Vista Overview

PC Magazine posted a nice Vista overview.

So far I have been using the media center on an Amd 2500xp with 756 (or so) RAM and wasnt very impressed. Sure it looks nice, but not THAT impressive. Also tried readyboost, and though the usb stick's light was constantly flashing it didnt make a bit of difference. Furthermore the harddisk always seems to be busy. And this was just while browsing the web with FireFox (cant stand IE7's interface or lack thereof). So on that particular PC i am back with MCE 2005, which works like a charm :).

And on my main pc, that i use to game / email / surf etc, I am not going to try it for a long time. It's pretty stable with XP sp2 and I havent seen any features on Vista that I care for...

Microsoft missing the podcast boat

Good article over at Geeknews. I have to agree. It's curious why Microsoft has left off any podcast support off the Zune and Windows Media Player 11. Even their new feedreader in IE7 doesnt support automatically downloading RSS enclosures, supposedly for security reasons. And now that podcasting is really taking off, it seems like Microsoft is missing the boat.

tags: microsoft, zune, podcasting

FireFox 2.0

Firefox 2.0 has been released ! I was already running RC3 and without even noticing it went to 2.0 ;). Very nice improvement, I already wrote about it in a previous post. There are also a bunch of new banners and buttons available, like the one below,  to put on your site and/or blog at the affliates page.

Cnet review 

PC Magazine

Yahoo News Link

The power of blogging

Jan Pronk has become a Persona Non Grata in Sudan, thanks to his blog ;). This goes to show how powerful blogging has become, when governments are afraid of the opinions expressed in blogs !

Jan Pronk's blog

Expel UN envoy, Sudan army says

 

Technorati tags: jan pronk, sudan, blogging, human rights

IE7 released

It's now available on yahoo (so you get all the yahoo 'extra's', like the toolbar etc). And it will be availble without it (I hope ;)) from microsoft at the Microsoft IE site. If it's like IE7 in Vista, it's a lot better than IE6 (and it should be), though it has some really odd interface quirks. Firefox has a way more logical interface I think.

Their 2.0 release is right around the corner !

 

Technorati tags: IE7, Microsoft

Windows Live Writer

The new version that can be found at http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/, does support Blogger Beta, using a workaround from http://jcheng.wordpress.com/2006/09/28/blogger-beta-workaround. Though livewriter says it can't retrieve my template. So you can use LiveWriter to post, but it's not as 'WYSYWYG' as it is, when you use say, Wordpress. This is more a Google fault i'd say, for not just using a standard method to allow posting and retrieving posts and categories.

Windows live writer is very nice though, much better than the standard blogger edit window. If you're posting from windows to your blog, you should definately check it out. Especially love the easy way you can now add technorati tags, something that cant be done through the blogger interface, unless you type out the technorati tags, which is a cumbersome process.

Update: A new build (145) now offers correct Blogger Beta support , it even retrieves the correct template.

 

Technorati tags: windows_live_writer, blogger_beta

Organ Sales Thriving in China

Pretty disturbing news from the BBC website. I already heard reports on this subject on the dutch radio, now it seems to be confirmed by several sources. Ofcourse we cant object to any of this, the economic relations with China are more important than some silly human rights.

Technorati tags: China, Human Rights.

Vista revisited

Whether it's stable, easy to use or worth an upgrade might be debatable, but at least it looks pretty ;).

Vista RC1

Pretty extensive review at DrDobb's Journal. This release is quite solid ! Have been playing with it for a short time and it's a whole lot better than what the previous ones I have seen.

Update: Scott Hanzelman's impression of RC1

Technorati Tags: vista

More photos

Published a few new photos I took today on flickr. Thought the one above is one of the best I did so far ;).

Blogger Beta

Logged in today (for creating the post below) and I noticed the Beta link in my dashboard. Picked a new template and fiddled around with the layout editor. It's quite nice actually. You can add custom code, like the technorati and google ads link on the right sidebar. Also you can add RSS feeds from other sides, pick Blogger logos. Basically you add and edit everything since you can just put in text, photos and even javascript code.

So I'd say it's a huge improvement over the older blogger software, this is much easier to customize and it looks good too, some nice AJAX stuff in that layout editor, like the save button that lights up when you made changes that havent been saved !

Ah just after saving this post I noticed there is no longer a 'publishing your blog' thingy, it's posted immediately. Hooray for that !!!

Also you now can label your post, others might call em tags ;). Just to be sure, I'll still add my technorati tags here : Blogger+Beta.

Picasa

Felix

Aug 26, 2006 - 1 Photo

Testing google's photo service with this picture I took using my new camara :). I am also using flickr, as you can see on greendale.tk. This is one of our cats, Felix wondering what I am up to...

Mighty Mouse

Currently I am using a PC and a Mac Mini side by side. Unfortunetely my KVM switch doesnt play nice with the Mac Mini. I had to get a ps/2 to USB convertor to get the keyboard working but the mouse is a no go. So I have two mice sitting on my right side of the desk :). One is a nice Logitech laser mouse, the other one was one of those standard logitech ones. Not bad, but I am missing some buttons and it started to irritate me. I thought that was a good excuse to order a Mighty Mouse for my Mac Mini. I got the one with the cord, the wireless one was 20 euros more and I dont really have the need for a wireless one. I'll quickly sum up the pros and cons, since there are alreay a lot of reviews of this mouse that basically all say the same thing.

Pro:

• Feels good in your hand


• Very precise


• Small 360 scroll button works very well

Con

• Very short cord on the non-wireless mouse, I only just reaches my USB hub


• Side buttons are virually useless, very oddly placed and hard to press

And the software on the cd says it needs 150Mb ?!? What's that all about ?
All in all not a bad purchase, though a bit overpriced, but hey It's An Apple :).

Technorati Tags: Mighty+Mouse, Apple, Mac+Mini.

Writer Zone

The windows live team has released a new application. You can create blog posts from your windows desktop, like w.bloggar or marsedit (for OS/X). It looks very good at the website, I have yet to test it, but it looks very promising.

Writer Zone

Technorati Tags: Windows+Live, Writer+Zone.

Mac Mini Colocation

Found this post at the FreeMacBlog. Apperently they're using Mac Mini's as webservers and they seem to do a good job :). The macmini is powerful enough to be used that way and they take up a lot less space obviously than a 1u rack pc.
The site now also has some tutorial movies about how to set up a macmini to function as a server !







Here is the link to the main site: macminicolo.net.


Technorati Tags: apple, mac+mini

Web 2.0

Found a fun site on web 2.0 at www.web2logo.com. When you click on a logo it takes you to web2list.com, where you see a small review and the logo again.

Passing Moments

Passing Moments
Originally uploaded by thepres6.

While browsing flickr, I found this wonderful photograph. Outstanding shot with the mirror in the water and the wonderful sky !

Here's a link to favorites:

Flickr Favorites

Blogger Beta

As you can read on Blogger Buzz google has released a new version of Blogger with many new interesting features. This article on QuickOnlineTip is nice as well.

Was hoping I could switch over to check out the new features, but No Joy yet ;). If you're really anxious to try it out you can sign up for a new account, but I'll just be patient for the time being !

Technorati tag: Blogger

RIAA Wants to Depose Dead Defendant's Children

That'll teach the darn kids ! Downloading mp3s from the internet ! Not even in Death shall you be safe !

Recoding Industry vs. The People

Technorati tag: RIAA

Windows Vista not ready yet ?

Interesting post on ex-microsoft employee's blog:

http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/.

Too many things are too slow and/or don’t work. I’ve been on the betas of every Windows OS since Windows 3.1 and Vista is starting to feel good, but it doesn’t feel good enough to release to the factory in October. It feels like it needs a good six more months than that, which would mean a mid-year release next year.

I gotta agree with this. I tried the July build that came after the public Beta 2 release from the MSDN network and had quite a few problems. (IE7 constantly crashing being one of them) and the whole felt a bit sluggish on an AMD3500+ with 1Gb. We'll see whether MS will ship it early next year or wait a bit a bit to straighten things out.

Here is another article on windows vista at winsupersite.com.

Technorati tag: Windows+Vista

Mel Gibson's serie pulled by ABC

Interesting news on the creator of Passion of the Christ. Perhaps he should actually read the bible and put it into practise ;).

The move came after Gibson was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving early on Friday and was reported to have launched into a tirade against Jews, asking the arresting officer if he was a Jew and blaming the Jews for starting all wars.

The actor, who holds strong conservative Catholic religious and political views and whose father is a Holocaust denier, apologized on Saturday and has entered a rehabilitation program to treat alcoholism.

From yahoo news

Technorati tag: Mel+Gibson

The rise of Bit Torrent and the fall of trading

Nice post at Eric's Music Ramblings.

I remember the good old days of mail trading. Anxiously waiting for the mail man to come by with your new goodies (cassette tapes and later DAT tapes and eventually cd's). Kinda makes me feel old ;).

Microsoft will push IE7 through windows update

It will even make it a high priotiry update, because the security should be much better. Also there will be a tool available for those who doesnt want to get it.

News.com
Slashdot
Discussion on channel9.

Technorati: IE7, Microsoft

Redesigning logos Web 2.0 style

There is fun thread on the Yay Hooray boards. A lot of these logos can also be found on flickr though.

Technorati Tag: Flickr

VMN Storage

1 GB of Free Online Storage on VMNStorage.com


You get 1GB and a modified version of AceFTP (for Windows). Seems to work nicely, I just signed up after getting the invitation email in my Gmail account. Not sure why I got it, maybe I signed up for something some while ago ? Anyway, it cant hurt to have 1gig of storage in a central place ;).

Technorati tags: vmn+storage

Technorati

Looks like technorati redid their site, giving it a somewhat more colorful yet cleaner look ! It also seems to be less of a mess, it's easier to search and stuff. Will definately take a closer look ;).

Technorati tag !

YouTube - David "The Hoff" Hasselhoff - Jump In My Car

OMG o.O.

YouTube - David "The Hoff" Hasselhoff - Jump In My Car: "David 'The Hoff' Hasselhoff - Jump In My Car"

OpenDNS

OpenDNS recently opened up. It's a replacement DNS for your ISP's DNS. It seems to work pretty good over the short period of time I have tested it.

OpenDNS: It's Not SiteFinder for Obvious Reasons
OpenDNS on photomatt.net.
Tom Raftery's IT Views

Technorati tags: OpenDNS

9rules.com: What is Web 2.0 ?

What is Web2.0 ? Interesting discussion right here:

9rules — Browse: Read anything about everything

Looks like everybody has gotten their own definition ;).

Fun column at PC Magazine

There is a great column at the PC Magazine site by John Dvorak.

The current PC platform is so close to being permanently broken that I'm stunned that people aren't already up in arms. Every­one should be sued for false advertising.

Indian Bloggers angry at ban

According to the BBC news, at least 17 sites were banned by the government, some are even hosted at blogger.com ! Apparently it's the Indian ISP's that block 'm off...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5194172.stm

Sysinternals Sold to MicroSoft

Microsoft finally bought the site that revealed the Sony rootkit and that brought us many excellent windows tools !

Betanews Article
http://www.windowsvistadownload.co.uk/?p=20
Blog post by founder of Sysinternals

Zoom Player

A new version of my favourite media player ZoomPlayer Pro is out now :). Wel worth registering as it gives you full control over what codecs are used for decoing avi's, mp4's dvd's etc. Together with ffdshow and Nvidia decoder (for MPEG2, dvd's for example) a perfect combo !

PodShow Plus

Posted are little review of the new Podshow Plus site at greendale.tk. I am not very fond of it, to put it mildly ;). Had to use it again today to find the new feed for the Gillmor gang, and they moved their feeds to podshow plus. It wasnt a pleasent experience searching for the rss feed :(. And then once I found it, it turned out my links in iTunes had finally updated ;).

New template

Found this template on the blogger template site. Though I liked the previous one, it was a little dark (actually very dark). This one looks move lively :). Only added the technorati box on the right as far as customization goes !

w.bloggar

Already am using MarsEdit on my Mac Mini, but I thought I'd give this one a try. It can be found at
http://wbloggar.com/.

Looks very nice so far, quite a few editing options and compatible with a lot of blog software. Shame my Greendale.tk blog doesnt seem to work, I think it's a server side security thing, that prevents posting from other sites...

Voting in the USA

Sounds like a John Cougar song, but it's actually a website ;).

911archive.org.

Archives - virtualdub.org

Very funny article on how many dll's are needed to produce the infamous 'hello world' program when programmed by MS's .Net.

Archives - virtualdub.org

New animal species ?

Now for something completely different :). Thought this was interesting on the BBC site, a new giraffe like species might have been spotted !

Pirate Bay Taken Down

Although I dont use bit torrent for downloads, except for bt.etree.org, I thought this story about the taking down of The Pirate Bay site is interesting.

Father Roderick

For those of you able to read dutch, there is a very nice article on a presentation by Daily Breakfast's Father Roderick at Frankwatching.

IE 7 beta 2 Reviews

A very nice overview of various reviews on IE7 Beta 2, Microsoft's latest effort to get IE back on track can be found on Betanews. As far as I am concerned it's too little, too late, but I'll keep an eye on these news articles ;).

Air vents are for air

Fun post on Lost at johnaugust.com :

Air vents are for air: "

On a recent episode of ‘Lost,’ a character climbed through air ducts to get past heavy blast doors, which had trapped him and another character. By narrative standards, this sequence would seem unremarkable. Except for one thing:

‘Lost’ takes place on a freaking magical island.

You’ve got polar bears, black smoke monsters, and a cabal of mysterious Others. There’s no shortage of dramatic opportunities, which is why it’s so disheartening to see the show reach for that lowest-hanging fruit: a guy in an air duct.

(Via johnaugust.com.)

Iraq Situation

How long will this go on ?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4935528.stm

Microsoft Mac Lab

Very nice tour can be found here. Didnt even know they had such a thing :).

Neil Young: Impeachement

Veteran rocker Neil Young has recorded a protest album featuring an anti Iraq war track with "a holy vow to never kill again" and a song titled "Let's Impeach the President," the singer said on Monday.

Full Story at Yahoo News

Elder Scrolls Oblivion

Already preordered this long awaited and highly anticipated rpg game, while cruising the web came upon this site: http://www.waiting4oblivion.com/

Oblivion to ship on March 20th. Play.com has the date as 29th.

Kirby Puckett

To An Athlete Dying Young

THE time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.

To-day, the road all runners come, 5
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay,
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.

So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl's.

found at http://www.bartleby.com/103/32.html

Greendale.tk

Windows Vista

Found a link to this article on Novell's corporate site, weird enough. It's an interesting read and pretty much confirms what I already expected ;).

Why Windows Vista will suck.

MC Hammer

Found out through Adam Curry's daily source code that MC Hammer has his own blog ! And it's even pretty interesting, unlike his music, way back when...

Cinephile Series - The Wild Bunch

Great new episode in the cinefile series at Reel Reviews. One of the best podcasts on movies...

Cinephile Series - The Wild Bunch: "

Reel Review #53: ‘If they move, kill ‘em!’ Not only one of the best Western’s ever made - one of the best films ever made. Sam Peckinpah hits his high note in this amazing film. There is so much to say - just watch it. ‘Let’s go.’

(Via MWGblog.)

Cheney drunk at hunting accident ?

Interesting article on Cheney and the hunting accident.

We talked with a number of administration officials who are privy to inside information on the Vice President's shooting "accident" and all admit Secret Service agents and others say they saw Cheney consume far more than the "one beer' he claimed he drank at lunch earlier that day.

"This was a South Texas hunt," says one White House aide. "Of course there was drinking. There's always drinking. Lots of it."

The First Bootable OSx86 10.4.4 DVD » cavemonkey50.com

Interesting piece on how ppl are now able to use OSX on pc's :).

The First Bootable OSx86 10.4.4 DVD » cavemonkey50.com

Waiter Rant - Metro New York Article

From WaiterRant :

Metro New York Article:
Paul Berger did a piece on me in the ‘Blogarithms’ section of today’s Metro New York! Pick up a copy!

(Via Waiter Rant.)

I want to live, I want to give: A "Heart of Gold" Roundup

Interesting stuff on Neil Young on the Neil Young news site Thrasherwheat.

I want to live, I want to give: A "Heart of Gold" Roundup: "
Heart of Gold Film Reviews

Neil Young Jonathan Demme'Heart of Gold' film premieres @ Sundance 2006
Unscripted Interview: Demme & Young
'Prairie Wind': A Roundup
Commentary on Nashville Ryman Concerts and 'Prairie Wind' CD
The Song 'Heart of Gold'
NEIL YOUNG: HEART OF GOLD film website
The Magically Miraculous Year: 2005"

(Via Neil Young News.)

Ed calls AT&T Wireless

Found this very funny podcast, after hearing a promo on Adam Curry's Dailysourcecode. Well actually some stuff is rather sad ;). The state of some 'customer service' is rather bad...

Ed calls AT&T Wireless: "Ed calls AT&T Wireless (now Cingular). You won't believe this one."

(Via Talk About Service.)

Camino 1.0

\o/ Camino 1.0 is out !

Camino 1.0: "MacMinute: ‘The Camino Project today announced the Camino 1.0 browser, a free Web browser for Mac OS X, built on the open source Mozilla Gecko rendering engine.’



Sweet!"

(Via Ranchero.)

HDR Group

There is a new digital photo technique called HDR. Here is a link to one of the pics, think it's wonderful !

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sebatl/98399006/in/pool-hdr/

This is the Flickr Pool.

Games are good for you

Interesting link to a study on the effects of computer games :).

Games are good for you: "

A new study of 100 university undergraduates in Toronto has found that video gamers consistently outperform their non-playing peers in a series of tricky mental tests. If they also happened to be bilingual, they were unbeatable.

Barely a day goes by when video games, generally Grand Theft Auto, are blamed for something evil. But that doesn’t mean they are bad. I have my own views on the whole ‘video games are murder simulators’ debate, and maybe I’ll write them up one day. For now though - I’ll focus on the positive.

Researchers in Toronto have found that people who played video games are able to concentrate better, and excel at multi tasking.

Prof. Bialystok suspects video gamers, like bilinguals, have a practised ability to block out information that is irrelevant to the task at hand.

You can read more in the article on the Globe and Mail website.

"

(Via Binary Moon.)

Heart of Gold Film Reviews

Reviews for the new Neil Young movie Heart of Gold are appearing accoring to the Neil Young news blog.

Heart of Gold Film Reviews: "

NEIL YOUNG: HEART OF GOLD film website
Caution. Metaphor alert ahead.

The movie reviews for 'Neil Young: Heart of Gold' have been rolling in at steady clip and are virtually unanimous in singing the film's praises. And unanimous in using mining phrases like 'glittering gold' and 'strikes gold'.

Opening in limited release this weekend in New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto, the film is being

"

(Via Neil Young News.)

Boagworld.com

If you're into webdesigning, be it professional or for a hobby, then you should check out boagworld.com. Paul Boag has a lot of useful tips and also a nice podcast ! There is a new episode out no. 22.

22. How your website sells: "Whatever your website is about, it has to sell something. From selling an idea to a product or service, every site has its place in the sales process. This podcast looks at what that process is and how your website plays its part.>

(Via Web Design Podcast (boagworld).)

Disney, Pixar and Apple: What Happens Next?

Some thoughts on this recent merger on macslash.org !

Disney, Pixar and Apple: What Happens Next?: "I think one of the most interesting things about the recent Disney-Pixar merger is how often the pundits bring Apple into the mix. Apple is, of course, the most-interesting company of the three, even though it's not offiicially part of this merger! This column on Silicon.com brings the speculation of the ways Apple can leverage this new relationship to a mainstream audience. Author Seb Janacek seems to think that the Mac Media Centre is a certainty, and has replaced the PowerBook G5 as Apple's next 'gotta-do' product. What do you think, MacSlash? Will I be plugging a Mac into my TV anytime soon?"

(Via MacSlash.)

How the hell did I get on this mailing list?

There is a very funny post on John Augusts sitem which is a very nice blog btw, worth checking out :

How the hell did I get on this mailing list?: "

PajamaGram sells robes and pajamas — mostly for women, but they have some ‘cute’ couples pajamas that are worth flipping to the back to see. Such as these his-and-hers crossword pajamas.

I ask you: Could anything be better than doing the Sunday crossword puzzle while wearing crossword pajamas?

(Via johnaugust.com.)

Trans 2006-01-31: “Aloha”

The podcast about the Lost tv show, the Transmission, brought from Hawaii, has come to an end :(. I enjoyed it quite a lot, shame it has come to this.

Trans 2006-01-31: “Aloha”:
There’s so much more we should have said, and yet we know we could never have said enough. ‘The Transmission’ must end, but we hope you’ve enjoyed the ride at least half as much as we have. We’ll never be able to fully thank you for sharing your love of ‘Lost’ with us, and for making our little show something truly remarkable. We look forward to joining you in the fantastic ‘Lost’ fan community, and to tuning in to the ‘Lost Podcasting Network’ for our fix of some true LostCasting talent. Mahalo a nui loa, and aloha.

Cinecast Podcast

Found a great podcast about movies, definately worth checking out !

Cinecast #70: Best/Worst of 2005 (Part I): "

Best/Worst of 2005 (Part I): Since its debut last March, Cinecast has spent roughly 200 hours at the movies. For this special 2005 Year in Review episode, Adam and Sam tried to distill all that cinematic input into an hour-long conversation ... and failed miserably. Your windbag hosts managed to talk long past the average length of a feature-length movie, so we decided -- at the last minute, naturally -- to split the show into two parts. Part II featuring Masscare Theatre and our Top 5 Movies of 2005 will be posted Friday.



In this installment, hear the first half of Cinecast's Best Movies of 2005, plus our picks for the Worst of 2005, the biggest Breakthroughs, Surprises and Cameos. Also, a quick look at 'Vertigo' -- the 5th film in our six-week Hitchcock Marathon. We'll close out the Hitch Marathon next week with 'Frenzy.'


Music by Jude from the album 'No One Is Really Beautiful' ... Cinecast theme music by Age of the Rifle.

(Via Cinecast.)

How To Turn 10 Million Into 7 Billion: A Brief History Of Pixar

Great article on Applematters.com !

How To Turn 10 Million Into 7 Billion: A Brief History Of Pixar: "

George Lucas needed cash (there’s a sentence you don’t read everyday) and a lot of it. The cash flow problem stemmed from a divorce. Lucas’ Wife, the well respected film editor Marcia, wanted her share of the wealth they had accumulated while still married. George wanted to keep his businesses going.…"

(Via AppleMatters.)

Joeblade 2006

Joe blade's blog has been updated, it's a very nice design go and check it out ;).

Joeblade 2006: "

Those of you who visit the site will hopefully by now have noticed the changes. It’s not that I didn’t like the previous design; I liked it, lots of other people liked it, and it wasn’t an easy decision to change it — there were just a few things that it didn’t address.

(Via joeblade.)

Marsedit

Testing out my new blogger software on my brand new mac mini :). I am really fond of OS/X so far. Drag and drop everything and it's all so easy. The fact that it looks so good is also very cool !

More on this later I am sure ;).

5 companies that will fail

This is a thought provocative post: 5 companies that will fail !

Waiterrant

Well I dont know how he does it, but WaitteRant comes up with another brilliant post !

Can the white sox repeat ?

Interesting Article on espn.com !

Newsvine

W00t ! Got an invite to newsvine ! My page can be found at http://schoneveld.newsvine.com. Also got some extra invites, looks like they're implementing it, the way Gmail was introduced !

Nice Layout

Was happy to find this layout, at least it's different from other blogs, though a bit dark ;).

Links

My WordPress blog is at http://www.greendale.tk.

My Eve Online blog can be found at http://www.morphisat.tk.

There are some feeds and links at http://www.bloglines.com/blog/TheWickedMessenger.

Enjoy :).

Yet another blog

Ah well, didnt have an account here at Blogger yet and thought I'd check it out :).