Nik Nak’s Daily Teaser — 8-3-2020: The CD

8th March, 2020.

Yes: I’ve got one last birthday present to come.

Dinner with the family, today.

At a little place in town I’ve never heard of.

It should be good.

~≈Ç≈~

Talking of which … ?

I went up to Brentwood Library, yesterday.   To reassure myself the laptop could connect up to the Library’s wi-fi.

It could.

I know I was … ummm … poking around, as well.

And cam across this page.

https://piratebay.surf/

Don’t bother trying to connect to it, you won’t with out a copy of TorBrowser.

Basically?

The link is a proxy — an indirect connection — to Pirate Bay.

Pirate Bay?   Allows us to download torrent files: specialised files that let you download various types of content.

Usually in conjunction with a torrent client: the type of app that does the downloading.

I downloaded the version of Ubuntu on my laptop via a torrent file, to give you an example.

But, famously?   The Torrent technique can also be used to download copyrighted material — movies, TV shows, what have you — for free: from sites like Pirate Bay, KAT, LimeTorrent, and the recently reestablished Demonoid.

So — in line with a pair of court orders from a few years ago — internet service providers are supposed to block access to them, and their proxies.

Given that?

How I managed to get through to a Pirate Bay proxy, yesterday?

I really don’t know … 

~≈Ç≈~

Nik Nak’s Daily Teaser — 11-3-2017: The ’Flu

*Bleugh* … 

Right now, that’s about the best thing I can say.

As, after all, I’ve got myself up at six: in order to get into work at eleven.

And finish at ten o’clock, tonight!

Oy … veh … 

~≈Ê≈~

That sort of sleepiness?   Is possibly something that contributed to a minor event, yesterday.

I managed to treat myself to a couple of cheap films^: Blu-ray copies of Hellraiser and Trainspotting.

Got home … 

And then, with all due thoughtlessness … ?

Put Hellraiser in the fridge.

One of these day’s I’ll put my brain into gear!

~≈Ê≈~

The Daily Teaser — 22-5-2016: Windows

Ye Gods … 

I  am glad I don’t have that sort of shift happening, today!

I’m working five in the evening: until half past nine.

I’m thankful, actually.

It means I can possibly — and sneakily — have a nap at some point, today.

Two long shifts, one after the other, are a bit heavy!

~≈†≈~

Actually … ?

Have you been watching the news?

If you have, you’d’ve seen the news of the EgyptAir plane that crashed on Thursday.

Since then?   We’ve seen reports that, apparently, smoke was detected in one of the toilets: and, not long afterwards, in the planes computer systems.

Obviously, there’s speculation about what could’ve happened.

But, ex-smoker that I am?

I’m wondering if someone on that plane sneaked into the loo to have a cigarette … which they stubbed out on the floor: setting off a catastrophic chain of events, when the stub burnt through the floor, and important bits of wiring … 

Who knows?

Certainly not me.

I just know I used to sneak into the loos for a smoke, on long trains journeys …

~≈†≈~

The Daily Teaser — 22-1-2015: Introducing Macintosh

Drat … !

Drat, I slept through my alarm, again … !

Which is awkward, as I’m working, today.

Frankly, though … ?   Frankly, I’m starting to suspect there’s something mildly wrong with the alarm clock I use.

Seemingly, I can’t reset it, that easily.

Oy heh … !

~≈Ω≈~

Pirates Of Silicon Valley: Don’t Think of It as A film …

Well …

Hmmm …

You know, it’s not often me and Adrian will watch a made for TV film.

Tonight we did, though. And I know Adrian — an even bigger open source fan than me — wasn’t too stunned that it didn’t mention Linux.

But the ten year old “Pirates Of Silicon Valley” is definitely interesting, for those of us who take an interest in technology.

It’s basically a docu-drama that follows the original founding of Apple and Microsoft, and follows them up to 1985, when Steve Jobs was fired by then Apple CEO, John Sculley; and adds a footnote about the return of Jobs, and his alliance with Microsoft, in 1997.

And it does remind us about one thing that many forget; that both Jobs and Gates are hard-headed businessmen.

One early scene has Anthony Michæl Hall as a very creepy Bill Gates negotiating a signing bonus out of the company behind the Altair. (And blatantly ‘socially engineering’ a prototype Mac, in order to copy the GUI, in a later scene.)

Not that Jobs comes off much better, although Mac fan that I am, I’m personally inclined to his side of things. I think I’m with Adrian, here; I hate to work in an atmosphere that looked like it prevailing at Apple, at the time*.

It’s interesting to see how the computer revolution of the 1970’s started, though; which makes “Pirates” worth watching — although it’s not necessarily telling me anything I didn’t know, it does tell it in a reasonably entertaining way.

And does make one wonder about the difference between the ideals we hold when young and what we end doing, later in life.

*        Whether he’s got a point about open source operating systems being the next computer revolution, I don’t know; at one end, the simple fact that we live in a Windoze dominated world means that there’s a set of standards to work to. On another, Apple manage to innovate a look quicker than their bigger rival. And on the third other hand, open source does mean that you and me can re-write, copy, hand out, whatever piece of software we want to. Guess we’ll have to see what the next few years bring. But OpenOffice.org and Firefox are only getting bigger …