The site was down for quite a few hours today during which period none of the posts were able to be accessed. I did not notice it until a little while ago which really sucks.

Anyhow there was an issue with the permalinks for some reason which has now been resolved and it should continue to work without issue from here on out.

I am attempting to come out of my drunken stupor and actually begin posting again. This is mainly driven by the fact that since I have stopped posting my readership has actually increased over the last six months from an average of 100 unique hits a month to well over 500 a month.

For your interest here are the two top rating articles on snatchbot.net that attract the most attention;

http://snatchbot.net/2009/01/11/game-wars-the-console-wars/

http://snatchbot.net/2008/07/14/asus-eeepc-the-ultraportable-myth/

The interesting thing about the EEEpc article is that it is well over a year old and yet continues to receive the highest ratio of hits on this site, most of them from google or referrals. Another interesting item of note is that traditional publishing organisations are only now beginning to state what I stated well over a year ago. The netbook is dead. The only problem with that is that it was dead on arrival to begin with.

The hype is dead, long live the hype!

You may wonder what I have been doing as of late and I am finally ready to roll out and bring some quick updates to the table.

First of all the forums are currently down due to an issue with the domain name that I am currently attempting to resolve, should be back up within a few days or so.

I have spent much of the last 2-3 years playing the multi player modification SA:MP. It is a modification which allows for multiplayer features for the Rock Star title GTA: San andreas, further information can be found by visiting the site www.sa-mp.com. If you have enjoyed any of the titles in the series I highly recommend you download it and give it a try. There is a large community in both Australia and abroad and the game is continually evolving.

I have launched a server which can be accessed using the following details:

HostName: Snatchworks: GTA SAMP | Old school meets new age
Address:  118.127.5.150:7777
Players:  0 / 16
Ping:     31
Mode:     LV DM~MG+Landgrab 2.
Map:      San Andreas

In conjunction with this I have also launched my own IRC server which can be accessed using IRC.SNATCHBOT.NET, please feel free to use it for any and all discussion that you may see fit.

I will probally get around to updating the site within the next few days so stay tuned for more.

Well the last Apple delivered Keynote at MacWorld has now passed and the reaction to it is a mixed one. Here are some quotes from various forums minutes after the keynote.

“no iMac, no Mac mini, terribly disappointed”

“Could this be Apple at its peak, and it’s all down hear from now?”

“Put me down for +100 disappointed. I was hoping to get a new iMac that hasn’t been announced. Mega annoyed.”

“Quite disappointing as well for me. No Mac Mini. No iMac. No iPhone Nano.”

Welcome to the reason that Apple is leaving MacWorld behind in the dust. Too many users on garbage forums and Apple blogs getting themselves worked up for weeks about products that nobody ever said existed and items nobody could prove were coming.

I mean how stupid can these people really be? I actually saw a story of one guy that said he stayed up all night with his button on the Mac Mini waiting to press buy now!

All night? You stayed up all night for a product that you were hoping would receive a refresh and then when its not announced you throw a tanty and claim the downfall of apple?

Everytime these giant trade shows rock around each yeah the Apple faithful whip themselves into a rabid frenzy just foaming at the mouth feeding themselves off the hype created by the Ad driven Apple faithfull websites and each year Apples stock takes a nose dive following these presentations when they fail to release an iPod/iMac that masturbates you while playing a fine selection of cold play while also copying and pasting for no good reason oh and lets not forget that it must cost no more then 300 dollars and be a NETBOOK!

No wonder people think we Mac Users are stupid……

Well I have been pretty lazy up until this point but to all of those who I promised forums would eventually be created I have now upheld this promise.

Behold!

snatchbot.net/forums

Feel free to join and post anything you would like, users are encouraged to annoy, fight and stir trouble. Read something in the news? Want to shove your opinion down someones throat about it? You have reached the right place. Dont forget to spread the word and what not as you do.

I will eventually add a link to it at the top but for now dont be lazy and just type it into your goddamn browser.

Well I was going to write something important here however the effort involved seems legendary. I have instead replaced it with the below sentence:

Good riddance to the central coast of NSW

During my time in IT I have worked in many fields including WebHosting. One of the most common calls received during my time as first level support was one the following;

“PHP does not/or I cant get it working on my account, what the hell is wrong?”

This of course could mean anything to a first level staff member and due to that fact it may take more time then it should to resolve such an issue. This script should simply show that their is in fact in most cases nothing wrong with the PHP install or your account but rather with the script that you are trying to use.

The first thing you may want to try before calling or emailing to see if there is an issue is to try this very basic well known little snippet. Just follow what is written below;

(1) Create a new text file on your local PC

(2) Inside of the file add the following text:

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

(3) Save the file as info.php and upload it to your web directory with your webhost. This is most commonly public_html or similar.

Provided you have followed the steps above you should be able to browse to it in your browser by using the following:

www.domain-name.com/info.php

If you get a page filled with text showing you information in regards to the install then that means that your PHP install is fine and that as said earlier it may in fact be either an issue with your script, or could be with a feature of PHP that your host is not using or has limited for some reason.

I would suggest when you do call your hosting company that you provide them with the link first thing to stop them from running around with their silly little heads cut off. While they should already know the information presented to them it may also assist when you ask about a particular feature or setting. It also shows them that you have already undertaken some basic troubleshooting.

Keep an eye out in future as I shall continue to update with just some basic everyday stuff to help you get the most out of your hosting and or your support.

Regards,
Insidius

We all reach a point in our life where we decide that it is time to move on in life.

Be it relationships, work or even where we choose to live, sooner or later you are going to have to move on. You may not know what lies ahead however that is of course half the adventure and you must be prepared to take whatever life may throw at you.

I have decided for the betterment of both my career and of course social life that now is one of those times. After much torture, much time off and very little sleep I have secured a new unit in which to live.

I currently live in an area with a very high elderly population and an equally high number of unemployed. It is a location which offers very little to most of those who live there and is in fact quite often seen as a trap which somehow manages to suck you in so that you may never leave.

I have now secured a property on the fringe of the city in quite a nice area. In order to cut down the length I shall be listing some key points regarding the location below;

(1) A lot closer to where I work, about 30 minutes by train
(2) Close to train station (5 min walk)
(3) Close to shops/entertainment
(4) Most importantly I shall be pretty much living on the Old Pacific highway

Why is point four important you ask? Well if you are not a motorcycle rider then you just wont get it

Onto the unit itself rather then the specific area, first the not so great points;

(1) More expensive by about 50 a week
(2) Smaller
(3) Studio, hence bed must go in loungeroom

Now those points do not actually bother me that much. I live in a two bedroom place now however no longer use one room as I spend all the time in the loungeroom anyway. The whole have your bed in your loungeroom thing is a little odd but I intend to partition it off and have it seperate.

The good points;

(1) Aircon
(2) Balcony
(3) 500 Metres from the exchange (DSL down at about 19000)
(4) Pool and Spa
(5) Lock up secure underground parking

All in all I am looking forward to the move which will occur sometime in the next month. The real esate informed me that my application was excellent which also pleases me.

Anyway at this point the post really is too long meaning noone will ever read it so with that I bid you farewell.

Looking at the headline you may be led to believe that perhaps I have lost track of time and we are suddenly in backwards land and that any minute now I may begin to welcome the new year.

Far from it, I have simply healed enough to put into words the devastation encountered upon that day.

I had left work like any other day and parked in my usual spot at my local train station. Used my disk lock to latch the helmet ot the bike and looked the steering to prevent theft.

Had a nice full day at work, a little lighter then usual due to the fact that it was christmas the next day I would suppose. Bit of silliness and laughter and that sort of thing.

Left work at about 5PM with a freind to return home. Now to actually get to the carpark where I live you must go up and cross the street using a rather large walkway which then opens up into the carpark.

As I was crossing the walkway I had a gut wrenching feeling that something had gone horribly wrong so I stepped up the pace to ensure that nothing had happened to the bike.

As I rounded the corner into the carpark the most horrible site awaited me! The bike was on its side, scratched with fuel leaking everywhere.

With the help of a freind nearby I was able to lift the bike into an upright position while I inspected it for damage.

(a) Both side fairings damaged to the point of need replacement
(b) Front faring cracked and scratched with a large hole in centre
(c) Clutch level snapped clean off the joint
(d) Uknown item rubbing against chain
(e) Bent frame (the part that gives the top fairings their strength

All in all it will require having the frame repaired followed most likely by a full fairing replacement, not at all cheap let me tell you that.

Those of you that actually know me in real life are probally now expecting the part where I tell you that I went batshit insane and went looking for whoever has done this to kill them. Well I am sorry to say that no emotion went through my body at the time.

No sadness, no anger, no desire to kill in fact no negative points that I can recall at all. It did however further increase the destain that I have in general for most of the human race.

Thanks santa, your a legend!

I do of course realise that I often refer to adding and or improving sections of the site. This is often also backed up with promises to post more content soon and what not and so forth.

Not so long ago I added a mambo install to take care of this however I am not left realising that it is really too powerful and large for what I really want.

As I have very little content at this point to offer other then these posts I have decided on a much simpler layout. I have been working on a simply 3-4 page layout and will have just normal links from the top of the page for content not quite related to this blog.

Just random things such as downloads and reviews of products which I own, nothing much to really hang out for.

Anymore more in coming days.