Author: ChrisC

New Toy – Old UK Maps.

The National Library of Scotland has placed parts of it’s rather a nice collection of old maps online. It’s all very modern – slippy, google maps style pages abound – and predominantly released under permissive licences. It is not, however, easy to get a full map for reuse in a school report or similar.

So I’ve run up a little code, grabbed some of the maps and put them on a new sub-site here. These maps are licensed by the NLS (as opposed to being in the public domain) and this license has carried down to my derivative work. As of writing, there are only seven of them, but I have several hundred more ready to go up shortly and a block of several thousand more to go up at some point after that.

Headless RDP for Fun and Profit

This solution has been checked on Windows 2019 fully patched as-of spring 2022. Other Windows variations may require tweaks. Those on *nix-based platforms looking to create a headless connection to a Windows host should skip the Windows related initial instructions.

Why?

Some applications are just not suited to running as a Windows Services – indeed some applications, such as those which require a full Windows desktop context, cannot be run as a plain Windows Service. One of the possible ways to get around this limitation is to run them under a fully scripted remote desktop instance – the remote user receiving a standard Windows Desktop experience with all the pros and cons this entails – however the default client available on Windows does not allow such a headless connect. Fortunately, newer releases of Windows – including Windows 2019 and Windows 10 – are able to run several versions of Linux as applications.

Continue reading “Headless RDP for Fun and Profit”

Pulp

And today with have two Pulp documentaries.

No Sleep Till Sheffield: Pulp Go Public (1995)

Short and not particularly deep but a lovely throwback to the mid-90s. Also old enough that it still has (for whatever reason!) a random spot of Gary Glitter.

The Story Of… Pulp’s Common People (2006)

Longer and somewhat more in-depth, though with a tendency to wander off – the pub analysis was un-needed – and stray from from the narrative under construction. No obvious disgraced celebrities feature in this one but there was a small callout out to Rolf Harris and his stylophone.

’90s Dad Thrillers: A List

Dad Thrillers share certain thematic and narrative concerns. They are generally stories of men, often with families, professional degrees, and successful careers, who find themselves unexpectedly battling bureaucracy, conspiracy, irrational violence, imminent natural disaster, or some combination of the above as they confront an existential threat to their, their family, their country, or their planet’s safety.

’90s Dad Thrillers: a List
Notes toward a theory of the Dad Thriller
Max Read

I have to admit that I do carry a secret torch what the above author terms as ’90s Dad Thrillers and, in some ways, mourn their passing. I’ve have, over the past few years or so, had the chance to dip back into some of the movies he references – films like The Hunt for Red October, Enemy of the State and Dante’s Peak, films that have just enough ersatz smarts to make you feel like your not watching mind-rotting trash, but dumb and kinetic enough that the eternal twin distractions of a beer and a laptop don’t feel like they’d overwhelm the entire story.

Perhaps – once Covid and the MCU and influence of China have all faded – one glorious day they’ll see a resurgence and a renewal. I think I’m probably already ready for that day.