Migrating from an FTP custom domain to blogspot.com and maintaining Google links

So you may have noticed that the web address of this blog has changed yet again. I think this is now the site's third URL since I started the blog three and a half years ago, and I try to maintain some kind of continuity and functionality each time something here changes.

This change was forced upon me by Blogger, who have decided in their infinite wisdom to depreciate the option to publish your blog by FTP. This meant I could still use Blogger software, but had to switch the address the blog was at from http://jephso.spheresofchaos.co.uk/blog/ to a different, custom sub-domain or to using Blogger's free blogspot.com service. At first I wanted to switch services to Tumblr, but that had no feature to import my past posts from Blogger. Next I tried Wordpress, but their import feature didn't work, only importing about 5 of my posts. Also, you can't use custom templates on Wordpress very easily, so, as you can see, in the end I stayed with Blogger and went with a new URL of http://jephso.blogspot.com/.

But many of my pages get a lot of hits from Google, and so I wanted to make sure I didn't lose my recognition from Google in the switch. I also wanted to redirect my feed, so that anyone subscribed to the old feed (http://jephso.spheresofchaos.co.uk/blog/rss.xml) would be directed to the new one (http://jephso.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss).

Accurate redirects would mean that users would actually reach the content they were looking for, and apparently having accurate redirects helps Google update itself with your new page locations - one of the annoying things about having to switch is that Google no longer knows where your pages are until it has crawled them, which can take a while, and so the custom Google search tool on the right of my blog no longer works. This should become useful again once Google has crawled all my pages though.

Apparently Blogger will unveil a tool to migrate everything automatically for you soon, but it's not available yet. So in the hope that this info may be of benefit to others who are making the switch, here's what I did:

At first I redirected the feed by placing a .htaccess file in the jephso.spheresofchaos.co.uk directory which simply said:

Redirect 301 /rss.xml http://jephso.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

I then placed another .htaccess file in the jephso.spheresofchaos.co.uk/blog directory which said:

Redirect 301 / http://jephso.blogspot.com/

That directed all traffic from from my old posts to the new homepage. But I wanted to maintain page-to-page links, so that someone clicking on a Google link to one of my posts would go to the exact post they clicked on, rather than just the blog homepage. After playing around with .htaccess files for a while I found that simply placing the following .htaccess file in the jephso.spheresofchaos.co.uk directory did the trick:

Redirect 301 /blog/ http://jephso.blogspot.com/

Now when a user clicked on one of my old posts from Google they would be directed to the same post, but at its new location. One more problem though. At some point Blogger must have changed the way URLs for labels are formed. On my old blog a list of posts under one label, for example, books, would be listed at http://jephso.spheresofchaos.co.uk/blog/labels/books.html. But on my new blogspot.com blog it's listed under http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/books/. There didn't seem to be a quick-fix solution to solve this, so I created manual redirects for each label, resulting in a big .htaccess file that looks like this:

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/art.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/art/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/blogging.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/blogging/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/books.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/books/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/driving.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/driving/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/drums.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/drums/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/film.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/film/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/food.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/food/

Redirect 301 "/blog/labels/gamewave podcast.html" http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/gamewave%20podcast/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/gigs.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/gigs/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/internet.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/internet/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/japan.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/japan/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/japanese.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/japanese/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/job.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/job/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/music.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/music/

Redirect 301 "/blog/labels/pterodactyl squad.html" http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/pterodactyl%20squad/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/reaction__review.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/reaction%2Freview/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/sheffield.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/sheffield/

Redirect 301 "/blog/labels/spheres of chaos.html" http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/spheres%20of%20chaos/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/sport.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/sport/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/t-shirts.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/t-shirts/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/technology.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/technology/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/travel.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/travel/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/tv.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/tv/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/university.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/university/

Redirect 301 "/blog/labels/video games.html" http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/video%20games/

Redirect 301 /blog/labels/weather.html http://jephso.blogspot.com/search/label/weather/

Redirect 301 /blog/ http://jephso.blogspot.com/

Redirect 301 /rss.xml http://jephso.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Note that the order of the redirects is important. As browsers check the top entry first, you want specific redirects towards the top, then more general ones towards the bottom. Also note that if you have spaces or other punctuation in your webpages, you may need to add equivalent code or put speech marks around the addresses, or else they won't be read properly.

I then went to Google and searched site:jephso.spheresofchaos.co.uk/blog/ to find all the links Google has to my old site. When doing this for yourself, remember to clear your browser's cache every time you make changes to the .htaccess file for the changes to be picked up.

Now all the old links run through to my new blog, and the new links should be picked up by Google soon. To be honest, this whole palaver has got me back into regular blogging again. I just hope Blogger don't decide to change anything again anytime soon, as this blog is now in its third incarnation. Classic templates (which I use for this blog) could be the next thing to go, but everything's sorted for now. And if you haven't subscribed to the new feed yet, make sure you do at http://jephso.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss.

My top 100 songs in iTunes by play count

Click for large

A few surprises in here. More Arctic Monkeys and Pulley than I thought there would be, but that's never a bad thing.

Rage Against The Machine at Christmas no. 1 2009

Rage Against The Machine taking the Christmas no. 1 spot with their track Killing In The Name this year is one of the greatest news stories ever written. A cover of a Disney-approved slow ballad, sung by the winner of a TV talent show vs. a profanity-ridden manifesto on anti-authoritarianism written by a political rap metal band in the slums of LA. I've been watching this campaign and the buzz surrounding it intently since first hearing about it, and I jumped out of my chair and air guitar-ed around the room this evening when we found out that the band had reached number 1.

I'm a big fan of RATM. I've written about them a few times on this blog before, and I got to see the band perform last year at Leeds Festival. RATM's drummer, Brad Wilk, has been quite an influence on my personal drumming style, and the band's self-titled album, which contains Killing In The Name is one of my all-time favourite albums (so I already own the track in question on CD, but I bought the track through iTunes to participate and contribute to this great campaign). I wouldn't call myself political, but listening to RATM definitely made me more aware of the social and political issues our generation has grown up with and is still facing now. And musically, the band were, at their peak, highly original and innovative.

I think there are three levels of positives we can take from RATM's chart success. First of all, it's highly novel and quite hilarious that 1992's Killing In The Name, possibly one of the most offensive and un-mainstream songs every recorded, has reached the top of the charts in the UK at Christmas. And that the band who recorded this song is Rage Against The Machine, an openly anti-establishment band who sound nothing like the other 39 songs in the top 40 right now. This is a song that all fans of rock music know, due to its use of the F-word 17 times and its strong anti-authoritarian message. It embodies RATM's message in 5 minutes of rap, metal and funk.

One of the most interesting aspects of this whole campaign has been RATM being covered by the media over the past week. For most UK citizens these four guys are just some rock band who have spoilt the party this week by preventing X Factor winner, Joe McElderry from reaching the top spot at Christmas. But I've been getting quite a kick out of seeing one of my favourite bands covered and handled by the British media, as their success has become the main talking point of the week throughout the nation. One of the highlights of my week was RATM's appearance on BBC Radio 5 Live on Thursday morning when they were invited to perform via live link on the breakfast show. I would have never expected 5 Live to allow the band on their show - for one, 5 Live isn't a music radio station, and they should have known better than to ask a band as rebellious and unpredictable as RATM to perform for their listeners. The band had been asked to perform a censored version of their track, but went ahead with the album version, repeating the infamous F-word line four times before the transmission was cut. I've been pleased though that the BBC haven't avoided the band because of their political nature, as some big corporations might (although some might say the BBC were glad that RATM displaced a product of a very successful ITV show).

The second level of positives I'm taking from this relates to the musical nature of RATM. I'm a big fan of rock music, but pop music not so much. I mean, some pop music is musically OK, but the issues here run a bit deeper than that. Rock music has typically always been a rebellious, explosive form of music and has never been truly mainstream during recent times. Pop music represents the music of the mainstream and so there's a big dichotomy between the two. I don't listen to the charts or watch X Factor, or even take an interest in such things because they are so far removed from what I feel music is, and how it's a part of my life. So this is the first time I and many others all over the UK will have taken an interest in the charts in years, because, usually, it just doesn't represent us. And so it feels great to "take over" something as mainstream as the pop charts with a rebellious rock song and triumph over expectations, even if it's just for one week. In fact, I wouldn't want bands like RATM to become mainstream, because that would take away the alternative and subversive aesthetic attached to rock music.

(RATM broke two records with this week's success (first single ever to reach the top of the charts on download sales alone, and biggest download sales total in a first week ever), and it's interesting to note that these records were broken by a rock band, rather than the usual acts who make up the top 40 every Sunday)

The third, and possibly most important, set of positives to take from this experience relates to the way that this whole effort was so grassroots and anti-authority, but gathered a group of music fans together to topple the product of a TV show which had attracted close to 20 million viewers. This campaign really embodied the spirit of RATM, and I wonder if it would have been possible had it been any other band. This whole affair could be the most important legacy the band leaves, and is a concrete example of the power of the people, as it has really stirred a rebel passion within the UK, and the belief that large groups of people can make a difference. If our generation can do something as trivial as get RATM to the Christmas no. 1, what power do we have to make other kinds of political and social changes in our society?

Rage Against The Machine aren't a perfect band. I do have my own questions about some of their choices in the past, such as their decision to sign to the major label Sony, but I think they have helped create one of the most interesting news stories of recent times, and certainly something I'll never forget. I'm looking forward to hearing about details of the band fulfilling their promise of coming to play a show in the UK, now that they've reached number 1. A whole tour would be better, as I imagine it would be extremely hard to get tickets for just one show, now that the band have had a resurgence in popularity, and gained many new fans no doubt. I found it interesting though when Tom Morello said in an interview that the UK was the first place that RATM really started to "gain friction" as a band. Maybe the British people do have a natural rebellious nature - I can't imagine too many other nations where an upset like this might happen. The widespread popularity of punk in the 1970s also springs to mind, and this whole campaign has given me positivity and hope in some way for the future of the UK.

Neuromancer film

I just came across this piece of news about a film adaptation of William Gibson's cyberpunk novel Neuromancer. I recently read Neuromancer for the first time and it was quite unlike any other book I've ever read, largely due to its unique narrative style, which I found really hard to follow. Gibson doesn't paint a full picture of what's happening in his story, rather he prefers to give you bits and pieces, and expects the reader to fill in the blanks. And while this makes the story quite exciting and fast-paced at times, I found it frustrating for the most part, especially when I'd leave a few days in between reading, so the story and situations weren't always fresh in my mind. It'd be interesting to hear what anyone else who's read the story has to say about this.

Saying all that though, the story itself and all the technological implications of the book were intriguing, and to say it was written in 1984 the book was quite a visionary work in regard to computers and 'cyberspace'. So I found myself wishing that the story was a film, as then I wouldn't have had any difficultly understanding and visualising what was going on. I'll be on the lookout for this film.

Old photos

I spent much of today looking at family photos as my dad had brought down 3 boxes full of old photo albums from the loft. Photos are so crazy, and really cool, capturing a moment forever and all that.

There were photos of me from being a baby all the way up until a few years ago, and I had so much fun looking back at the places I've been and the things I've done, as well as all the different hairstyles and fashions I've sported. There were some photos of my parents and relatives before I was born too, and that was interesting, seeing what my parents were like in the 80s, and then how my grandparents were in the 70s.

Photos are really important. I mean, you shouldn't get stuck in the past or anything, but I think it's good to look back to the past and remember how things were, as the past is always a massive part of who we are now.

There were no photos in our albums from the last 4 years though, and that must be because of digital cameras. Digital photos don't tend to get printed out, and I think that's a shame in a way, as photos are now less physical, which can be part of their charm. Plus, I find photos which have been taken by non-digital means often just look better.

Saying that though, digital cameras are good because they're so easy to use, and cost-effective, and so encourage us to take more pictures. And although it is easy to get obsessed with photos these days (especially with things like Facebook and MySpace), I think taking lots of photos and being able to look back on them is a good thing.

Weird weather

The weather's been crazy recently. It's warm and sunny one moment, then raining really heavily the next. I think it even hailed yesterday. I do hope we start to get some prolonged sunshine sometime soon, but the forecast for the next few days doesn't look too promising. When we do get some nice weather though there's this massive area of hills and fields near my parents' house that I'd like to explore. I meant to do it last summer, but never got round to it. Maybe this year.

I got my phone back again the other day. Dial-a-Phone said they'd send us a new one, but they haven't - it's just my old one repaired. But as long as it doesn't break again I'll be happy, and it seems to be OK so far.

I got an email from StarWars.com today telling me that they've just redesigned their website, partly in preparation for the new TV series and movie based around the Clone Wars.

I used to be really, really into Star Wars, and I especially remember one summer only 3 years ago when I spent a lot of time on the message boards, debating about everything Star Wars related. I remember I knew so much about Star Wars, but I bet I've forgotten it all now 'cos I just haven't been paying attention to it recently. I suppose not that much has been happening, but I was surprised to see that The Clone Wars movie comes out in just over a month's time. I knew they were making a TV series about the Clone Wars, but I didn't know they were making a film. I'm not excited for it or anything though. I find the whole Clone Wars storyline pretty boring - just a load of politics. And they already made a cartoon series about it all. That was OK actually, but wasn't that enough? Also, the new TV series and movie are both fully computer animated, which isn't very fun, and then combine that with the fact that Lucas hasn't really produced anything that decent since 1983. I am looking forward to the live-action TV series they're making though. That should be good, although we're gonna have to wait at least a couple years more for that.

Finally, I just released the newest Gamewave Podcast episode. We recorded it using a Talkboy, and I'm guessing we're the first people to ever do that. Check it out at gamewavepodcast.com.

I return!

I must apologise for the lack of updates over the past two weeks. The reason for this is that my PC broke, and I've only just got it working again. There was a problem with the power button which meant I couldn't turn the PC on at all, and while it only needed a new wire, getting it fixed became more complicated than that.

First I contacted Ebuyer whom I bought the case from just under a year ago, and they told me to get in touch with Asus, the manufacturer. So I emailed Asus and they said to go back to Ebuyer. Ebuyer then said they'd send me a spare part, but when they couldn't find one said I needed to send the case in for repair. Once they got hold of it they said the problem couldn't be fixed and that they'd send me a new case, but I'd sent my PC in with all the other components still inside - processor, disk drive etc. So they sent me back a new case and all my others parts in another box. But they sent them to my old house where I'd originally ordered the case from a year ago, not my current address! Luckily we kind of know the people who live in our old house, so we went round today and picked up the packages, and I've just re-fitted everything back inside, and it all seems to be working fine. I've never built a PC on my own before (I had someone help me last time), but I just followed the instructions that came with the case, and there've been no fires or explosions yet.

To be fair, Ebuyer were really good about the whole incident actually though. I found it very easy to get through to a human when I phoned them up, they kept me updated about everything, they've replaced the case free of charge and they even wrapped up my components in anti-static packaging when they sent them back.

But get this: OK, so it's bad enough not having a PC for a couple of weeks, but guess what - my phone broke! Again! I'm sure I have some sort of electronics curse - everything just keeps breaking, which has left me annoyed, bored and cut off from the outside world.

I have done a few cool things recently though. I've been reading a fair bit and playing lots of GameCube, and my band went into a recording studio on Wednesday. It was the first time we've done that, as we normally just record everything ourselves, but we all really enjoyed the experience, and got loads done. We recorded some stuff for an upcoming compilation we're going to be part of, and it was a lot less stressful than recording ourselves, and higher sound quality too.

Fortunately, I do now have a phone which my parents confiscated from my sister while I wait for mine to get repaired (this time by Dial-a-Phone). But don't tell her I have her phone - she's not supposed to know.

I'm really glad my PC's working again though, and I've got a lot to catch up on - two weeks is a long time on the internet.

Also, this is my 150th post - cool!

Phone troubles

My phone broke a good few weeks ago now, and I only just got it back yesterday. It's been really annoying not having a phone to use, but even worse was trying to get it fixed.

First, we tried contacting Dial-a-Phone, the company that we bought it from, and they said they'd send a pre-paid envelope thing in the post for us to send the phone back to them. But after waiting for a while, nothing came, so I decided to take the phone to The Carphone Warehouse, who send broken Nokia phones back to Nokia for repair. When I took it to them, the guy told me it would take 8-9 days and they'd let me know when it was ready to pick up, which didn't sound too bad. But after a few days they phoned and said that the problem was quite hard to fix, so they'd be sending it along to another repair centre. Then we didn't hear anything for another week or so, so we phoned them, and apparently the phone hadn't actually been sent along when it should have, so everything had been delayed. Then we heard that the phone was irreparable and I'd be getting a new one. By this time, the envelopes which Dial-a-Phone had sent had arrived at our house, and they said that if we'd have sent it to them they'd have sent me a new one straight away.

I had to keep phoning The Carphone Warehouse up every few days to find out what was going on, and when I'd get through to a human they'd always say the phone would be ready to pick up in 2 or 3 days. I looked online and a lot of other people seem to have had a similar experience with Nokia repairs, and what's most frustrating is that there's nothing you can really do, except phone them up constantly and hope it gets sorted.

Well, eventually I phoned up yesterday and it had finally been sent back for me to go and pick up. So I went, and it wasn't a new phone as they'd said, and it wasn't my old one either - it looks like someone else's repaired phone - but after weeks without one, I'm just glad to have a phone again.

This whole thing has been pretty annoying - first, the fact that the phone broke, and second, that it took so long to get back to me. I'll definitely think twice about buying from Nokia next time, and I guess the long and short of it is, if your Nokia ever breaks, don't send it through The Carphone Warehouse.

Phone and camera

So my new phone broke a couple of weeks ago now. Some of the buttons stopped working and then it turned itself off. It's been really hard to do anything about it, especially as it was my dad that bought it and not me. But in the end I took it to The Carphone Warehouse at Meadowhall yesterday, as they can send it off to Nokia for a repair under warranty, and it'll take 8-9 days they said.

It's been kinda liberating not having a phone, but mostly just annoying, having to use Facebook all the time to arrange stuff with people.

The main reason I'd actually gone to Meadowhall was to buy a new camera from Jessops, where my mate works. I'd been wanting to get a decent digital camera before I go to Japan, and upon recommendation I decided on the Nikon Coolpix S210. I'm just charging the battery up now and haven't had a chance to use it yet, but it's meant to be pretty good.

I think photos are becoming more and more important these days. Maybe it's because of things like Flickr and Facebook. People seem to want to take them all the time. They are a good idea though - you'll probably see a few more pictures on here from now on.

A new phone

Quite unexpectedly, I now have a new mobile phone - my dad said I could have my brother's, after he kept using more minutes or texts than he was allowed! It's a Nokia 6300 - a nice upgrade from my 3220, which was starting to look a bit worse for wear. I realised I've had that one for 3 years now, as I got in in a promotion for Star Wars Episode III back in 2005.

But this new one is nice and shiny, has a big, clear display and a fairly good camera function, which means I'll probably hold off buying a digital camera for the moment.

I don't usually care too much about mobile phones, but this one is pretty cool, and it's a Nokia again, which is good. Plus, it's on a contract which my dad is paying for, so I won't have to buy any credit myself - all in all, a good deal! I'm just in that annoying transition phase between phones at the moment.

I sent off my Pokémon Gold cart to get a new battery today. After I'd phoned them up, I had to wait for Nintendo (or CoDEStorm, who deal with their customer service in the UK) to send me a reference sheet thing through the post, which you then attach to the front of your envelope and send back. It just has your case number and stuff on, but grants you free postage, which is nice.

Pokémon Gold problems

The other day I finally got round to making a start on Pokémon Gold, which I bought a few weeks ago for my GBA SP. I played for about an hour and then saved my game, but the next day when I turned the game on there was no option to continue from where I'd finished. I tried starting another game and saving, but when I turned on and off the save file was lost again.

I figured that the save battery inside the cart must have died. I remember my friend mentioning he'd lost the ability to save on his copy of Gold recently too, and after doing a bit of research this seems to be a universal problem with all Gold and Silver carts. Released in Europe in April 2001, I'd forgotten just how old these games are, and it seems that the save batteries all died around 2006. I believe this relatively short life span is due to the use of an oscillator which controls the in-game clock, using up battery power. So whilst versions of Pokémon Red and Blue were released before Gold and Silver, the battery has lasted longer because of the absence of an in-game clock (although the batteries in Red and Blue will go eventually - probably sometime soon, if not already).

But I wasn't about to give up on playing Pokémon Gold, and I found a really useful message board thread which details how to replace the battery yourself. The batteries they recommend are fairly expensive though, so I wondered if Nintendo could replace the battery for me instead.

Repairs for GBC games aren't mentioned on the Nintendo UK website, but I phoned up and found out that it would cost £15 to replace the battery, which is kinda expensive, but not too bad. The guy was quite nice about the whole thing, and understood the problem. I think it's good that they do provide this service, but maybe Nintendo should have foreseen the whole problem and done something about it, as 5 or 6 years isn't a very long life-span for a game as awesome as Pokémon Gold. It's also a shame for people who've built up a good collection of Pokémon to lose everything, although there are a couple of ways around this. You could either transfer all your monsters to a game such as Pokémon Colosseum, or it should also be possible to replace a save battery whilst the cart is hooked up to an external power supply, so as not to lose the save data, but that could be quite tricky.

Anyway, I'm gonna post my cart off to Nintendo soon, and I think it'll get sent to Germany to be fixed before being sent back to me within 3 weeks time. But I hope it's sooner than that - I really want to play this game!

BBC iPlayer

The BBC have now released the BBC iPlayer (a shamefully unoriginal name, although maybe that's how everything is gonna be named from now on (I hope not, 'cos I don't like words that start with lower case letters, makes me feel uneasy)), a response to Channel 4's 4oD, although I believe the BBC were the first to start researching this kind of thing. TV on demand is great, and I think it's fair to say that the BBC have a higher quality of programming than Channel 4. I've already checked out a couple of shows, and it's interesting that the iPlayer works from your browser like YouTube, rather than having to download a whole application like 4oD. Playing from your browser is quicker, and you don't need an account either.

What's with all the short blog posts lately? I dunno, guess I don't have much time anymore. Revision for my Japanese exams is progressing nicely along its planned trajectory, but I'm not too stoked about the speaking test that's coming up.

Oh, and it's still raining.

家に帰る

I've just returned to my parents' house for Christmas. I'm glad to be back for a bit, and I'm going to try and take a break from studying for a few days, which I haven't done in months.

I got both my essays in on time, and I'm pleased with how they turned out. I think I'm starting to understand what makes a good essay a bit more now. But all that essaying meant I had to neglect the Japanese language part of my course, so I'm gonna have to do some catching up over the break.

Wireless internet is great. I unpacked my PC after bringing it back from my place, and I'm connected to the 'net in only a few minutes. It's crazy, but awesome. Crazy awesome.

Internet!

We now have internet at the new house which makes me a happy guy. It's been over 3 weeks! I can feel the warm blood of the internet coursing back into my veins as all the updates come flooding in.

I want a Wii

My friend came to stay over for a few days recently and brought his GameCube for us to play on. We played Super Smash Bros. Melee, F-Zero GX and Mario Kart: Double Dash mainly, but I was reminded of how many awesome GameCube games there are.

I had an old memory card with a Super Smash Bros. Melee save which I've kept since me and my brother got rid of our GameCube. I had a go at finally getting the last 3 trophies I need on the game, but I didn't manage to complete my collection before my friend had to leave. I really want a Wii now so I can play some of the great games from the 'Cube. I think I'll trade in my DS Lite somewhere in town, as I hardly ever play on it anymore, but I don't quite have enough cash yet to afford a Wii.

The other main reason I want a Wii is so I can play Super Smash Bros. Brawl when it's released. I've been keeping an eye on the website, and some of the most interesting updates include a new deeper one player mode and three awesome looking new stages: Lylat Cruise, Skyworld and Smashville, an Animal Crossing themed stage with real-time night and day as well as performances from K. K. Slider at 8PM on a Saturday!

I've been using Linux for a couple of weeks now and I must say I'm quite impressed. Getting functionality out of Ubuntu has been fairly easy for the most part. Usually if there's a problem Ubuntu will fix it itself, or there's often a solution online. Whilst the interface isn't quite as crisp as I'm used to in Windows and it's sometimes hard work dealing with terminal commands when you're not used to them, I'd really like to switch to solely using Ubuntu. You just don't get that sense of hopeless frustation you do with Windows; it feels like the OS is on your side. There are just a couple of small problems or vital issues though which mean I still tend to use Windows more. Hopefully I'll get there one day.

A program I'd heard about but hadn't had the chance to use before I'd installed Linux was Rezound. It's an audio editor, much like Audacity, which I'm used to. I don't know how to work the program properly yet, but there seems to be some features which Audacity doesn't have, and I might end up using it for all my audio work. It really baffles me that people create such great programs for free, all in the name of Open Source.

New PC, new job!

So I recently bought a new PC. I've wanted to put together my own system for a while, so with the help of a friend I ordered all the parts and we put it together.

Here's a brief list of specs: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ processor, 1.5GB RAM, Asus T3-M2NC51PV AM2 case and motherboard, Asus EAX300SE-X TD 128MB DVI-D/VGA PCI-E graphics card and a Western Digital 160GB hard drive.

Although I'm having a few problems I'm pleased with how it's all turned out. I've installed both Windows Vista and Ubuntu. I've never really used Linux before, but it seems fairly intuitive so far.

Also, I started my new job yesterday at a hotel in Sheffield city centre. I'm involved in the catering side of things, so I'm serving food, setting tables etc. It feels good to finally have a job, although the work won't be all that regular. I gather I'll only be required when big functions take place.

Duck Hunt on an LCD TV

My friend just lent me a copy of Duck Hunt for the NES and a Zapper. Unfortunately, the light gun doesn't work on our big LCD HD TV. Apparently this is because refresh rates are handled in a different way on LCD screens. In fact, all NES games looks quite bad on our TV - much like a pixellated JPEG - probably because of some anti-alias nonsense. Here's to CRT TVs.

ブログ ポスト

The title of this post is "blog post" in Japanese. A couple of friends recently told me how to type in Japanese using Windows XP. It's quite simple to get the hang of, although it's a slightly strange system, mainly because Japanese and keyboards aren't all that compatible. It could be quite useful in my studies, especially with spellings and kanji.

Last night I was in town and missed the last tram. Here in Sheffield trams are useful most of the time, but the last tram is always before midnight, which means you can't stay out in town all that late. And living far away from the city centre means that I use the trams very often. After realising I had missed the last tram I phoned a couple of friends to see if I could stay over at their places in town, but no answer. So I decided to catch a taxi home and I quite enjoyed it actually. Taxis are like going to the hairdressers, the whole experience feels quite personal, if expensive. I'll be moving out next year to a house much nearer to the city centre, and hopefully I won't have to rely on trams any more.

Various recent events

Recently I have become involved with a site called Yahoo! Answers. It's a site where users post any question they like and then receive answers from the other members. People ask some really ambiguous and obscure questions on topics from music to health care to language, but that's what makes it all the more enjoyable. Often when I've Googled an obscure or specific search I have been presented with this site, and it's really interesting to read how people answer all these questions, often really well. I believe that Google ran a similar service a few years back, but it was shut down last year. I'd thought about joining in Yahoo! Answers before, as I already have a Yahoo! account, and finally did last weekend. I now find myself voraciously looking for questions that I can answer. I think it's a combination of showing off and a desire to help out a fellow human in need. There are forums all over the internet, but this site reduces the socialising aspect and just enables people to find an answer to their question really quickly.

We got a new piece of wireless technology delivered to our house yesterday. It's called the BT Home Hub, and after setting it up I've realised that it's a wireless router and modem in one box (you wouldn't have been able to tell from the instructions). We were already using a Linksys system in our house, which I invested quite a bit of money and time in setting up, but we now need this piece of equipment to enable us to use the new BT service we've subscribed to. The system was actually really easy to set up, very user-friendly and simple compared to the Linksys equipment, but I feel that my options are slightly limited - there's little room for customisation. Obviously, this has been done so that anyone can set up the system in a short space of time and with little knowledge, but I wonder whether this may limit somehow what is possible. I have no real reason to complain yet though, as everything works fine.

As we had changed our wireless system slightly I tried out Mario Kart DS with the new settings. It still worked, and I managed to sign up for an online game with 3 others relatively quickly. I'm quite surprised that people are still playing Mario Kart DS - it was really cool at first, but the match-up system leaves a lot to be desired, and opponents who often quit has meant that I only play the game online very rarely.

My band and I have recently had to organise a show in our home town for us and a band who are friends of ours. We'd never done this before, but in the end it was actually really easy - we just turned up at a bar and spoke to the guy who owned the place and everything was sorted within 5 minutes. If all goes well, which it should, we'll probably be doing a lot more shows soon.

Internet exploring

The more I use the internet the more I understand the genius of the whole concept. I mean right now we take the internet totally for granted and in the last decade it really has changed how the world works. Everything is accessible and it makes our lives a lot easier and enjoyable.

I remember how excited I was back in the days of dial-up when we first got the internet at our house - I knew it would be an extremely useful and fun tool. Now things have progressed and wireless is just about the norm, which is even better. I find it amazing that we can access so much information and so many services through the air. It doesn't quite make sense, but it's been something that civilisation has been building up to. Humans like to be connected and the internet allows this in so many easy and enjoyable ways. Just look at old science fiction to see that a common perception of the future is as a time when everyone and everything is inter-related in some way.

I spend so much time on the internet now, that it has become more than a routine. It's very rare that I will spend a day without using the internet in some way. So many of my interests are invested in the internet. It's allowed me to do things I would otherwise never have been able to do and I've made some great connections and friends. And things can only carry on improving to the point where the internet becomes as essential or as everyday as eating and sleeping. I predict that the internet will keep simplifying and expanding until practically everything is dependent upon it.

One of the things I love about the internet is that it's so easy to distribute information to other people. Like this blog for instance. I'm just sat at my PC typing out my thoughts, which I can then upload for anyone who wants to read them. And I love web design. I'm not great at it, but I really enjoy the fact that I can type a load of code and then, magically, it's transformed into a hopefully attractive, imaginative piece of work. My life would be so dull without the internet, basically a mass of electronic data which holds all kinds of useful information, all connected together, all 1s and 0s.

Thanks Al.

Further reading: Internet map