Another year flits by...

...so now I get to admit to being 44 years old.

That feels so very ancient... maybe now I’ll become all quiet & respectable & stuff? Nah, it’s probably too late; I may have to stay at least slightly irresponsible for a while yet.

One pleasant little birthdayism has been a “Spicy Ginger Block” of Whittakers’ dark chocolate, a tasty little surprise.

“Whittaker’s premium quality chocolate is crafted to a traditional recipe using the finest Ghanaian cocoa beans.” Very flavoursome but not perfectly healthy (29% fat, 62% carbohydrates); never mind, it’s a mere quarter-kilo and a very yummy.

It’s made in Wellington, New Zealand — the capital — which is about as close as the North Island comes to the South Island (where LCA2006 was held).

Certain government departments have still not completely decided that 42 years of living in Australia is enough to make me a Permanent Resident, but progress is being gradually made.

Comments

every-application-is-part-of-a-toolkit at work

I have a LibreOffice Impress slideshow that I wish to turn into a narrated video. 1. export the slideshow as PNG images (if that is partially broken — as at now — at higher resolutions, Export Directly as PDF then use ‘pdftoppm’ (from the poppler-utils package) to do the same). 2. write a small C program (63 lines including comments) to display those images one at a time, writing a config file entry for Imagination (default transition: ‘cross fade’) based on when the image-viewer application (‘display,’ from the GraphicsMagick suite) is closed on each one; run that, read each image aloud, then close each image in turn. 3. run ‘Imagination’ over the config file to produce a silent MP4 video with the correct timings. 4. run ‘Audacity’ to record speech while using ‘SMPlayer’ to display the silent video, then export that recording as a WAV file. 4a. optionally, use ‘TiMIDIty’ to convert a non-copyright-encumbered MIDI tune to WAV, then import that and blend it with the speech (as a quiet b

new life for an old (FTX) PSU, improved life for one human

the LEDs on this 5m strip happen to emit light centred on a red that does unexpectedly helpful things to (and surprisingly deeply within) a human routinely exposed to it. it has been soldered to a Molex connector, plugged into a TFX power supply from a (retired: the MoBo is cactus) Small Form Factor PC, the assorted PSU connectors (and loose end from the strip) have been taped over. the LED strip cost $10.24 including postage, the rest cost $0, the PSU is running at 12½% of capacity, consumes less power than a laptop plug-pack despite running a fan. trial runs begin today.

boundaries

pushing the actual boundaries of the physical (not extremes, the boundaries themselves) can often remove barriers not otherwise perceived. one can then often resolve an issue itself, rather than merely stonewalling at the physical consequences of the issue.

Plantagenet Penguinista

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