Assuming you have an ftp server or have access to one and you want an incompetent person to send you or download files from you and they’re behind a firewall/router/NAT etc.

From experience I’ve found the following usefull (for a quick download file):

1. Firstly download wget for windows
2. Modify the following batch file to your needs:
   @echo.
wget --passive-ftp --tries=0 ftp://username:password@ftp.host.com:21/file.zip
@echo.
3. wrap both files into a zip and email it to them.

Alternatively you can get a bit more complex with the following (should you want the other person to upload a file to you):

1. You first need to know the exact file name that the user wants to send to you … preferably make them name it simple like “file.zip”
2. Modify the following file to your needs:
   
echo open>send.ftp
echo ftp.host.com 21>>send.ftp
echo username>>send.ftp
echo password>>send.ftp
echo quote pasv>>send.ftp
echo hash>>send.ftp
echo send file.zip>>send.ftp
echo quit>>send.ftp
echo exit>>send.ftp
ftp -s:send.ftp
del send.ftp
3. Email, them this batch file and tell them to save it in the same location as the file they want to send you.

This last example generates a send.ftp file with the login commands then executes the command line ftp client refering to the file generated. Then it deletes the send.ftp file for a nice clean action.

Tada, a hastle(ish) free file transfer between an idiot and yourself.

Notes:
username = the username of the ftp account
password = ditto
ftp.host.com = your ftp host
21 = the port number

I’ve chosen to use zip as the file extension as from windows 2000 zip files can opened without a 3rd party application.

Today I was upgrading to the latest MySQL version and in so doing I went and deleted the old install. Thats all normal apart from when you forget to copy the data directory over, and thus losing everything since the last backup I did 3 weeks ago. Now I suppose you could specify your data directory to be outside of the installation directory but still, you have to back it up.

Basically what I’ve done is the following; made a batch file which stops the mysql service, add the data directory to a rar file named to the current date (using WinRAR‘s command line executable) and then restarting the mysql service. Once having done this, I set windows scheduler to run this script once a day.

Hope this is usefull!

mysql-backup.bat:
@echo.
cd backup
net stop mysql
"C:\Program Files\WinRAR\Rar.exe" a -r -agYYYYmmdd MySQL-.rar ..\mysql-4.1.7-win\data*
net start mysql
cd ..
@echo.

Friday night, home alone as per usual; with nobody to share the time with. I’ve been the past 3 years telling myself I’m going to watch this film. In fact, it is 3 years and 6 days since I got this film.

Lets just back up a little, the film in question is The Family Man, with Nicholas Cage and Téa Leoni and to be perfectly honest I’ve been 3 years wanting to watch a film that all I knew about it was the following, who the main actor was, what the title is and what the cover picture looks like. The very sad thing is I’ve not even seen the trailer or read the review.

Slight digression; do you ever get that or is it just me? You have the urge to do something you know nothing about or what will happen but you have a gut feeling that you’re going to like it??

Well as I predicted, I totally loved this film, having just finished watching it, not less than 10 minutes ago. I absolutely can relate with this film in so many ways that it is untrue; I have projected myself in the main character’s situation so many times that it was nice to see a film about this idea.

I can’t even begin to tell you the story without totally spoilling it, so I wont. Don’t read the reviews, don’t ask a friend about it and don’t watch it as a time-filler whilst waiting for the main show to come on. This is a film you might want to watch alone some time when you have nothing better to do than watch this film.

This film isn’t a cinematic triumph where the acting/story/filming/direction is terribly original. In fact, it is just a film with a story similar to that of many other morality films. I just like the execution of it, it caught me at the right moment and it was terribly enjoyable.

I like to think of it as:
…how you can have a whole load of ordinary ingredients and knock out a very pleasing dish.

This film was exactly that.

Ironically, I was thinking how “thinking” is probably the worsed thing for me. So, I tried to think of a way to stop thinking, which then perpetuated my frustration to the point I had to think of a way out of the loop.

The “how” of how I came to this conclusion was based upon a reflection of the past 4 years of my life, in which has been largely occupied (mentally) with that of the opposite sex. Varying from as far as understanding them, to what would make me more attractive to them, how in previous situations/relationships/scenarios I’ve falling short of success, managed to totally be hated, or just why are they so damn hard to get on with. Generally the conclusion is that I am the one at fault since you surely can’t generalise all females to being the same (or can you?). What I have noticed based on this analysis is that the more I learn about them, and the more confident that I wont screw the next one up, I generally end up doing a bigger cock up than that of the time before and thus; the (simplified) conclusion, the smarter I get the worse I am off, QED.

How can I resolve this problem? I have several options available, most of them involve me either dying or being hit very hard on my head so that I don’t remember who I am.

It can be thought; that as we get older and our demands are relatively more humble/simplified than they were before (way back when, when our perfect mate would have x,y and z characteristics and not have a,b, and c habits and enjoy m,n and o activities) and the easier you try and make the equation the worse the result renders you… perhaps being blindly stubborn and very set on what you demand/expect would render you a better result.

Of course, concluding this only makes it wrong, and thus the whole thing is speculatory.

I’ve been intending to write a little story thingy here about my recent ex. That in itself is already deemed to be petty. After several drafts of writing this little story, I finally, truly and thoroughly realized that regardless of how well the damn thing is written, that there is no possible way I could ever publish it.

The fact remains; it is still petty!

I am pretty much hurt by the whole todo. I gave it my best and still end up being short. Although, the thing that always gets me about break-ups is the fact that the girl (in the relationship) always hops off in no time at all to the arms of another guy’s embrace. Granted they cried the loudest and got the most sympathy so I guess thats what I’m not doing, but still. I always figured if you end a relationship you need some resting time before the next, sort of a love detox.

Now I’m guessing, you could consider this post as being a story telling under the pretence of not telling and I would suppose it is. Although I like to think that, I spared you all the gorey details of it which is sort of good. I have these throws of anger when I think about it for too long and generally it looses all objectivity.

I’m guessing the real point of this post is to ask; why does it always seem that the girl get over the guy in no time at all, whilst the guy generally end up hurt the longest?!

I personally don’t like to think that I actually get over them, I just learn to deal with it. The difference there being the fact that you don’t forget. I think that I’m loosing objectivity here so I’ll shut up and run away.

Let me just say before I begin; I had to get this film twice because the first time of watching it made me so filthily angry that I stopped watching it and deleted the avi files.

So yesterday afternoon, feeling open-minded enough to see this film and give it a fair chance, I sat down to watch it again. The only difference from the last time was that I forced myself to finish it so that my judgement would be fair by saying that I managed to complete it.

Several people I know have said what a wonderfull film “masterpiece” this film was and how the ending is so unexpected. Which to me, would mean that Björk stopped trying to act and actually acted and the whole story would turn out unexpectedly, as in that revolutionary moment in Fight Club where Brad Pitt turns out to be just a figment of Edward Norton’s imagination. Alas, the ending wasn’t unexpected. The story for those of you who haven’t seen it is basically this:

• Björk is a Czech immigrant in the US working in a factory.
• She has failing eye-sight from some genetic issue that renders the person blind by the age of X.
• …and has a son who is likely to have the same blindness issue.
• She lives in a shack at the bottom of the garden of the local town’s Sheriff, who is having financial issues from his wife’s expenditure.
• Due to the possibility of her son contracting the same crippling disease Björk saves every penny she can pay for an operation for her son.
• The Sheriff somehow ends up with her money (good on him)
• She kills him… somewhat blindly (which was worth a giggle)
• Pays for her son’s operation gets arrested court case finds her guilt in the first degree and thus she’d be hung
• she gets hung… the end

Obviously there is more to it, like the absolutely atrocious noise that Björk hithers to claim as “music” popping out everywhere throughout the film.

The filming technique was some what “progressive” in so far as to say that they didn’t bother using a tripod or tools which would of made the filming smoother. If you like to shakey and irratic filming, this is the film for you. Alas, I really was not impressed.

Now call me traditional, but there was absolutely no theme music, or backing to the whole film it was just filled with awkward silences much like that of a reality TV show along with the shakey camera made it absolute poor.

Lastly; the acting was purely focused on trying to help idiotface (Björk) remember her lines, you could see it in the other actors’ faces trying to word her lines out for her.

Very very very last thing ever… Why would a Czech immigrant in the USA have a cockney accent, then disapear back into a poxy Icelandic accent?

Conclusion:
This film was good. No, I mean it! There is so much to learn from this film. We can see the errors of their ways and we can therefore improve upon this.

I understand that this opinion is somewhat extreme and not everyone will agree with my opinion so please… air your opinion too.

I woke this morning realizing I commited the greatest sin toward education ever. I’ve become too confident. Having had a month to do a relatively simple report I gave myself the night before submission to do it in… consequently, I found out that I was actually unable to do it. I need to submit in late as I simply cannot submit it in its present condition. I feel as though I have cheated myself here and really cannot put the words together to express my utter frustration.

It has occured to me today that I have not expressed my opinion about subliminal trends that everyone finds themselves subscribed to. Firstly let me explain what a subliminal trend is. So we’re at the year 2004 and I’m a 24 year old male, I find myself, like everyone else around me doing things exactly like they do, I walk around with my hair in one or two different styles; the messy look, or the messier look. My t-shirts are never tucked in as clearly that would be wrong and of course I have to wear my rucksack on one shoulder not two (although that now is changing in current trends which I’ll mention a bit more later).

So what am I refering to? Yes, you’ve guessed it! We all seem to follow implicit trends irrespective of our followings according to our culture and generation. You’ll find that your regular rude-boy will wear his t-shirt untucked just like a goth will and the fact they both wear t-shirts says it all.

Wait, I hear you cry! I am only describing 20 something males living in London… hold on one second. This is the same all over, any generation does exactly the same at any part of the world, funny thing being is that these subliminal/implicit trends expire and are replaced with others.

So, I find myself walking around in public with a t-shirt on (and not tucking it in), with my hair a mess and find myself questioning why the hell am I doing exactly the same as everyone around me, with no good reason to. Does wearing a t-shirt make you more sociably acceptable?

I’m not a fashionable person, as you can well imagine by the way that I have written the present entry. In fact I’d consider myself anti-fashion. Gone are the days of me deliberatly wearing clothes that are purposely irritating to others in a lame attempt to make people to wake up; yet I still feel forced to not adhere to this subliminal subscription of irrational personal presentation.

Why does wearing a t-shirt tucked in seem wrong? much like; turn-ups on trousers?

Just me thinking again.

Was getting into the bath this evening… (as usual, this is my source of inspiration)… I found myself passing over the idea that perhaps, the answer to life or even: the answer to anything beyond the realm of our understanding, is a never ending loop that has no solution. For example;

Look at how we create machines to solve problems we are unable to answer, do the machines really have an awareness of their creator. To clarify, I am really only refering to computers at present. We input data or manipulate it but the computer itself only deals with that which you give it to handle, it may not even be aware that the data inputted has been invoked by an external source outside the constrains of its environment.

This lead me to think about ourselves, the concept that we’re just organic machines is no stranger to me; so what if we were made by that of another kind? We only can conjure in our minds to the limits of our environment and that being: proven science and mathematics. What I am trying to get at; our environment of the universe and everything in it that seems somewhate infinite could be just a generated platform for our functionality. No, I don’t mean we’re not living inside TRON (1982) although at the same time this film can help illustrate the concept I am trying to communicate.

Imagine computers several thousand of generations down the line, with advanced operating systems that allow them to question. Would they, within the constraints of their operating system, be able to appreciate that they were actually created and being used?

This idea came to me when thinking about how we naturally do things that sometimes are displeasing to others, how even when we know things to be wrong we find ourselves doing things. To digress a little: look at how a river meanders, we can explain that this is due to changing in soil properties and erosion patterns etc. and yet that is not what I am trying to get at. Man, tries to stop a river from wearing its way through %whatever% and the river will respond accordingly there seems to be a level of communication we are failing to see or respect.

Another example; my neighbours the other week decided to get very drunk and play music to the limit of their music equipment. This in turn, made me angry and ask them repeatedly to have consideration for others and to turn it down to within a reasonable limit. After several hours; my rage was such that, I kicked their door down, stormed in and humbled the person into doing as I demanded. The point in this story being; that perhaps the whole situation was generated not deliberately as thus, not for such a simple result but on a far more calculated approach to have repercussion much further a field, in either manipulating: (i) The present and / or (ii) The future. The present being, due to the fact I, kicked the door down then later called the landlord; effectively could of stopped someone from calling the landlord or the landlord calling them in which invoked the other person contemplating a notion that he/she would not of considered had the telephone conversation occurred and thus changing their life on such a fractional level that it made a large difference. Alternatively, the future; perhaps this animosity now generated by my neighbour and I would cause either of us to react or behave differently in the future. Perhaps walking down the street crossing paths and either of us looking the other way would render a different day and therefore a different life and different effects on the whole of man’s history.

Who knows? The conclusion is; there isn’t an answer, we’re just tools of our own impulses follow them and see where they take us!

Subnote: Another notion from this that occurred to me I think it amusing that we input so much of our resources to research those answers we seek and we’ll end our resources before we get any usefull answer; I wonder if our creator is doing the same.

I guess you win some and you loose some. I got the results of that maths test I did back before reading week; the one in which I stayed back after the end of the day to hammer out. I ended up getting: 30/100. I smirked when I got it, how the hell I managed to do something so absolutely abismal escapes me.

Weekend again, got things to do with regards to my studies, 3 pieces of assignment work and a web site template for keith (the guy on netgamers).