The Smoking Gnu has cracked my computer!

[tealin]

Error message on my computer:

The semaphore timeout period has expired.

Never seen that one before ...



BBC Quote of the Day:
Money can't buy you love, nor can you purchase happiness, but you can buy ecstasy.

This journal does not condone the drug trade or recreational stupidity ... it was just funny.

Comments

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

*waves flags madly*

[octaveleap.livejournal.com]

The... what timeout period?

Sounds like a band name. Or a kind of fairy.

[jamiegoucher.livejournal.com]

Wha???

[azvolrien.livejournal.com]

I've never even heard of that error message... And there was I thinking that technology had progressed so much further than waving flags around.

According to my local museum (and some thought), the Clacks are based on the Murray shutter telegraph, which four hundred years ago was the fastest way of getting a message from Aberdeen to Edinburgh.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Yes! Yes they were! Do you know how long it took me to find George Murray's name? Searching for semaphore tower reference was like pulling teeth, but once I got his name, I found a book at the library that had pictures! Pictures!! Hence the ecstatic post (http://www.livejournal.com/users/twirlynoodle/2005/05/04/) from last May.

[azvolrien.livejournal.com]

There was this wee interactive screen, where you had to choose from three scenarios and get a message across in the fastest way possible. For that one it was ship to Aberdeen: Fire a cannon. Aberdeen to Edinburgh: Clacks (sort of). Edinburgh to London: Carrier pigeon.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I think it's rather closer to two hundred years, actually. Being roughly around the turn of the eighteenth/nineteenth centuries. If memory serves. I didn't know they had a line in Scotland; I had only heard of the Portsmouth-London line. You learn something new every day...

[azvolrien.livejournal.com]

I can't really remember; I seem to recall something about the scenario being set in the 1600s.

[http://users.livejournal.com/__lys_fleurx__/]

you know you can use your deviant art as a host,

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I, um ... don't have DA. And it's still got bandwidth limitations.

That icon rocks.

[rosynose.livejournal.com]

Good Lord, the BBC really are going downhill these days ;)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

It was something someone said on Just a Minute, so it was totally improv'd and not at all serious. (whew!) The subject was 'Ecstasy' and he got buzzed just after saying this line for repeating 'buy,' but managed to get it all out and got a good reaction.

[inkblot-fiend.livejournal.com]

Just a Minute rocks! But I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue is my favourite. I just love Humphey Littleton's voice (if I haven't got confused with the name. I may have. I just like the guy who presents I'm Sorry...). A minibus journey can be whiled away quite happily playing Cheddar Gorge.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

ISIHAC is great, too! One Song to the Tune of Another has enriched my life in beautiful ways ... who'd have thought the words of Bob the Builder would fit so well into The Girl from Ipanema?

[inkblot-fiend.livejournal.com]

hahah! Now that's quality radio! I think Samantha may be the best radio presenter ever, heh. I now must listen to the new one, which I managed to miss AGAIN. Sigh.

I've just got to crack the rules of Mornington Crescent ... I know I'm almost there...

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

http://www.mornington-crescent-rule.fsnet.co.uk/mornington-crescent-rules.htm

Of course, with all the variations and different rule sets, having a list of rules might be irrelevant....

[inkblot-fiend.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's just ... obscure! Now I have to learn the rules and play properly... it may take some time and a 50s Street Atlas but I think it's possible!

[nikitaspy.livejournal.com]

Oh yes! Song crossovers can be surprisingly hilarious. Try If tomorrow never comes to the tune of Baby one more time.

[infiniteviking]

? Perhaps it wanted to dress up as a clacks tower but realized November's too late.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Heehee, maybe.

Maybe it's been a bad semaphore tower and had to go stand in the corner, but now its time out is over.

[infiniteviking]

*hysterical at the image of a semaphore tower hanging its head in dejection*

[paddita.livejournal.com]

Money can't buy you love, nor can you purchase happiness, but you can buy ecstasy.

True dat. ::dies:: Love the BBC quotage.

Pedantic mode: semaphores

[disassembly_rsn]

:) Y'all make semaphores sound so much more interesting than they are (or at least, than they can be when one is struggling through learning to use them correctly).

Metaphorically, you *can* think of them as little signal flags. :)

It's been years since I learned to work with them, so the following explanation will only try to provide a general idea of what they are.

Basically, if you've got something that has to be shared by two or more processes on a computer, such that they have to take turns with it and can't use it at the same time, a semaphore is a way of keeping them from getting in each other's way. Whenever the resource is in use by a process, the semaphore flag is set so that if another process comes along and wants the resource, it "sees" the semaphore and waits its turn rather than trying to grab the resource. Once the current process finishes with the resource, it resets the semaphore so that anybody else who comes along will know that the resource is free.

All that said, I don't recall seeing that error message either.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Fascinating... that's actually kind of what I was doing.

[sparrowofjack.livejournal.com]

What? Directing data-traffic with flags? XD

[spicedfries.livejournal.com]

"Whoever said money can't buy happiness forgot about puppies."

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Whoever said that happiness equals puppies was obviously not a cat person.

[ubiquitouspitt.livejournal.com]

Puppies make me happy. After the first helping. But they're a little sour, microwaved.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

On today's episode of Genius someone suggested that the new weapon of war be a puppy gun, because no one would feel like fighting with adorable puppies around.

They went on to add that the puppies could then explode with the force of a howitzer, which unfortunately lost them the coveted Genius trophy.

[(Anonymous)]

I was just wondering...have you ever read the book Eragon? I'm just interested to see how you would make the characters (especially dragons) because I absolutely love your drawings.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I'm not really that much into dragons, really... you may notice a significant absence of magical creatures amongst my drawings.

[ubiquitouspitt.livejournal.com]

No recreational stupidity?! Did I wander onto the wrong webpage..?

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Weeeellll... recreational stupidity of the non-chemical kind.

Not counting caffeine.

But then, I'd hardly endorse coffee-related stupidity, it's just sometimes an unfortunate side-effect.