mostfoolhardy.org
That was a particularly bad idea.
Sony Ericsson k800i updates- a whole pile of fun
Dec 23rd
The k800i is, all-in-all a very nice phone. One of it’s main fairly innovate features is that it can run firmware updates from the menu and download them over the air. This would be fairly useful as a first diagnostic against a software problem with the phone as the occasional 20mb download wouldn’t really hurt the networks here, however it has been unsanctimoniously disabled.
This is an even worse shame when you get to discover that the official PC based updater is a complete bastard to get working. Let alone it needing a PC to run it on. To get this tool (gratefully necessitated by the good folks at three) you should firstly download a reasonably recent version then you should install flash player with this exact link, because installing it in Firefox is fine for most functional uses of flash, but this requires an ActiveX installation of Flash- which unsurprisingly almost no-one will tell you.
Pity it didn’t fix the problems with my phone though.
Bugger.
The Importance of Backups
Nov 14th
Ugh.
On updating iTunes and Quicktime my mac froze and upon rebooting I discovered that something went wrong.
Very wrong in fact, with the “Welcome to Leopard” wizard appearing on logon and refusing to let me log in.
One full time machine restore later and my mac is working again, unfortunately it’s now refusing to back up.
But now I’m looking to replace my mac with something home grown again… 
Joss Whedon- back on the telly
Nov 3rd
It seems that Joss Whedon has been granted a new series to write with Tim Minear. From what’s been said it looks like it should be brilliant- but it’s being made by Americas FOX network. Hopefully it should only be a matter of time before a British channel expresses interest (although I’m still waiting for BBC to play firefly sometime).
But as television here goes, all I’m finding myself watching is Heroes, Spooks and QI. Without the iPlayer as the BBC have yet to release a version for OSX (or preferably an open platform based on Dirac).
Mac OSX Leopard
Oct 28th
Now that’s it all properly installed on my mac-mini I feel that it’s time for a blog post.
Friday: Leopard Launch Day
I arrived at the Southampton Apple store at about 3pm and joined the queue as soon as it was set up. And I have to say that the queue was a really great social atmosphere and that everyone there was really friendly and I must thank great high wolf from macrumors forums for doing a drinks run. Also, it was really cool that the Apple store employees handed out chocolates and water- it certainly makes a change from many companies launch night arrangements. (I’m looking at you Sony)
Saturday: MacLiveExpo
Due to several thousand football fans and a line closure it took well over an hour and a half on the tubes (mostly packed) to reach the expo. There was some interesting loot to be picked up, namely some nice juggling balls from Konica Minolta- now if everyone did that I wouldn’t have been able to get home due to a vast surplus of said juggling balls. There was an interesting showing of Leopard by Apple, which would have been more interesting if I’d seen it prior to launch- but my fears that Time Machine would need a dedicated drive were put to rest. It only needs free space on a not-booted HFS+ journaled disk. There were some very good hardware deals going on at the show, and if you can pick up the early bird free tickets and get a reasonably direct train then it’s probably a good idea to buy a mac there. Unless you’re taking the tube, then it would be buying a mac for a random stranger on your train.
As for Leopard itself; the new dock (the non-3d one that is) is shiny and Mail is a lot more responsive and powerful, and is now no longer embarrassing to search for emails with.
The Environment
Oct 15th
Climate change is a massive problem.
The chances are that whatever methods that can be employed against it are going to basically require on thing:
Humanity to willingly leave it’s comfort zone.
There’s just no real way to do justice to that.
Driving
Sep 30th
In something both fairly awesome and scary at the same time: I now have a car.
I’m gradually getting to grips with the intricacies of a gearbox and should be at least moderately competent at changing between the gears by the time I have my first driving lesson, which I would have been having a lot earlier had I applied for my driving license with adequate time to pre-book some driving lessons.
That’s my car:
^_^
Relaunch: Welcome to madebyalex.org
Sep 24th
Well, today’s the day. I’m 17 and themak.org is no more and instead; I welcome you all to madebyalex.org enjoy your stay- have a coffee- leave a comment. And sit back and enjoy.
Also, my iBook can’t be repaired due to a myriad of incompetence’s. Bugger. Those thinkpads are looking like a mighty fine option now. (Fedora Core 8 also)
Later,
Alex.
Brief Hiatus
Sep 10th
I’ve been unable to make any new posts for the last few weeks on account of everything being exceptionally busy. But do not fear this blog will be returning to usual service in exactly two weeks time! For on the 24th many exciting things happen:
- I become 17 and thus able to start learning to drive a car.
- themak.org is retired and replaced by madebyalex.org
- I update the code behind this whole endeavor to WordPress 2.3- which will be released on that very day. A nice birthday present, I should think.
- I change the design of the site to resemble this (help doing so would be greatly appreciated), or use one of the shiny sandbox themes.
Until then,
Alex
Some (Admittedly Late) Summer Reading (etc.)
Aug 30th
Recently, after finding myself with rather more booktokens than I would usually know what to do with, I’ve been reading quite a few books recently- and thought that I’d post my latest reading list here:
- Battle royale
by Koushun Takami. While graphically violent, it definitely served the plot very well and proved to be a most excellent and gripping novel and was impossible to put down- the dystopian backstory certainly adds to the plot.
- Flow, My Tears, the Policeman Said
- Python in a Nutshell
- Not
strictlyreading, but for some music I wholeheartedly recommend Peter Gabriel’s 3
GCSEs the waiting ends- results day
Aug 23rd
Today was the infamous results day for GCSE students across the counry. I don’t quite know what to say:
- ICT: A*
- History: A*
- RE (short course): A*
- German: A
- Geography: A
- Maths: A*
- Biology: A
- Chemistry:A*
- Physics: A*
- English: A*
- English Literature: A
- Statistics: A
Congratulations to all the other candidates who just received their grades, and I hope that they all acheived what they wanted. In other news:
