Simon Rumble’s blog

Why is it that some torrents of video files come as mutiple RAR archives? I just don't get why they force us through the extra step. For example, I just got the latest episode of The IT Crowd (the second series is heaps better than the rather disappointing first, BTW). The AVI file was 174 megs. The RARed archives totalled 172 megs. Was two megs, a 1% reduction, really worth adding an extra step?

So is there some hidden advantage I'm missing here?

Update: Richard Eldred explains that some distribution methods use free upload sites and the pieces are so it can be easily uploaded, and there are scripts to do the uploading and distribution. He suggests lazy distributors don't bother to torrent the main file.

Michael Kedzierski suggests it's because of USENET. The episodes are probably sourced from news, then put on torrents.

Both explanations make sense actually. Thanks guys.

Some obscure accounting software company called 2Clix is suing Whirlpool for comments made in its forums. I suspect their problem is that a search for 2Clix gets lots of threads Statement of Claim, I'm even more convinced this company has taken exactly the wrong approach. Reading between the lines they're claiming that the supposedly false statements in the threads were made by a malicious third party, like a competitior or disgruntled ex-employee. If they really want to make this claim, they're going after the wrong person. What they should have done is attempted to find the identity of the posters, filing a subpoena against Whirlpool to get IP addresses and the like. But it sounds like they're either stupid or very badly advised.

Some obscure accounting software company called 2Clix is suing Whirlpool for comments made in its forums. I suspect their problem is that a search for 2Clix gets lots of threads Statement of Claim, I'm even more convinced this company has taken exactly the wrong approach. Reading between the lines they're claiming that the supposedly false statements in the threads were made by a malicious third party, like a competitior or disgruntled ex-employee. If they really want to make this claim, they're going after the wrong person. What they should have done is attempted to find the identity of the posters, filing a subpoena against Whirlpool to get IP addresses and the like. But it sounds like they're either stupid or very badly advised.

There's recently been a bit of talk about Firefox and Adblock Plus, with wild claims about it being immoral to block ads.

For those of you who haven't worked it out, the web doesn't have to be a place filled with popping up, flashing, zinging, annoying advertising getting in the way of the content. By simply installing a more secure, better browser with an ad blocking extension, the web becomes blissfully ad-free. No more trying to read text while a neighbouring advertisement competes for your eye.

Now there's even a campaign to block Firefox itself, adblock or no, which is pretty hilarious. I have to say I haven't found any sites that have redirected me to this, which probably says something about the types of sites that might block Firefox.

The argument they make is that advertising pays for the content, so it's wrong to use the content without the ads. Here's a tip guys: find another way to make money. By this logic, making a cup of tea during the ad breaks on television is also morally wrong.

They also say it's wrong to use the site's bandwidth without looking at the ads. So do they also block search engines and the like, which have no human being to watch the ads?

Want to know why I've blocked ads for many many years? Punch the monkey to find out.

Hunting through Google Analytics, one of the stats reported is screen colours. It seems there's been a number of hits using 1-bit browsers. That must be a pretty poor experience. The two hits with a 520-bit display must see something pretty impressive! You'd need more new primary colours than just squant to make that worthwhile!

Holly and I were talking about various things we'd like to buy for our new house and the usual grumbles about Australian web sites came up. Searching for things like fitted wardrobes or kitchens brings up lots of paid search links, so there's clearly companies out there actively marketing online. The problem comes about when you want to get some kind of ballpark figure for the costs. It's no good them telling you all about the wonderful materials they use and their superior design skills if you need a Packer-sized fortune to pay for it.

Most of these sites' call-to-action is an email form or phone number, promising a quote at some undetermined point in the future. They expect the browser to go through the effort of specifying exactly what they want without any idea if they can even afford a doorknob from the supplier.

So we had an idea for this. Combine a "portfolio" section on the web site with pricing information. Show some recent jobs, preferably a range of designs, styles and budgets, and most importantly show how much you charged. You could get really creative with this kind of thing, including all sorts of details like the brief, comments from the customer, some rough size and material specifications.

Sure beats a mailto asking you to get in touch for a quote!

Holly and I went up to Sydney Park to watch the total lunar eclipse. Pretty amazing sight, even in the middle of a very light polluted city!

Loads more photos.

Since returning from the UK, I've been massively underwhelmed with the way Australian business has embraced the Internet. While most companies now have web sites, they're invariable brochureware of the 1998 variety. Things really haven't moved on yet, even in industries that aren't that complex.

I tried multiple times to move my gas an electricity services to new suppliers online, to either reach an email form or to submit my request only for... absolutely nothing to happen.

The big retailers tend to have little more than (clunky) store finder and links to PDFs of their latest catalogues, and nothing like a comprehensive listing of their products.

It's really quite disappointing that things have stagnated so much. So it was refreshing when recently I experienced amazing online customer service from a very unlikely service.

As we're buying a house, I ordered a catalogue of fruit trees from Daleys based up in Kyogle near the Queensland border. The extensive catalogue arrived, with the latest availability listing and prices, a couple of days later. So far so impressive.

A week or so later, I get an email from them checking it arrived and asking if I have any questions. So I ask a few questions about suitability for the Sydney climate and planting times, and get a response shortly afterwards. The exchanges were all tracked in a ticketing system (I'm guessing something like RT from the format) so the conversation will be archived, they can have escalation procedures to enforce service levels. Amazing!

This from a tiny tree nursery business run from the hippy-heavy Northern NSW hinterlands. They've got all the ingredients for brilliant customer service: good infrastructure, a simple business model, enthusiastic staff and a basic CRM system. Hippies. Northern NSW. Tree farmers.

So what the hell is wrong with Australia's big companies?

Earle just posted the search terms starting with "how" used to reach The Open Guide to London and I thought I'd check it out in my Google Analytics account for my own site. Quite enlightening. The first one is the most popular with two unique visitors. Who'd a thought?

how to piss people off at work
how do i get sound working
how far is sofia to skopje
how to aero bar recipe
how to get over bad decisions
how to get sound working in linux
how to piss people off
how to speed up sis 630

In answer to the Skopje question: a seemingly very long way if you're driving with the suicidal maniac driving the minibus we were in!

While we were travelling through Europe, the sign that a building was truly old was that it was covered in scaffolding. Sure, these buildings really need their maintenance, but it's kinda annoying. I don't think I've seen Notre Dame scaffold-free, ever. Ditto St Pauls.

Enter computer scientists James Hays and Alexei Efros who've got a great paper detailing an amazing system they've built. You can chop a chunk out of a photo and it will replace it seamlessly, drawing on a large database of photos taken from the net. Also works for annoying tourists walking through your carefully lined-up photo. Brilliant!