January 12, 2006
January 11, 2006
Happy psychadelic birthday!
So, two cool people share their birthday today. Albert Hofmann, father of LSD (turns 100), and me (turns 32).
November 21, 2005
Google-mart
"The probable answer lies in one of Google's underground parking garages in Mountain View. There, in a secret area off-limits even to regular GoogleFolk, is a shipping container. But it isn't just any shipping container."
October 31, 2005
Seven Minutes In...
Seven minutes in a different place,
footfalls on a foreign street,
the random sounds that make a life,
for another you.
October 27, 2005
October 26, 2005
The point of Google Print
"Imagine sitting at your computer and, in less than a second, searching the full text of every book ever written. Imagine an historian being able to instantly find every book that mentions the Battle of Algiers. Imagine a high school student in Bangladesh discovering an out-of-print author held only in a library in Ann Arbor. Imagine one giant electronic card catalog that makes all the world's books discoverable with just a few keystrokes by anyone, anywhere, anytime."
Commentary from Eric Schmidt, on the point of Google Print.
October 06, 2005
September 22, 2005
Turn right at Great Britain come to a soggy, wet bit of planet called Holland...
The story that copper wire is an invention of two Hollanders fighting over a found cent is absolutely true.
September 15, 2005
September 02, 2005
It'll come back to haunt you
[Jonathan] you're going to hell for that.
[Rory] that's ok. i'll run the place after 1 week. anyway, the rites is much more pretty, and button free.
[Rory] look, during those heady days of 1996, we were all a little crazy, what with us sniffing HTML all the time, and mainlining tables. it was madness. but good madness. and who can forget the netscape.
August 02, 2005
Come again?
This is, I believe, one of the best headlines I've ever read.
July 26, 2005
Lock and Load
I met Brett while at university. I soon learned that Brett is a dyed-in-the-wool activist, and I think he'd agree with that assessment. He's really good at it too. One of the main reasons is that he suffers, as all good activists do, from high blood pressure. He's now found a way to lessen that affliction. It's about time.
July 20, 2005
Blue moon
First they brought you Google Earth. Now, they bring you Google Moon. Go on - zoom all the way in. It's worth it.
July 17, 2005
Pixel images
Pixel images
Originally uploaded by Rory.
Cool button made with this. And flickr.com let's me auto post and blog this image at the same time. Sometimes the net is just so cool.
July 11, 2005
I'm going to use the word 'cunt' a lot
Don't you just love it when people rant and rage?
July 09, 2005
July 04, 2005
May 25, 2005
May 23, 2005
Things my girlfriend and I have argued about...
Quite easily, one of the great pieces of writing on the Internet.
No, it's not my girlfriend.
May 20, 2005
Speeding up Firefox, the right way
Good article on improving the performance of Firefox. Caters for all speed/bandwidth cases.
May 19, 2005
Nokia N91
I'm terribly picky when it comes to cell phones. I can't stand the trend towards smaller keys, closer together. By all means, make the phones thinner, but don't make them so small that the keys become unuseable.
So perhaps the Nokia N91 is a step in the right direction.
Unfortunately, it has a slide-open key-cover, which, being a moving part, is a Bad Thing.
May 17, 2005
Working boys
Two friends of mine have just updated their sites. Luiz DeBarros and Chris Allan.
...by a large gang of Iceland Metrosexuals
World famous Green Rabbit writer, Mikhail Holberwitz, was brutally attacked Sunday afternoon in Toronto by a large gang of Iceland Metrosexuals. The attack occurred outside of a downtown Spa where Mikhail was putting up advertisements for the paper. Interesting to note, that even though he was attacked by 12 men, including one vicariously dry humping him from the rear, Mikhail survived the attack unscathed.
May 16, 2005
Grace under water
Glenn (a.k.a. my boss) and his wife Heidi are having a baby. Updates in near-real-time.
May 09, 2005
mplayer downloads
I've recently discovered that mplayer can grab a stream for you.
The jury is still out, though, on whether you can play the resulting stream...
April 22, 2005
April 20, 2005
OGG for Windows Media
Like Windows Media Player? Got OGGs? Try Directshow Filters for Ogg Vorbis, Speex, Theora and FLAC.
April 19, 2005
April 06, 2005
Podcasting
[Adrian] oh.
[Adrian] since you like talking so much.
[Adrian] drupal can do podcasting out of the box now.
[Rory] is that were u can record something and have it auto appear on your blog and people can dl it to their iPod?
[Adrian] yeah
[Adrian] and in rss clients that support it
[Adrian] it can play it automaticallly
[Adrian] it's like your own radio show
[Adrian] =)
Adrian knows me so well.
The Chronicles of George
At some point in our lives, we all get a chance to work with someone like this.
A9
I remember reading about A9.com, or seeing it on TV. This morning, over coffee, it popped into my head, as thoughts are wont to do first thing in the day.
Had a look. Looks slick - really slick. And I like the server-based philosophy, where everything you do and store is kept on the server, so you get the same user experience with A9.com no matter from where you access it.
April 01, 2005
MPlayer for Win32
After seeing how many formats mplayer seems to (seemlessly) support, I decided to give it a whirl under Win32.
Works nicely.
March 31, 2005
OurMedia
I really should have mentioned that OurMedia is done by the Bryght guys, of which Adrian is one.
March 23, 2005
March 22, 2005
March 16, 2005
September 20, 2004
Reject this!
Someone asking for your phone number? Rather give them your email address on a paper napkin.
September 15, 2004
September 14, 2004
Spread the Firefox
It's just 5MB to download, and it has tabbed browsing.
It's the rite thing to do.
September 08, 2004
Hunter/surfer
"Though armed with the Internet's 20th century technologies, we're still hunter/gatherers in this new information world. You might find the precise mix of information that suits your individual needs online if you hunt hard enough, but you must hunt for it each time. Nothing yet automatically and routinely delivers that precise mix to you."
September 07, 2004
September 01, 2004
Doomdeedoom
Jethro points me to Dave's Introductape, which he points out "is not suitable for children."
Good.
August 31, 2004
August 17, 2004
August 06, 2004
Paper waster
Catch the papers, and throw them in the bin.
For when you couldn't be arsed to do the real thing.
How to fold a shirt
You know how you want your shirts folded - exactly the same way they're folded in the stores, when they look all neat and stuff.
Look how easy it is.
Amaze your friends and family.
August 04, 2004
DrunkenBastardMan
DrunkenBastardMan is funny. Really funny. Lots of dirty words, too.
You can't have too many dirty words. Well, you can. At least if you're behind some corporate firewall. Then there is probably an upper limit on the number of dirty words.
Like, two.
July 30, 2004
July 21, 2004
July 20, 2004
July 14, 2004
July 07, 2004
The Feline Diet
DAY ONE
Breakfast: Open can of expensive gourmet food. Any flavor as long as it cost more the £1.50 per can -- and place 1/4 can on your plate. Eat 1 bite of food; look around room disdainfully. Knock the rest on the floor. Stare at the wall for awhile before stalking off into the other room.
You too can follow the simple 'Cat Diet' plan.
June 26, 2004
Have chair, might survive
In a time of terrorism the humble office worker feels exposed, a reserve soldier in a global war. Ecco's designers equipped their simple-looking office chair with a fireproof hooded vest and much, much more.
Still, it's not an Aaron chair.
June 24, 2004
Pee-thru glass
From the outside it looks perfectly private, but once you're inside, you've gotta ask yourself: "Am I sure no-one can see me?"
The (.za) Facts
The CIA Factbook on South Africa shows a whole lot of interesting bits about my country.
Most interesting of all, though (well, to me at least), is this entry:
Radio broadcast stations:
AM 14, FM 347 (plus 243 repeaters), shortwave 1 (1998)
Television broadcast stations:
556 (plus 144 network repeaters) (1997)
June 20, 2004
Writeaway
Need some non-smutty writing done? Get Ansie to do it right away!
I think it's such a cool name for a company.
June 18, 2004
How, uh, fabulous are you?
Take this quiz (choose Greater London as your county if you're outside the UK).
You are VERY OVERGAY.
Step back, you've gone too far. It's one thing getting in touch with your feminine side, but quite another to have girls thinking of you as 'just a friend'. You need to get in touch with your masculine side again.
Don't forget to return on Friday 28th May to take part 2 of the test.
Then tune into part two of How Gay Are You? on Sky One, Sunday 30th May at 10pm.
What would Jesus do?
After yesterday's entry, I had this link recommended to me.
Divine.
March 20, 2004
March 18, 2004
He'll be back
There's no telling who you'll bump into on Orkut.
March 17, 2004
Social to the max
Some people just take social networking way too seriously.
March 16, 2004
More ice, sir?
Graham stayed here. It must have been cold.
March 15, 2004
You're listening to WBLG, all over your blog dial...
"Radio Vox Populi is a realization of the people's voice, taking the content
of the weblogs and broadcasting it back to the world. As weblog authors
update their sites their writing is collected, synthesized into speech, and
streamed to listeners as an Internet radio station. Live from the commons 24
hours a day, 365 days a year."
Unfortunately, it's firewalled here at work. Sigh.
March 11, 2004
February 28, 2004
February 27, 2004
February 26, 2004
February 09, 2004
January 24, 2004
Trevor C-rite-on
Working here is like an old Rhodes re-union. Here's one of my co-workers photographic rituals.
December 11, 2003
Real men
"It's not that we're afraid you assholes, it's that we don't menstruate."
December 10, 2003
C More or Less
A subject-oriented language. Each C+- class instance, known as a subject, holds hidden members, known as prejudices, agendas or undeclared preferences, which are impervious to outside messages; as well as public members, known as boasts or claims.
December 09, 2003
December 04, 2003
December 02, 2003
I'll be back to front
Mr Schwarzenegger weighed in on the gay marriage debate with the comment "I think that gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman."
November 26, 2003
Divine Interventions
Wayne: "Go here: www.divine-interventions.com..."
Me: (upon seeing the opening splash screen) "Looks nice. What is it?"
Wayne: "Have you checked out the products?"
Me: (trepidation rising) "Checking. Scared. Monitor facing office."
Wayne: "Baby jesus buttplugs and nun-dildos - quite tasteful actually ;-)"
Me: (furious clicking)
November 25, 2003
November 24, 2003
Calvin
The entire Calvin and Hobbes snowman series.
It needs to snow more in Johannesburg.
Camp Kaalgat... err, Staaldraad
Who cares if we lost? Hot, nekkid rugby player bottoms.
Spank you kindly, Princess Adrain!
November 18, 2003
November 17, 2003
Belle de Jour
Belle de Jour: The diary of a London Call Girl.
Soon to be relaunched: The Rites, under its new name, Balls de Jour.
Just kidding.
Probably.
November 12, 2003
Crazy remixed-up kids... and the music industry, which is just crazy.
Having failed to outlaw file-sharing software, it has turned its wrath on the biggest users of that software: teenagers. Suddenly, weirdly, the entertainment business is teaming up with cops and conservative politicians to wage war on its own customers.
This from an industry "where financial prudence traditionally meant buying your cocaine in bulk..."
November 11, 2003
Overcome email overload
Email overload, the scourge of our time. Apparently.
The jury is still out on blog-overload.
Flatus odour judge, and more
What -- exactly -- are the worst jobs in science?
Bring back the laughter
And just what is this better known as?
MCQP
I really gotta go to one of these. 3500 tickets of 8000 already sold.
And who cares if some poor soldier found a sticky condom?
November 10, 2003
Stiff discipline
"...By the time the afternoon lessons began, there was no hiding what they had done."
November 06, 2003
Men's Health
Saw the Men's Health Look 2003 last night on MNet. Manflesh left, right, and centre.
Janez, the winner, is just about most appropriately defined as 'sex on legs'.
October 23, 2003
I must October 22, 2003
September 18, 2003
September 10, 2003
Bloglet...
...is back now, thankfully. Which means that those of you fortunate enough to be subscribed to the Rites will continue to receive your daily dose of ritual behaviour, or at least whenever a new ritual is performed.
Those of you not subscribed can perform the initiation ritual now.
August 22, 2003
August 20, 2003
Whoopi Goldberg's Big Bad Ass Beef Ribs
Never surf recipe sites at 5:30pm at work. You'll just get hungry.
Another name for a rooster is...
I think this site sells clothing. But if the models are for sale, I'm buying in bulk.
July 28, 2003
Introducing...
Mr & Mrs Wayne & Shania, who are now on their honeymoon, jaunting around Mozambique and South Africa.
From this, one would infer that TheDecks will now have a his and hers section.
July 25, 2003
Which drug should you be hooked on?
Shrooms.
Star light,
star bright,
what images will I see tonite?
Which drug should you be hooked on? [now with pictures]
brought to you by Quizilla
July 24, 2003
Scripture scanned
The Gutenberg Bible: scanned and online.
"The Ransom Center acquired its two-volume copy, which includes some illuminations in gold leaf, in 1978. Oram estimated the copy, which is 1,268 pages in two volumes, is worth up to $20 million."
The pages are linen. Linen!
'Rory'
Your first name of Rory has given you a practical, logical, analytical approach to life and a great deal of patience. You enjoy working at anything of a mechanical or technical nature, and believe that what is worth doing is worth doing well. When you are interested in a project, you concentrate all your thoughts on it and do not appreciate being interrupted. This name creates a deliberate and methodical way of thinking and speaking; it takes you time to learn but, once you have mastered a subject, you do not forget it. You are very systematic in all you do and do not like to see things out of order; however, there is a tendency for you to be too fussy. There is a seriousness to your nature which could cause you to worry over your responsibilities, especially when confronted with change and uncertainty. You are overly fond of heavy foods such as meat, potatoes, breads and pastries and could suffer with stomach and intestinal disorders, constipation or boils.
I'm not sure about the boils though.
Try your name at Kabalarian Philosophy:
http://www.kabalarians.com/male/rory.html
July 20, 2003
July 17, 2003
For the love of Gnod
Gnod.net is a cool way to discover new music based on what you like already.
July 16, 2003
July 14, 2003
One day at Lockheed Martin
Man Guns Down 5 Co-Workers, Then Shoots Himself - which just makes you wish that he'd tried those actions, but in reverse order.
I'd like to make propose that we now dub these happenings as 'bowling incidents'.
Give War A Chance
"Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol,
causes the fundamental ills of society.
If we're looking for the source of our troubles,
we shouldn't test people for drugs,
we should test them for stupidity,
ignorance, greed and love of power."
One of my favourite authors, P. J. O'Rourke, says this, and many other things.
July 03, 2003
July 02, 2003
36.0% sexually pure (64.0% sexually corrupt
You answered "yes" to 64 of 100 questions, making you 36.0% sexually pure (64.0% sexually corrupt); that is, you are 36.0% pure in the sex domain.
Your Weirdness Factor (AKA Uniqueness Factor) is 47%, based on a comparison of your test results with 879613 other submissions for this test.
The average purity for this test is 56.5%.
The first submission for this test was received June 17, 1994.
How pure are you?
(the only problem with the test is that it does not have a 'select all' option, which would be easier for some people.)
Keylime Pie
Does this not just sound absolutely delicious?
Memory you can't bring your speaker near
By using MRAM, the companies say a laptop could work more like other electronic devices such as a television or radio: turn the power on and the machine jumps almost instantly to life with settings just as you had left them.
June 30, 2003
June 23, 2003
Man takes life with bandsaw
"A 23-year-old man who worked at a butchery in Alice Street, Durban, committed suicide on Monday by putting his head through a bandsaw - a machine usually used for cutting up carcasses. "
Someone must have removed the safety label.
June 17, 2003
Text-heavy. Laugh-intensive.
"This is because young people in sports cars are considered to be 'high risk' drivers. This offends me. If driving down a residential street at 200 mph while smoking a joint and listening to music with bass so high that the sides of the car bulge out with each note like some kind of cartoon is considered 'high risk', I don't want to know what 'low risk' is."
Go get Text-Heavy. This is seriously funny stuff.
Emoticon
:-Q
Person who just had cybersex and is now enjoying a post-coital cybercigarette
>:-Q -...
Person who was enjoying a post-coital cigarette until he suddenly noticed, to his alarm, that there is some kind of discharge dribbling from his cybermember
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/davebarry/emoticon.html
What Matrix Persona Are You?
You are Neo, from "The Matrix." You
display a perfect fusion of heroism and
compassion.
What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Who's blogging who
For more information, read the Simple Guide to the A-List Bloggers.
June 10, 2003
The WTC demolition (aka 9/11)
Found http://www.serendipity.li/wtc.html last night. Promptly sucked in 2 hours of my time as I kept trying to stop reading it.
I'll buy the controlled demolition part of it though.
Surf this
"But, bearing in mind that 90% of the population arent fags, heres a little guide to the ins and outs of the Love that Dare Not Speak its Name (especially in Cape Town, where it more-or-less screams it)."
This from somewhere on http://www.africans.co.za/ - any site that has banner ads about Zombie Jesus back from the dead has to be good.
June 04, 2003
I see (through) you, baby, shaking that amp...
Winamp. Indispensible utility. Soundtrack renderer to many a coding moment. And did you know you can make it transparent?
A most unfortunate name
Polar Operational Environmental Satellite - or POES for short.
If you're not South African, you may not understand why this is so funny.
June 03, 2003
PAS 7/10
Lyngsat is a good place to keep up with what's being beamed at you and your Multichoice satellite dish in South Africa. When I get a chance I'll explain how to use that page to see which free channels you can tune into via your stock-standard Multichoice decoder.
May 29, 2003
HSS: now you'll really have to get a good position
Essentially, HSS for the first time does for sound what the laser did for light -- intensely focuses and channels it so it can travel great distances without dispersing. In the demo, a technician points a speaker the size of a cereal box at someone standing 100 yards away. Amid the din of the nearby freeway, the technician plays a recording of ice cubes clinking into a glass.
More about this at http://www.wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/story/21621.html.
However, the paragraph that most caught my attention was this:
Strange. Didn't they know that we already have such technology?
May 28, 2003
Hot house
Greer was wondering if I'm going to Hot House this weekend. So am I, in fact. I'm still going through my period of 'being good'. Whatever that means.
Hang on. I think it means not spending quantities of cash that would rival Zimbabwe's national debt at parties each weekend.
Yes, that's it.
May 27, 2003
Pride 2003
A Mardi Gras at our "home" at Zoo Lake and a Pride Parade through Rosebank? That's what Johannesburg will be getting on Saturday, 27 September 2003.
And Randolph did the site. Nice.
Brett wants a new monitor
...and he's chosen to get this, using money from petty cash.
May 26, 2003
Fluff me baby
And just when you thought you'd seen it all, Marrit points this out: fluffertrax.
Pornosonic's "Cream Streets." simultaneously captures the essence of the Rock Opera, as well as evoking fine 70s porn music from the supposed "original unreleased motion picture." The storyline: Dick Dagger once again on the job faces his evil nemesis, Cum Lin Santiago. Cum Lin and his female cohort, Putana, capture Dick's ladyfriend, Peach Fuzz. And the plot unfolds from there.
Sex, drugs and house music
Wayne provides one of these.
You know how you keep returning to your favourite music over and over again, even when there's new stuff to listen to? For me, those favourites include Wayne's mixes. Latest lovely lacquered listen: SunnySideFunk.
Happiness is...
...an Irish accent (also, here and here).
I watched Bend it Like Beckham this weekend - stunning movie!
May 22, 2003
Visual Basic IDE mouse wheel support
And today, I found this on pscode.com: VB IDE Mousewheel Support and Code Auto Complete. If you've ever wondered why your mouse wheel doesn't work when scrolling code in the Visual Basic IDE, you need this.
May 15, 2003
RIAA Admits Piracy Goof
The Recording Industry Association of America sent out more than two dozen letters on Monday apologizing for incorrectly targeting institutions suspected of posting copywritten music on their servers. The RIAA said the erroneous notices were the result of an error by an unnamed temporary employee.
and "as for Professor Usher, Lamy says that for his trouble the RIAA intends to send him an Usher CD and T-shirt."
Tossers.
May 14, 2003
You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll hit Alt-F4
Hysterical? Hysteria? Whatever. http://www.feetman.com/
May 13, 2003
The skies of Johannesburg
Ever wonder what the skies look like where I stay? Have a look at what James does...
May 12, 2003
17 inches. I kid you not.
Anything that goes from 1" to 17" has got to be good.
What kind of font are you?
Lucida Calligraphy - You tend towards the arts.
You tend to stand out in a crowd and have your
own style. Be careful not to be too aloof,
however.
What Font Are You? (Standard Fonts)
brought to you by Quizilla
May 07, 2003
If you can do that, I'll go down on you
Can you do voice-over on inept copy? Not even Orson Welles can, apparently.
April 29, 2003
Popular Panics
So this morning I check the access statistics for my Rites. And the most popular page so far is (surprise, surprise) the one on how to tune in the porn channel on DStv. I should add that Don't Panic TV now has a South African website.
April 22, 2003
KDE
Over the weekend, I had a go at installing KDE under Cygwin. Now first off: I already use and love OpenBox. A couple of hours later, I had arrived at the following conclusion: KDE is a mechanism for using up 100% of your CPU cycles without ever requiring you to actually open an application.
But then today, Adrian sent me this desktop screenshot. Stunning. I hope it runs fast.
The Camel Toe
If there's someone you want to know, get yourself a camel toe.
Martha Screwart's Guide to Planning Your First Orgy
Are you paying too much for sex? Tired of the marriage game? Put some zest back into your life by hosting an orgy.
April 15, 2003
Firebird
I've said it before, and so has Adrian. Phoenix is the browser you should be using.
April 11, 2003
DVD Profiler
...is the best DVD collection management software out there. This is my collection.
April 07, 2003
Rage, Hubris, and Regime Change
If the Bush administrations foreign policy towards countries in the axis of evil is either you become capitalist democracies or we will do it for you, then for both ideological and material reasons, the leaders of those regimes have every incentive to do exactly what the United States doesnt want them to do: develop a nuclear capacity.
http://www.policyreview.org/apr03/jowitt.html
By Ken Jowitt
April 02, 2003
And in the "I wish I'd read this in February" category...
"Think of yourself as a horse that's stopped by the side of the road to rest," Dlugozima says. "If you linger, another saddle will be put on your back, and you'll rejoin the wagon train. But if you take off running now, you'll be able to choose your own path because no one else is driving you."
How to Move Forward When You're Between Jobs
April 01, 2003
Are you damned?
Are you damned?
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey
You're coming back! And if you are a Hindu you are going to have very specific characteristics:
"The slayer of a woman and the destroyer of embryos becomes a savage full of diseases; who commits illicit intercourse, a eunuch; who goes with his teachers wife, disease-skinned. The eater of flesh becomes very red; the drinker of intoxicants, one with discolored teeth...." (Garuda Purana)
March 28, 2003
'Time-traveler' busted for insider trading
Federal investigators have arrested an enigmatic Wall Street wiz on insider-trading charges -- and incredibly, he claims to be a time-traveler from the year 2256!
Sources at the Security and Exchange Commission confirm that 44-year-old Andrew Carlssin offered the bizarre explanation for his uncanny success in the stock market after being led off in handcuffs on January 28.
"We don't believe this guy's story -- he's either a lunatic or a pathological liar," says an SEC insider.
http://tv.yahoo.com/news/wwn/20030319/104808600007.html
March 27, 2003
Adrian@Oasis
I now share an office with Adrian. Long-time friend, short-time co-worker. He does http://www.oasismag.com.
January 17, 2003
Spacemoose
And in the blast-from-the-past department, if you feel that comics these days aren't offensive enough, might I direct you to < a href="http://www.spacemoose.com/">Spacemoose?
January 02, 2003
DVDs, home theatre and lists
It's a new year! And in honour of that occasion, if you like low-volume, helpful lists, why not join dvdchat, a list that Brett and I run.
December 01, 2002
Wishlist
We're at that stage where people give each other stuff. No, not herpes. Gifts. And here's my wishlist.
October 07, 2002
May 21, 2002
Google loves weblogs
Lloyd sent me this: <a href="http://www.microcontentnews.com/articles/googleblogs.htm">http://www.microcontentnews.com/articles/googleblogs.htm</a>