use is much more harmful both directly to the human body and to society in general than many of the drugs we currently outlaw (<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5230006.stm">BBC report</a>). Why, then, is it still illegal for me to drop a couple of E’s at a rave, whilst Big Alcohol are allowed to actively pimp the entirely functional aspect of spirit-strength alcoholic drinks on prime time TV?</p><p>The alcohol and tobacco industry lobbyists have it so well embedded in popular opinion that everyone else’s drugs are bad. They are <em>loving</em> their cozy little duopoly on recreational intoxication. What does it take for sanity to prevail?</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-40301303946091778552008-07-01T18:44:00.003+01:002008-07-01T19:11:44.500+01:00Post Offices<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7483036.stm">BBC News reports</a> on the newly announced Post Office closures in various counties in the North East of England. 57 of them are due to be shut in the near future, pending a six-week consultation.</p><p>As I watched the report on BBC Look North, in which a pretty respectable gathering of protesters had assembled at one of the closing branches, I couldn’t help but notice that almost every single one of the people in the crowd had white hair.</p><p>Have you ever been to a Post Office? Whenever I go to one to post a parcel or whatever, the place always seems to be crammed with old people, it takes about 20 minutes to get through the queue, during which I have to endure a robot man and woman repeat the phrase “Cashier number twelve, please.”, or variations of, over and over again, and then I have to pay “Large Letter” postage because my marginally elongated birthday card is, unfortunately, slightly exceeding one of Royal Mail’s f***ing <a href="http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump2?catId=400105&mediaId=47500706">arbitrary dimensions</a>.</p><p>So what exactly is it about Post Offices that old people are so obsessed with? They are shit, and you can do everything you would need to do regularly at any number of other newsagents, corner shops or supermarkets. For pensions, can’t they be paid by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BACS">BACS</a> by now? If not, why not?</p><p>Answers on a post card, please. (Blog comments also read.)</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22921237.post-51270565847415160422008-06-25T15:26:00.006+01:002008-06-25T16:57:49.266+01:00What is Nokia is up to?<p>They have the open source <a href="http://maemo.org/">Maemo</a> platform, which they’re already using in moderately successful devices such as the <a href="http://www.nseries.com/products/n800/#l=products,n800">N800</a>.</p><p>In January, <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/28/nokia-acquires-trolltech-the-biggest-little-company-youve-ne/">they acquired</a> <a href="http://trolltech.com/">Trolltech</a>, whose technologies (which power <a href="http://www.kde.org/">KDE</a>) are more-or-less competitors to those already in the Maemo platform (those used by <a href="http://www.gnome.org/">GNOME</a>). Seems like an odd position already.</p><p>And only yesterday, <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/24/nokia-buys-symbian/">they announce</a> that they are acquiring <a href="http://www.symbian.com/">Symbian</a> and handing Symbian OS <em>et al</em> over to the newly-formed <a href="http://symbianfoundation.org/">Symbian Foundation</a>, i.e. they’re opening up the source code.</p><p>You know the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo">grey goo</a> doomsday scenario? Seems like Nokia is just swallowing up as much stuff as it can and turning it into open source goo.</p><p>While I guess it’s a good day for software freedom in general, I can’t help but feel a little dejected by the lack of focus on and commitment to Maemo by Nokia. But with <a href="http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/">OHA Android</a>, <a href="http://www.limofoundation.org/">LiMo</a> and <a href="http://www.openmoko.com/">OpenMoko</a> all looking to win the hearts of developers and consumers alike, perhaps Nokia is right to feel the need to have three independent, (if incompatible) software stacks in its arsenal.</p>alexweejhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11159200671717833258noreply@blogger.com0