Internet FX

Since the day I got the Internet, my life has changed dramatically and probably for the good; even with some bad bumps along the road. I first got the Internet on a 2GB Packard Bell (Windows 98) machine. I had that computer for 6 years until 2003 and I got a whole lot out of it, including the £200 I got for it on eBay . For 1 and a half years before I got rid of it, I had my first Internet connection installed. I was part of the World Wide Web with a 56k connection and a modem that sang the same annoying beeps every time I connected.

My ISP was NTL and the package was the one that got them into a multi-billion pound debt. They offered free internet - and they meant it. For the first year I had a completely free internet connection and for half a year I payed £5 each month. Not bad considering. The only problem with this was that while I was using the internet, the house phone didn't work - a problem most 56k-ers face today. So, I tried to install NTL's Broadband software and hardware on my '98 machine. But guess what. It wasn't compatible. An old machine doesn't like modern things. The only option? That's right: get a new computer.

So, for the 2003 Christmas, I got a brand-spanking new PC complete with 30x as much space as my 1996 Packard Bell PC. I could now install atleast 2 games on my PC! So, with this, I installed Broadband on it; no problema. To this day though I have £40 worth of NTL hardware on a shelf in my room that they never bothered to pick up. So, if any NTL-er wants a broadband modem, cables and installation CD (V1.2) gimme a bell. Anyway, for some reason unbeknown to me still, I tried my old dial-up account on the built-in 56k modem - and to my surprise my account still worked. Woo-hey! I had a backup. So, for 5 months I used my broadband and my dial-up server were there any 'upgrades' happening. And the best part? When we rang NTL to cancel the dial-up service they told us that they had no record of us ever being their customers. Result.

Anyway, enough about my life story. I want to talk about what the Internet has actually brought children, adults and politicians. For me the Internet has widened my understanding of the universe more than a teacher could teach me. The Internet has allowed me to make new, interesting friends and partners which could not have been possible through normal socializing. The Internet has allowed freedom of speech and individuality. The Internet has brought about an entirely new sub-generation of humans and moulded personalities. But the Internet has also brought bad things to my life.

Before the Internet, the only pr0n I knew about was on the top shelf of my local corner shop on page 3 of the Sun newspaper. It seems like once you've given your email address to one promotional offer to win a trip to Vegas you're bombarded with spam that, as a 12 year old, you can't read letalone pronounce. Spam that has pornographic images in them, spam that encourage the use of illegal substances such as drugs. Another bad thing the Internet has brought to me is the fact that information and multimedia is so widely available. Here we go...

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When will the word end?

The world will either end in: a) 2006 |b) 2012 |c) 2029

Do you know?

Sunny Boy
Through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray for those in need of aid around the world and specifically for those who have been affected by the recent tsunami's around Asia. Amen.

Boxing Day

As you can guess from the title it's Boxind Day - December 26th 2004. I have opened all my presents, eaten all the chocolate in my house (thankgod we don't live in a fairytale) and seen nearly every single member of my family. Personally, I am a little happier that Christmas is over but a little of me wished Christmas day was a little more than 24 hours

Work wise, I'm stuck between 3 projects. One is my short story, of which I found on some antique web space forgotton in space and time. Another is the Hubbub website which is to say the least... 'coming on'. And the final project is a paid job for an American client.

That's it for today, so have a great new year.

Sunny Boy

Chrsitmas Eve!

It's Friday the 24th December 2004 and it's Christmas Eve! But it's not the eve of Christ's (Jesus') birthday. There should be some good television programming on tonight and I've made sure I will have a good time by stocking up on three 4-packs of 2.5l Coca-Cola original and 2 bags of 'party-size' (a.k.a. 5 in a packet) malteasers. So - Merry Christmas.

There was an interesting program on last night (I think) about finding out the real date of Jesus' birth. What they did was reveal a lot of supposedly new information like that the so-called star the 3 wise men followed was actually a supanova. Unfortunately, I can't remember what they concluded because I turned over to channel 5 to watch 'Worlds Greatest Conspiricies'. There were some very thought-provoking ideas and some that were totally stupid. One of these was the conspiricy that the British Royal Family are actually a reptillian extra-terrestrial species posing as humans. I'll leave that there.

Seeing as this blog is listed as an internet programming blog, I'm going to start releasing some code every now and then - though if you want more (and i mean really more) advanced stuff head on over to Cow's Blog and take a look. Updated about twice every day on average and he actually knows what he's talking about.

I finally got Googlebar to work on Firefox 1.0 after 5 weeks of trial and error. It's goot to have Googlebar. On other browser news, the Opera browser has released an open-beta of version 8: you can get it here: http://www.opera.com/dow...index.dml?platform=windows&ver=8.00b1

Lately I seem to be addicted to the game 'Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory'. I don't know why but it is brilliant and I don't know how to stop and don't really have a reason to stop. You can get the latest and best files for the game, including the game, here: http://enemy-territory.4players.de:1041/



Well - that's about it for today. I will hopefully be posting tomorrow - not even Christmas can tear me away from the computer!

Sunny Boy

T-Minus 3 Days

It's 3 days until Chirstmas Day 2004. I don't know about you but it doesn't feel like Christmas to me. Yes - I can see all the decorations in town, in my house and even some virtual decorations on the world wide web but I just don't feel... 'Christmassy'.

Even the Mozilla website has some snowflakes in the background of the header bar - but nothing seems to make me feel jolly or excited (exicted about Christmas that it ;)). Over the past 3 Christmas' I have notices a decline in the programming on television and the overall decline in quality programming.

As you get older, the Christmas time becomes a bore and not as important as it used to be. This is not what I think it should be like. Being an adult entitles you to new things but also unentitles you to some of the old things you loved and enjoyed, such as Christmas time. I think I've just got a case of not-feeling-the-season-itus as it were. If you have any suggestions on how I can cheer myself up, please leave a comment.


Anyway, I will update you on the progress of Hubbub. It's going at a... steady pace. To be honest, I've really not been up to doing anything lately because of some social issues. I will complete it by 2008 I promise.

Untitled

As I sit here, writing this post, I am also considering my future prospects career wise and how I act and feel will interact with this future of mine. A film that I have just watched brought this up and I feel I need to express my thoughts with at least the 2 people who read my blog - and as you know expressing my feelings is not one of my strongpoints.

To my knowledge, there are about 200-300 objects in and around our solar system that government agencies like NASA and the ESA are tracking. These objects are special because they represent a danger to life on Earth - do you think these agencies would waste their money tracking inatimate objects the size of a bungalow? Anyway, I'm going to talk about the what's, the if's and the maybe's.

The film, you might have guessed by now was Armageddon. Maybe not the best representation of the real-life event but a representation good enough to get people thinking - including me. Now, in the film, one of these dangerous objects (an asteroid) is at the size where wherever it lands, all life on Earth will be wiped out. Now this may sound a bit odd and, very, unlikely. But, this could be the case - look what happened to the dinosaurs (even though not all life was wiped out)! Let me ask you this: What would you do if you knew you only had 18 days to live?

Well, in the movie, NASA said that they would plant a nuclear warhead 800ft into the asteroid and blowing the thing up also deflecting the resulting fragments away from Earth and therefore saving the world. Good, huh. Anyway. Is this the only solution we humans have? If we noticed, for real, that a all-life-destroying asteroid was going to hit Earth in 20 days - what do we have to defend our selves? One line of defense, and probably the last is the nuclear warhead because humans would have to go to the asteroid and plant it themselves. Another option is to send some kind of missiles or a modified un-manned rocket to the asteroid on a kamikaze mission. These are all well and good but is there another, more peaceful way to deflect and not destroy this wonderful piece of science? There may be. Lately there has been an advance in the field of ion-beam propulsion and other beam technologies. What if we fired one of these 'beams' at the asteroid and deflected it. At this point in time, we only have the ion-beam up to the point where it takes us bloody 8 months to reach the moon via this type of transport but what if they were that strong? What if we invented a laser so powerful we could aim it at the asteroid and break it apart in a controlled manner? These are all well and good but they are also much much more costly and therefore put to the side of the planning paper by our modern-day militarised governments.

Another interesting part of the movie was at the end when one of the crew had to stay behind on the asteroid and detonate the nuclear warhead by himself. Think of it. Knowing you're going to die any minute now. Knowing you're leaving behind your only family, friends and your life. But also knowing that you're saving the whole god damn world! Knowing you're a hero in every single human being's eyes for eons to come. But also put yourself in that person's shoes. You have the power to save the world - but you also have the power to save your own life by not triggering the warhead. Would you really be that selfish. Instead of 1 man dying would you let 60-70 billion people die because you were scared of dying? Personally, I really would not be able to pull the trigger.

My feelings on death are quite mixed and are a vat of influences from a lot of different sources. I do fear death, I admit - but I do not think I could blow myself up on purpose; I wouldn't let myself do it. That's what most of you are probably thinking. Could you kill yourself? I couldn't.

For me, it's the fear of uncertainty. The fear of notknowingness. What happens when you die? Where do you go when you die? Do you cease or are you reincarnated? Personally, I think.... I don't know what to think. I'd love to think I'd go to paradise but my mind and heart is split between religion and science. Religion says that I may go to a hell-like place or a paradise-like place. Science says to me that this is not true. It says that when you die you physically cease to exist. This is what worries me - not knowing.

If you leave this blog with one thought, let it be this: you are not always physically here - but you are always here in mental form; somewhere, someone.

Townies, Internet & Life

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In interesting, but still stupid, post in Developer Dan's blog raised a point to me: are the invading Townies just a pandemic or do they server some good purpose? This post will present some evidence towards the question and hopefully try to answer the question. I will be as un-biased as I can.

Townies were really first noticed and brought to the wider public attention from about 2000 and are even more of a problem in 2004. I suspect the trouble will be even worse in 2005. Now, first of all, Townies have got a really bad reputation where I live and probably other places - maybe even in some they're so common they're behavior is probably accepted as the norm. Such sites as http://www.chavscum.co.uk provide sarcastic views (both serious and silly) on the new 'ruling class'. Even though I do have a grudge against Townies, I have noticed that the News, it seems, is holding an extremely harsh grudge by only reporting negative things that Townies do - unless they don't do anything good in which case my point is proven.
In my experience with Townies, they can love, hate, feel and be considerate just like any other person but they do what every else can do with a different style. To me this style is what is making their reputation suck. If they got rid of this style and replaced it with a more subtle style they just wouldn't be Townies which would mean: 1) no more teenage mothers, 2) no monthly murder, 3) less deaths due to smoking, 4) no gangs of youths to break windows. Those were the good things if Townies were to disappear. These are the bad ones: 1) another culture would be likely to rise up, 2) half the population of my town would disappear, 3) there would be a decline in curb-crawling charges.
Personally, I have never known a really 'good' thing that a Townies has done - then again, I have never spent more than 5 hours at time with one. Thus, this is why my opinion on them is that of stupid, careless and plain idiotic yet strangely friendly and a social group or human beings.
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Not much happening lately on the world of the internet developer. A friend has started to learn PHP and SQL and has created a good website - even if it was due to the design of a box-eyed-no-change-of-design Developer Dan and his coding skills. Anyway, good luck to him.

The NY Times advert for Firefox 1.0 has been released and you can buy a poster from the Mozilla Store over at http://mozilla.org for about £5 plus P+P. Or you can get the .PDF and print it out for a smaller copy which you can still the 10,000 names on a medium-high print quality.

The pathetic argument between me and Developer Dan is being continued thanks to his handiwork in his blog and explicit MSN messages. He should concentrate on finishing his site and exploring Khlo's server for the 'Dakota Directory' :D. Learn to take a joke before you do though, Dan. And learn how to get a grip and get on with your life and not wasting it on meaningless arguements that you'll never win in an infinite number of years.

Over 2005 I will be building up my portfolio with sites that may or may not make it to the multi-hit internet. The point you ask? To create a name for myself and to allow me to have some quality, timeconsuming sites that do credit to my name.

Well, 8 days to go until Christmas Day. Have a great Christmas, don't get fat like me, shrink like Developer Dan or go genius on me like Khlo - just have a great one. I will post again before Christmas but I'd now like to thank the ~600 visitors that have looked at my blog since October 2004 (and the 200 before October 2004) - not as big numbers as Khlo's blog but statistics are just numbers.


Sunny Boy (Fox FM - 102.6FM)

Nearly Christmas

It's nearly christmas. That time of year when we all hopfully give presents and also take them (within moderation). Christmas to me is the time of year when my lips catch a type of turrets syndrome and won't stop saying 'thankyou'. Over the 7 Christmas' I can remember, I feel that as you grow older, you stop being happy at Christmas. I mean, it's all good and well getting presents and seeing year-lost friends but what does Christmas really mean to you? If you feel that Christmas has no real impact on your life at this time, feel that you don't want to feel any different then you really should seek help. But if you feel that Christmas is not all about the presents, expensive gifts, gadgets and so forth but about how you feel about other people then you're heading along the right track.

This brings me on to my next topic. At the moment, a fellow developer is going on about me and a website I am creating, Developer Dan. He is holding a grudge against me and says that I stole some of his code from one of his sites. Dan, if you read this, let bygones be bygones and lets just settle this once and for all because, too be honest, it's a pain in the arse and just plain annoying, especially when people don't know the truth.

Now, since my last post where I posted the schedule for the Totally Hubbub project, I have not really stuck to the schedule and totally thrown it out the window. I am now 2 or 3 days behind schedule and dont intend to catch up because I will probably be sleeping all through the Christmas holidays. Anyway, just want to let you know that the project overall is going well and the design is coming along nicely.

Over the past year, I have actually been a very observant person and have watched how friends and other people within my school year have changed - some for the good and some for the bad. Some of those people have changed dramatically. This is the price people pay for having friends.

Sunny Boy

The Facts

As i write this post with my laptop, sitting on my bed watching TV, I feel fristrated and basically pissed off. A close friend of mine, Developer Dan, has screwed my once again. He has taken his so called 'copyright infringements' to a whole new level by posting this in his blog:

Well, my iota design has been ripped by hubbub (http://62.254.142.107/beta), it may not look the same bit just try rearraging my resign and sizes slighy and its the same.

Also, the code is basically the same, the code structure is the same and it actually has 'iota' is his meta tags.

Ive attached my evidence along with this post.

I dont think its fair, designers pour their heart and soul into a project and somone comes and copys his code becuase they cant/ cant be arsed to do it themselves.

Personally I don't think he knows the facts. Dan - i'm here to set things straight. I never directly copied code from any of your Iota files because i've learnt what can happen before. So dont give me bull about that. Secondly, you can't see when I'm having a joke about putting Iota in the meta tag! You idiot! Couldn't you see that when khlo also did it it was just to piss you off? You take things so seriously especially when another site encorporates your 'famous' boxed design approach. Live. Learn and stop whining. Also - if you're going to help someone else with their website please give them another design besided the boxes that you ALWAYS do. Why not circles?!!?!?!?

Anyway, got a spansih test tomorrow, an english oral test and a maths test. Aren't i lucky?!?!?! Also, on friday is whole school asembly (aka deep vein thrombosis day) and which i am looking forward to because we have half a day at school and most of that is taken up by the assembly.

And if you have any more problems Dan, sue me bitch :D. Oh no - i copied some text from your blog! Oh no - it's copyrighted apparently!!! lol.

Sunny Boy

Copyright & Coding

Ok. My new project, Hubbub, is going quite smoothly so far. A few simple-minded interuptions but so far so good. I realised a lot of things today which you can read on about.

Today, W3School released their mid-December browser usage stats. They can be found here and you'll see that the Mozilla usage has gone over the magical 20% mark and is now at 21.2% - the highest percentage recorded yet. Lets hope this time next year, we've atleast doubled that figure!

My personal server (here) is home to my new project Hubbub. My schedule has only beet interupted once because of some fool wanting to copyight code that about 3 billion webpages use or have used. Anyway, you can check out my schedule below.

While coding Hubbub, I realised that the good old days of tables and paragraphs are what I like. I realised I hate coding CSS and not using tables or paragraphs - and the most horrible thing? I hate using the <> tag. For some reason i just hate it. Too much hassle. I suppose its all about the design side these days - not good old hardcore, solid code. That's just me but to survive you have to adapt - atleast that's natures motto.

Ok. Here's my schedule:

• Design - [Start: 11 Dec 04 / Finish: 14 Dec 04]
• Test Design - [Start 14 Dec 04 / Finish 15 Dec 04]
• Implement Search - [Start: 16 Dec 04 / Finish: 18 Dec 04]
• Design Directory DB - [Start: 19 Dec 04 / Finish: 21 Dec 04]
• Implement Design - [Start 22 Dec 04 / Finish 23 Dec 04]

After the above I will be starting the rest of it and hope to have a presentable pre-beta draft at about mid January 2005. Then I will start implementing features like user accounts and rss 2.0 feed. Clean up the code, and get user input.

Sunny Boy

The Only Way is Time

My opinion on my Biology teacher changed from completely nerdy to just nerdy. I found out she uses the Mozilla browser and not IE!!! Go her. Also, I have a new project for the Xmas holidays and I'll tell you about that later.

First of all, just want to mention a few mates' blogs. You can visit my good friend and developer Khlo here. Developer Dan has a nice blog that is actually updates so you'll get treated here. And that's it because I don't know anyone elses.

Take a look at this. Smiley Xtra 3. It's a more than handy tool and extension for the Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox browsers that allow you to search a database of over 500 smilies and insert them into your forum posts, blogs or any text area. Very handy. *Linkage*.

You can take a look at my new project, Hubbub, here but there's nowt much to look at except a snazzy advert for it. Take a look around 4-9pm GMT.

Sunny Boy

Creepy Day - Good End

Today was creepy. 3 people I have never met before came up to me, told me they knew my real name and then told my my nickname! I didn't know i was so popular! Anyway. I must make room for some rants...

I will openly admit this: my Spanish teacher is so grumpy and does not apreciate the hard work we put into our lessons. I hate the way that the 'less intelectually powered' students get treated with ease and have easy, relaxed lessons. Yet we, the top and second to top groups are pulled this and that way. The teacher is either not getting any or is a man but she needs to lighten up.

On a lighter note. Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 has been released on the FTP servers. You can get it here: *here*. Thunderbird is the rival mail client to Outlook Express and certainly blows it away. Change to Thunderbird or upgrade now. This is really worth it. A lot of bug fixes and some new features since 0.9.

Sunny Boy

Iota Directory & DoS Attacks

Just want to inform all my readers of a mate's quality project over on his server. The Iota Directory is a no-nonsence directory of open-source software and programs that depends on us. You can visit the server most of the evening (GMT) at http://62.254.139.200/iota/ and give it a go - report bugs to the links provided.

Speaking of DoS attacks, the above address is open to friendly attacks. So, if you have any spare time, visit his site a few hundred times a second - if you have time.

But seriously, lately there's been a lot of publicity (on the web) about DoS attacks on websites both corprate and personal. What's the point, eh? My motto is take what you give. Yet, when lycos try to uphold that motto, they get closed down and over 9000 web users are not allowed to help stop bastards who send out spam and DoS websites. What a world.

Well, just watched the I'm A Celebrity Show final and did you see Paul Burrell and the eating challenge? What a sissy. It was like he was the one being eaten! He was like a girl in an electric chair! Anyway, I want Joe P. to win as I am a fan of him. He's not only funny because of his squeaky voice but because he is just generally funny.

Sunny Boy

CJM FM

I have been getting quite a few comments over the past 3 months about my radio shows. I had stopped them to concentrate on my studies but now I don't have to study anything for a while, I am giving thought to revamping my radio shows with some new software.

Over my absence, I have 'gathered' a collection of about 30 new songs, plus the old ones that you've heard over and over again. If you do want me to continue my shows, leave a comment. Much apreciated.

Oh, and I have read about the new laws of copyright and the law suits of file sharers etc.

Sunny Boy.

Boring Sunday

I have always thought that a 2-day weekend is not enough. But when I think about it, neither is 4 days of school. I know that changing our way of life to an 8-day week is not going to happen soon but does it just feel 'not enough' to you or is it just me?

Speaking of time. Because of School and personal interests I have been reading up on time and how we could maybe use time. Time travel more importantly may be possible. Theoretically it is. I have my own views.

Also, I have notices that nothing has really been heard of Sedna (our maybe 10th planet). Personally, I don't think it should be classified as a planet of our Solar System. The debate about this is dire in the scientific community, as you may have heard, but that's my view. Also, why is it that the hubble telescope can see close-ups of other galaxies and yet it cant take a decent picture of Sedna? Baffling. It can take photos of binary systems in other galaxies and yet it can't take a close-up of Pluto! Scientists eh!

I haven't updated on my good friend Khlo's project Klat in a while. It's going great with loads of new and great features. You can take a look here (http://klat.sf.net) - it's at 0.2 at the moment and should be publically released at 0.3.

It's getting close to christmas now, with only 20 days to go, and it seems it is actually cheering people up. In my experience, Christmas was a time of the year that made me feel hate. Well, not hate - something a little less harsh. You had to meet family and people who you hadn't seen for years. I don't know about you but Primary School years were the best of my life and I wouldn't mind travelling back in time to re-live them (but it's theoretically impossible and I'd still be 14).

Sunny Boy

Merry Christmas & A Happy School Life

Hello. Well, isn't this weird. Me, posting in my own blog! Anyway, I've just come back from Abingdon where townies roam and shops invite. Here's a list of what I baught:

1 x 2.5 Pint glass :: £5
1 x Ben Sherman Watch :: £49.99
1 x Nike Jumper :: £19.99
1 x St. Christopher :: £19.99
2 x Family Christmas Cards :: £1.98

I am currently enjoyng 2.5 pints of Coca-Cola and am listening to Fox FM (102.6FM). My latest complaint about townies is this: Why do they have to be so popular. There are 2 types of popular or 'cool' at St. Birinus - the thick cool and the smart cool. 99% of the townies at St. Birinus fall into the thick cool category and people like (Andrew H, Jack J) fall into the smart cool. They only problem? There's no room for the completely dumb or the totally intelectual to fit in. But, that's life.

Since my last post i have been reading up about subjects within the physics. Most prominantly, the 'theory or everything' - the String (or M) theory. I wont get into it on here, because I just can't be bothered to explain it. I have always been interested in the way the universe works and now my understandinghas been extended - if indeed this theory is the theory to everything and anything.

Talking of understanding, my PHP and SQL skills have taken a beating over the last 2-3 months. I haven't actually designed and coded a proper site in that time. I don't know what's the matter with me - must be a bad year. First, Project NHS wasn't wanted after 1 month of non-stop coding, then Project StarMoney was rejected - I just can't get anything right. I will be continuing my lessons on C++ earlier next year for preperation for work experience at RM plc.

On a lighter note, I have been approached by a company (not going to give out name just yet) for a position as an junior developer. I was quite surprised because I know much more talented and much more well-known developers. Still, I am delighted at the chance of being part of a company that provides quality internet solutions for free (and for prices of course). More to come soon on this matter.

Yesturday was inset day for my school. I went over to a mates with another and we constructed a 13 foot trampoline. After 1 hour of spring pinches and dodging dog shite, we were able to admire our creation (aka jump on it). It was quite sturdy and was a very reasnoble price. Good luck loosing weight guys!

OK. i am going to release my Top 10 Movies list:
1) Last Samurai, The
2) Truman Show, The
3) i, Robot
5) ET
6) Alien (1-3)
7) Alien Vs Predator
8) Stargate SG-1
9) American Beauty
10) Hitchhiker, The

That's me done. My blog is more of a personal journal than a technical bible like some people I know. Take what I say with a pinch of salt and don't complain to me if my views conflict with yours - it's called life, take it or leave it.

Sunny Boy