darkmuse's posterous

darkmuse's posterous http://www.darkmuse.co.uk Most recent posts at darkmuse's posterous posterous.com Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:21:00 -0800 Zombies lose http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/zombies-lose http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/zombies-lose

Apparently a deck consisting of:

1 x Skaab Ruinator
1 x Skaab Goliath
1 x Undead Alchemist
1 x Makeshift Mauler
1 x Abatoir Ghoul
3 x Armored Skaab
2 x Deranged Assistant
2 x Ghoulcallers Chant
1 x Ghoulcallers Bell

And plenty more zombies. Not enough threats I suppose, perhaps not enough removal to get them through? Lost first round and I'm not sure I'll try the zombie idea again. I thought it ought to work, but didn't seem to.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:36:00 -0800 ISD Drafting with human bombs is easy http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/isd-drafting-with-human-bombs-is-easy http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/isd-drafting-with-human-bombs-is-easy

It turns out a deck along these lines can go 2-0, 2-0, 2-0

1 x Avacyn's Pilgrim
2 x Doomed Traveller
1 x Selfless Cathar
1 x Avacynian Priest
2 x Ambush Viper
1 x Unruly Mob
2 x Silverchase Fox
1 x Cloistered Youth
1 x Bonds of Faith
1 x Moment of Heroism
1 x Village Bell-Ringer
1 x Elder Cathar
1 x Orchard Spirit
1 x Butcher's Cleaver
2 x Rebuke
1 x Woodland Sleuth
1 x Angelic Overseer
2 x Geist-Honored Monk

Its nice to get a win at last, but its really not too much of a test of my drafting ability is it? If I had the time again I possibly wouldn't have bothered with the Sleuth. I never cast it, although I drew it a few times, and I only picked and played it as its the only relevant 4-drop I saw (apart from a Slayer). I was tempted to play the Boneyard Worm with 18 creatures, but its never worked for me before. I don't remember any misplays though, and time was nowhere near an issue, so I can take heart from that.

I rare drafted the Stromkirk Noble too, it would be rude not to. Cards I passed at some point included Fiend hunter and Slayer of the Wicked. But that would have been for Monks or Overseers. I wish MTGO was saving my draft picks so I could look over them. Stupid software.

If I do well next time I might actually get my limited rating up above 1600 again!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Mon, 05 Dec 2011 07:54:00 -0800 A little learner award http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/a-little-learner-award http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/a-little-learner-award

Awarded to A this week for trying so hard in everything that she does. A has grown in confidence since starting Nursery and she is delighting us with her story telling and ability to ask questions. She is clearly enjoying her learning and is able to talk about her activities during her learning. Well done A, you are a delight to teach, thank you!

Her story telling and ability to ask questions might be appreciated in school....

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Fri, 05 Aug 2011 09:04:00 -0700 Fighting with Easyspace setup http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/fighting-with-easyspace-setup http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/fighting-with-easyspace-setup

My darkmuse domain is currenly administered by Easyspace. For quite a few years I've been using a separate nameserver to manage my DNS settings, but I recently changed (cancelled) my hosting and wanted to put everything back how it was initially. Its taken a little while but support appear to have fixed it for me this afternoon. For my own future reference, the MX record for easyspace should be:

@ 10 nicmail3.iomart.com.

For now, I'll be forwarding the domain to here (Posterous) with an A record.

Fingers crossed

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Tue, 07 Jun 2011 02:59:00 -0700 The Merfolk Magic deck I played at the weekend http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/the-merfolk-magic-deck-i-played-at-the-weeken http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/the-merfolk-magic-deck-i-played-at-the-weeken

I won every game I played, but it was against people reasonably new to Magic without access to some of the more expensive and more powerful cards. I'm still not convinced I enjoy playing Merfolk as much as Goblins though. And I'd probably have even more fun with Pox, or even a straight burn deck. Perhaps my opponents would have had more fun too :)

Its also quite shocking to think that if I had to go out and buy these cards individually I'd be paying well over £500! Although more than half of that is in the Wasteland and Force of Will.

13 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Wasteland

4 Aether Vial
4 Force of Will
4 Mental Misstep
3 Daze
2 Dismember

4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Merrow Reejerey
2 Merfolk Sovereign

SB: (I can't really remember what i took as a sideboard)
4 hydroblast
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Submerge
2 Pithing Needle
2 A.N.Other

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Sat, 05 Mar 2011 14:53:00 -0800 Posting code in Posterous http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/posting-code-in-posterous http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/posting-code-in-posterous

What a pain in the arse.

In the end the only way I could manage to post XML code properly was to set up a github account (I don't know why I didn't already have one), add a gist, and post a link to that.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Sat, 05 Mar 2011 12:48:00 -0800 Spring JSON and JSP servlet configuration http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/spring-json-and-jsp-servlet-configuration http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/spring-json-and-jsp-servlet-configuration

Since I've spent the past few days trying to perfect a configuration to serve some simple jsp pages while also serving JSON to enable me to add REST support and an Android front end at some point, I thought I'd post it here. Its not much good on its own to be honest, you'll still need to annotate your controllers correctly and put your jsp in /WEB-INF/jsp/. Maybe I'll post such a controller soon...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
	xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
	xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans 
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context 
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

	<!-- tell Spring to scan the package for any bean annotations -->
	<context:component-scan base-package="uk.co.darkmuse.gae.controller" />



	<bean
		class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.ContentNegotiatingViewResolver">
		<property name="mediaTypes">
			<map>
				<entry key="json" value="application/json" />
				<entry key="html" value="text/html" />
			</map>
		</property>
		<property name="defaultViews">
			<list>
				<bean
					class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.json.MappingJacksonJsonView" />
			</list>
		</property>
		<property name="viewResolvers">
			<bean
				class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
				<property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/" />
				<property name="suffix" value=".jsp" />
			</bean>
		</property>
		<!-- property name="ignoreAcceptHeader" value="true" / -->
		<property name="useNotAcceptableStatusCode" value="true" />
	</bean>

</beans>

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:44:49 -0800 Importing from Wordpress http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/importing-from-wordpress http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/importing-from-wordpress Well importing all the old shite from a very old version of wordpress in posterous without the articles that had shed loads of spam comments turned out to be a pain in the arse. Wish I hadn't bothered now. Isn't technology fun?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:14:00 -0700 iTunes - Two Faced http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/itunes-two-faced http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/itunes-two-faced

Why oh why does iTunes always do this? It pretends to be your friend, it lures you in with its nice looking interface and promise of easy reward. Then it kicks you in the nuts with its unexplained overloaded checkboxes, makes your current sort order affect its operation and just generally behaves how a piece of software shouldn't!

Today I was trying to burn an MP3 CD for use in my car. I have a newish car and the CD player is capable of playing mp3 data cds and of traversing directories in order to make the whole experience nicer. So, I think, iTunes will do nicely; insert a blank CD, set up the playlist I want and click the burn MP3 CD button. The result being a cd with no directories and all mp3s in the root.

Attempt 2: Search the Internet and find a page that states that you need to click on the Album column heading until it says Album by Artist. Who even knew that happened when you clicked it? Anyway, I burn another mp3 CD and find that it did almost exactly what I wanted (apart from numbering all the directories, whats that about?). Expect, of course, for Compilation albums which are obviously special cases and which noone in their right mind would want sorting into 1 directory for each artist contained on it! At least this highlighted that the ID3 tag for 1 track on 1 album was wrong!

Attempt 3: So, I think, maybe I didn't want to sort it that way, I probably want to just sort by album (not "album by artist"). And its almost correct now. Except I would like a combination of the attempt 2 behaviour for non compilations, and attempt 3 for compilations. It's not hard because:

Next time I think I'll just take the directory structure direct from the iTunes directory since under the covers the program can manage to sort things the way I want them on a CD, without numbering them to force an order I don't want and which will presumably show up on my CD player display! Stupid, stupid, stupid program.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Wed, 30 May 2007 12:51:00 -0700 Leamington to get a dream venue? http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/leamington-to-get-a-dream-venue http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/leamington-to-get-a-dream-venue

Lets hope so. Music venue in Leamington

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Mon, 21 May 2007 11:03:56 -0700 On Copyright http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/on-copyright http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/on-copyright I've had an interesting morning so far, reading various articles and arguments in the field of copyright law. Well I thought it was interesting anyway. Its something I've long been interested in and something that is getting talked about more and more as its starting to affect things that some people care about. The main arguments I've been hearing on the news lately are from the likes of Sir Cliff Richard and the families of Lonny Donegan. The only way in which I can see they have a point is that other creative works benefit from a slightly longer term, but either way they seem to be misunderstanding what copyright is for. Copyright is not a natural state of the world. There is no natural law that ensures that someone should get paid for their ideas and art. For millennia these works were immediately entered into the public domain once they had been expressed or created. In fact the first copyright law, back in the late 17th century, was created to protect printers (not, it should be noted, the author of the works). In 1709 the Statute of Anne was reworded to grant the author exclusive ‘right and liberty’ of printing books. Of course this was usually exercised by granting a license to a printer (publisher). It should also be noted that the original writers of the law thought a 14 year term, renewable once (to 28 years total) was sufficient to reimburse the creator for their effort. Through the centuries the law of copyright has gradually been extended to include other forms of creative endeavour and lengthened to provide a monopoly situation for longer periods of time. The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works 1886 was the first time that a minimum framework of principles was produced to be observed around the world. In this, and all (most) future laws and conventions the key feature was to strike a balance between protecting the intellectual work of creators whilst also providing the public the freedom to access and build on such works. It seems to me that some current performers and artists are striving to upset this balance in the favour of a permanent monopoly on their works. The intent of copyright law, as I currently understand it, is to give incentive to people to create works which will be a benefit to society. The people wishing to change these laws seem to think that for art and abstract ideas to have a value they need to be owned by someone. This is almost exactly not what gives art and ideas their value. Furthermore, if someone has failed to extract the value of their idea within the first 50 years of its creation then why should they expect to get more value from any future years? It might also be useful to think off all the people that have benefited from works entering the public domain. Disney: A hugely successful company who are part of the lobbying group in the US asking for copyrights to be extended. Where did their stories come from then? Snow White for example, something Disney makes a lot of money from and tries to prevent anyone else from using. But isn't that an old folk tale written by the Brothers Grimm? Shouldn't Disney be paying the ancestors of the Grimms? Actually in this case the Brothers Grimm just collected that story as it is an even older tale probably originating in Asia in the middle ages. Pinocchio: I wonder if they are paying the family of Carlo Collodi? I wouldn't pick on Disney if it weren't that they are one of the biggest supporters of changes to copyright laws. Plenty of other people benefit from works in the public domain and I'm sure many would love to receive increased protection for their derivative works. Fortunately there are still plenty that understand why and how the current laws work. And anyway, other people have written much better pieces about Disney's two-facedness on copyright. See here for example. Another argument I hear is that after 50 years the creator of a house or of a car do not have them taken away from them. This is just a ridiculous argument. For one, if we are saying that physical property is exactly analogous to intellectual property then it would seem that we should remove all rights. There is no equivalent protection in the physical world so why have it in the abstract world? But more reasonably, the creator of a car or house does not get financial reward every year after he's built it does he? The people who own that one physical object get any reward from living in it, using it or selling it on. In the mean time the builder has been paid once and perhaps used part of that money to pay into some form of pension for his and his family's future. More importantly than all of this is the fact that I like creations such as Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Its littered with characters from stories now in the public domain. How many more of these types of works would we see if copyrights keep getting perpetually extended? (For another misguided article on copyright (US) see A Great Idea Lives Forever. Shouldn’t Its Copyright? . And the wiki showing why the author is rather foolish here - Against perpetual copyright.)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:56:38 -0700 Blue Sky in Games http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/blue-sky-in-games http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/blue-sky-in-games

A couple of people have sent me links to the announcement of GTA 4 today. What they don't seem to realise is that all the GTA games are a bit rubbish. I seem to remember having a bit of fun in the top-down games (1 and 2?) but since then its gone seriously downhill and lost all its humour and fun. In fact I'm in full support of this campaign blue-sky-in-games-campaign-launched Yes, I know that is what's known as a humorous page; it is from one of my favourite sites (ukresistance; see also idiottoys). However it has some serious points to make, not least of which is that I like to play games to have a bit of fun, with bright colours and a high score table preferably. What happened to those games?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Thu, 08 Mar 2007 09:58:34 -0800 Phlebotomy http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/phlebotomy http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/phlebotomy I went for my first ever session of blood letting yesterday. I can't say I feel any better (nor worse) for the experience but hopefully someone can make good use of the blood given. The first chirurgeon decided that she couldn't find a suitably large vein in either arm so called over someone else. He simply said, this one will do here, jammed it in and said "we don't normally use that vein" and "it might bruise tomorrow". Nice. It didn't hurt though and I didn't get a bruise either. Not yet.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Wed, 07 Feb 2007 15:36:02 -0800 Thoughts on Music http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/thoughts-on-music http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/thoughts-on-music Steve Jobs has recently posted his "Thoughts on Music". Its very well worded; mainly, I think, to try to push any responsibility for DRM onto the big four (Universal, EMI, Sony BMG and Warner). Still it is interesting to note that Steve, and hence Apple inc., would drop DRM in a heartbeat if they didn't feel shackled by the music companies. Obviously this is passing the buck a little. At least publicly they don't appear to be putting pressure on anyone to change this behaviour. This open letter is definitely just the start of their response to a court case heading Apples way from Norway.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Tue, 06 Feb 2007 11:36:17 -0800 Common sense revolts at the idea http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/common-sense-revolts-at-the-idea http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/common-sense-revolts-at-the-idea http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6329851.stm 'An EU bid to make internet broadcasters subject to the same laws as traditional television is "seriously misguided", a House of Lords committee has said.' Sometimes the House of Lords does something to make me really glad that they exist. Now I'm no expert on the workings of our UK political system, but it seems to me that whenever I hear of a high profile case making its way to the House of Lords, they do the sensible thing. So whilst people may complain that its "staffed" by life peers and hereditary peers, that's fine by me whilst they continue to make the right decisions. I particularly like the way the all-party Lords European Union Committee rejected the changes, saying it was not the role of regulation to protect established broadcasters from new competition operating under different business models. (the title of the post is taken from a Court paper issued by Justice Douglas when, with a single paragraph, he erased hundreds of years of US property law. It was a case in 1903 where some farmers complained that airplanes were trespassing. According to the law at the time their property extended "an indefinite extent, upwards")

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Fri, 19 Jan 2007 11:17:08 -0800 Weather Anomolies http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/weather-anomolies http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/weather-anomolies It appears that when I went outside this morning I should have wrapped up warmer. Although a few miles down the road the temperature is much more pleasant. Sunny though:

Media_httpfarm1static_yfsdj

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Tue, 09 Jan 2007 11:53:11 -0800 Origami and Catching Up http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/origami-and-catching-up http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/origami-and-catching-up Well, for some reason people have asked me in real life if I've blogged recently. A bit strange that, 1) why would they care about the random shit I talk about here and 2) I was in the same room as them, why not ask me what I've been up to in real life, rather than asking if I've blogged about what I've been doing. Anyway... Origami That's what I've been up to. Lots of other things too, but origami seems like the most appropriate thing to blog about. MC bought me a lovely calendar which has a model per day (either a model or an example of new fold types and model bases). I've got a stream of photos on flickr showing each days example, and also a group on flickr for any other origami I do while learning.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Tue, 28 Nov 2006 21:40:45 -0800 Copyright confusion http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/copyright-confusion http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/copyright-confusion Err, this article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6186436.stm) seems to suggest that once your copyright runs out, in 50 years, you stop getting paid for your work. A bit odd that, you'd think you'd still get paid for your work, just that other people would no longer have to pay you to use it. Plus, of course, composers still get their 70 years worth of protection. Not that I had much respect for many members of the recording industry before, but honestly... I don't know what to say.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Thu, 23 Nov 2006 21:58:10 -0800 Moomins are great http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/moomins-are-great http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/moomins-are-great But strange. http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/moomin/index.php?id=1&

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker Mon, 25 Sep 2006 16:46:32 -0700 word games http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/word-games http://www.darkmuse.co.uk/word-games Here's a fantastic little (big) word game: http://shygypsy.com/farm If you want to link to mine then you can do that from this link. Bear in mind that this will spoil lots of the fun (misery): http://shygypsy.com/farm/p.cgi?state=nppjklnaanjjbdnpdfmlpdljolkbpdlhgphhipel...

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1065952/garybob.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hdKd7ShKJ2lPs Gary Barker darkmuse Gary Barker