It feel like it’s been ages since I last had a blog entry…. actually it has!  As you might have guessed, a fair few things have happened.  I’m gonna do them in random order, because right now I forgot a few things, due to being ill for the past week, though the past 3-4 weeks haven’t been great, but that’s not a topic for here.  Anyway, first of all, I have recently discovered The Oatmeal, with the help of a few friends and the wonders of Facebook and I had to admit, it’s quite good.  Hell, I even got a few questions answered, such as ones regarding i.e., e.g. and apostrophes.  I also learnt about how Anglerfish mate, which was fascinating in a crazy way!  I’ve also been reading about how unethical Internet Brands/vBulletin have become, helped in part by their announcement as to their taking legal proceedings against a start-up known as XenForo, formed by two ex-vBulletin developers (one being the former Lead) and also another former member of the vB staff, whose position there I forgot, though he acts as the XF business manager.  I’m not saying a lot about it, save for the fact that as soon as it’s feasible, I’m switching to XF and selling off my vB4 Suite licence, if anyone is interested in one, although admittedly, I can’t sell it off till my requirements in XF have been met.  I plan to buy a copy to play with the API, and am opening up the opportunity to play with it to members of my sites.  This is actually the first time I’ve felt really motivated to learn the API for something, especially as it’s in PHP, meaning I can learn some transferable skills!  And frankly, I need to learn something as I’ve had bad luck with finding jobs, and locally there’s no more jobs going at the moment!

I was planning on doing something with the WonderBorg and seeing if I can recode the programming application into something that supports both serial and USB infrared transmitters, but I amn’t sure if it’ll work now, but I might wait till I have a look at the application before I give up.  The WonderBorg is a nice piece of kit though if you’re into robotics, but they’re hard to locate now and are usually quite expensive; mine cost me £4.99 and they usually retail for £100+!  I want to get a second one at some point, but they may be hard to source.  I promise that I’ll talk about more later, but I’m really finding it hard to focus for now, but rest assured when I’m better, I’ll be able to focus more so I can type about more… still this is as much a little update as it is a reminder for me to type more and type up a little of what’s been going before I forget (yes I’ve been that bad)!  Still, it’s only a matter of time before I get better and will be going back to my few thousand word count essays XD

Until then, I’ll see you lot later.

Before I begin,  I’ve noticed that Twitter now has an apps system, which surprised me at first but I guess it was to be expected.  At least it might make things a bit more secure anyway.  I’m going to have to apply the same modification to the DiggerCast as well, I think and also the radio site, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.  Moving onto WordPress 3.x, which is the reason I am even aware of the new Twitter Apps system, I’m impressed at how much easier it is to update everything and also how much clearer the update information is displayed.  I’m not sure if it’s necessarily faster or anything, but it feels, well better.  I’m certainly looking forward to using it in my current and new site deployments anyway.  Although thinking about it, updating the DiggerCast seems a little redundant, given I’m folding it back into the Stormhaven Radio website, in order to have a podcasting platform to work from; I’m finding it a tad annoying at the thought of setting up a separate single blog site and domain for every podcast I have, so I’m just going to put them all within the radio blog as it’s cleaner.  If I want a domain, I can just tack it onto the WordPress blog url somehow, which might take a little tweaking, but it’ll be worth it in the end.  I really should learn more about webservers and HTML/CSS and PHP though.

One thing I’ve also started to do is with the help of my server provider is install AWStats, in order to process server stats locally, although unfortunately it appears I cannot access any of my past site access logs, if any were ever kept.  Shame that.  At least I’m using StatCounter to keep progress on my sites; one of my sites (Therians dot Net – TdN) actually surprised me by indicating I’ve had over 1300 visitors to it in the past month, which isn’t bad going!  This site is a little lower on the scale, but hey at least it has exposure.  This site and TdN are the only active sites on StatCounter, though I do have more planned.  I would be putting the DiggerCast in as it is an active website, but it’s moving soon and I don’t fancy complicating matters with it just yet.   Besides, I’m still testing stuff out and it’s doubtful the stats would be all that impressive anyway.  At least though I have the groundwork sorted for when I do start it all, which I should soon.  I also need to sort out my IRC network’s website and plan out a prototype chat site, which should be fun.
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Warning, this post is huge! If you don’t like reading large blog posts, you’re advised to avoid this!

The past half hour or so, I’ve been looking at many things… things mostly to do with how the human mind works and percieves things. I have to say, there’s quite an interesting amount of stuff there, and I haven’t even scratched the surface. First of all, we come across this article, which talks about the fact that schitzophrenics are not fooled by the “hollow face illusion”, with an included video. Essentially, the “hollow face illusion” involves — as you may have guessed — a hollow face. The article describes it as:

In the hollow mask illusion, viewers perceive a concave face (like the back side of a hollow mask) as a normal convex face. The illusion exploits our brain’s strategy for making sense of the visual world: uniting what it actually sees — known as bottom-up processing — with what it expects to see based on prior experience — known as top-down processing.

Anyway, it has been shown that those with schitzophrenia are not fooled by this illusion and see the concave face as what it actually is. The rest of us (including myself, which is interesting) see the conclave as a convex face, to the extent the nose sticks out! And even if you know this already, it doesn’t matter; your brain will still percieve the back side as a normal face. I found it interesting that I saw it like most “normal” people do, because I have a type of Autism known as Asperger Syndrome (AS). Now granted, I have been taught to act somewhat normal, but I do wonder if anyone else on the Autistic Spectrum will see things like normal people, or schitzophrenics.

Why I say this is because AS was once considered to be a form of schitzophrenia… see where I’m going with this yet? Good.  Anyway, if those on the Autistic Spectrum see things like a normal person, it would mean that Autism Spectrum Disorders affect different parts of the brain to schitzophrenics. That said of course, those who are drunk and under the influence of drugs see through it too, which makes you wonder what parts of the brain intoxicating substances hit, doesn’t it?

Post continues after the break… get a cuppa, you’ll need it!

A friend of mine showed this request in an IRC channel I own: http://www.getacoder.com/projects/programming_c_87390.html

For those of you reading this request, and it’s no longer there, it says (emphasis his):

Description
I need someone to program me a new OS (Operasting System) that looks different than Ms Windows XP etc. but has the same style. It does not need to run on a mac but all the other PCs. It’s supposed to have a stylish look with clear edges etc. And ITS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE JUST A REDESIGNED WINDOWS as I’m going to sell that operating system later on.
These are some important points :

It should have ALL THE FEATURES that Windows Xp Professional has.
ALL the files that run on Windows XP ust also run on the BlueOrb OS.
It must have a very user-friendly interface (like MS WINDOWS XP)
When it gets Installed, the user needs to insert a serial number.
It HAS to be HACKER SAFE!
It must be quick and good looking.

So yeah, that’s what he’s asking for. Bad spelling aside (what’s an “Operasting System”?) $100 for developing an OS, which he plans to sell though? I could think of stronger words than “what the hell?” to describe his request. Frankly, if I could program in C++, I’d be asking for a hell of a lot more than the equivelent of £75 for a product someone is going to sell and make at least 10x the amount on (most likely more!). Additionally, what is this Blueorb OS he’s on about? Someone told me it could be the Mac OS, but isn’t that an apple? I really wonder about people sometimes… they truly worry me.