Shin
Nov
20

KVM

KVM
Sometimes the solution to a problem is so simple. Since I got the lcd screens I haven’t been able to use my kvm switch to hook all the computers up to a single screen because the image sucked, in a 50hz oldfashioned crt kind of way. First I thought that it was due to the analog cables, because with the dvi ones the picture is perfect. But just now I remembered that I never used the power supply that came with the switch because it could also be selfpowered through the hooked up mouse connectors. So as a last attempt I rummaged around to find the adapter, hooked it up and tada… no more flicker. Granted, the picture quality is still sub par in terms of crispyness compared to dvi, but I can live with that a lot better, for now, than with headache inducing flicker.

Nov
17

Woosh

Busy week, productive week. Quite exciting really, in many ways. While ehm, rather annoying in some other ways…
Ah, the joys of work. And the joys of hobby turning into work.

Anyway, nothing much to report beside the fact that I’m starting a new project with someone which, once it has materialized out of our minds and has been translated to solid code, will probably spin off into a company of some sorts. And no, this is totally unrelated to the Silk Tale stuff, which after the announcement has since been rather M.I.A. with A being either action and/or activity. Too much depending on other people, too little time to spare on it myself. So that’s still on the todo list from hell.

Ooh, and I did manage to find time this week to wallmount the 3 TFTs. Mmm, me likes. Piccies will follow once the whole rest of the setup has been completed, or at least nearer completion than it is now.

I finally dared to refresh my newsreader, here are the bits I will be reading right after I click on the publish button for this blog entry:
http://www.snook.ca/archives/design/the_banner_unleashed/
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,127826-c,internetutilities/article.html
http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000119
http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macosxhints/2006/11/mailcolor/index.php
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=661361&ns=2697&rl=1
http://5thirtyone.com/archives/707
http://www.chrisjdavis.org/2006/11/07/live-redesign-underway/
I usually skim the entries in the newsreader, middleclick the ones that sound interesting so they open in a new tab and then start reading once I’ve reached the end of the new stuff line in the newsfeeds queue.
So I hope they’re good. :)

A quarter to midnight, time for coffee.

And why do my stitches itch?

Nov
06

Nederlanders overal

Nederland
Soms sta ik er van te kijken hoe veel nederlanders online zitten. Of niet per se hoe veel er per se online zitten, maar hoe veel je er tegenkomt. Je kan je kont niet keren of naar een site of project gaan en er is wel een 80% kans dat er een aantal nederlanders ofwel prominent aanwezig zijn ofwel de show runnen. Best wazig gezien het bekakt kleine aantal van ons wereldwijd.

And for the non-dutch people; I’m just amazed by how many dutch people you run in to on the web considering how few of us there are in the global scheme of things.

Nov
05

Screen goodness

HP W20
The screens I said I’d ordered were undeliverable so my supplier offered to send me HP W20s instead for a real bargain. Much much better. They look better and they have a resolution of 1680×1050. Eventually these are going to be wall mounted, first I have to figure out exactly how I want to do that seeing as the outside screens have to be tilted towards me. But it certainly killed the single screen feelings of claustrophobia. Mmm, space.
The left one is hooked up to the Mini, the other 2 to my main pc. One step closer to my ideal computer setup.

Oct
17

Wallpaper

Super Mario World wallpaper
My current MacBook wallpaper, click on it for the full version. What are you using?

Aug
03

Random bits

A DS Lite recharging cradle with a light. Nice. If I had a DS Lite.

Free software! Until August 7th you can get a free key for Curio Basic, “the ultimate brainstorming and project management application”. No idea if it’s any good but it sounds like something I could use.

Apple makes yet another bad move by announcing they’re going to kill off their discussion forums. Such a waste. This reminds me of the old notes.net site which was the dev & admin hangout for Lotus Notes/Domino guys. You could find anything there and it was an invaluable knowledge resource. IBM fucked that up in pretty much the same way Apple is doing now. One of the negative points of ye internet me thinks, but at least in the case of notes.net you could make a copy of the entire database for future reference.

And for the Mac haters, or people with a sense of humor; spoofs of the Mac ads.

Spam is annoying, I wish I could figure out an easy way to install SpamAssassin on the Mini, but I’m always a little intimidated when it comes to Perl apps. For now I’m giving Thunderbird’s junk handler a try. Apple’s Mail.app junk handler has let me down thusfar.

Apr
04

Random bits

Haven’t had nearly enough time in the past week to stay up to date so here’s all the things that caught my interest today as I checked all the feeds I’m subscribed to;

Apple’s quietly released their revised MacBook Pro as the first versions had quite a few bumps with the screen humming, the fans being too loud and miscellaneous other stuff.
Then there’s a new blog devoted entirely to telling the story of someone making the switch from Windows to Os X. I hope it’ll be good and give me a few pointers, lord knows I’m sick of the ‘Apple rocks and does no wrong’ crowd as much as the Linux or Windows fancrowd. At least he’s a 30 year old techie like me so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
And while we’re at it, another reason I want to use Os X for the server which will host the new (and current) site. Why doesn’t Linux have apps like this to manage services?
Something to drool over, for me at least; Optimus Prime CGI. Damn that’s sweet. It’s good enough to almost make me forget the sacrilege of Beast Wars’ Optimus Primal.
Ajax time! And this week, we’re learning how to code our own Ajaxified pop3 client. That’s yet another tutorial for the evergrowing todo list…
And speaking of Ajax, Lightbox, the awesome image script hits 2.0 and by god it’s gorgeous. Check out the image set example. I hope this will get wedged into K2 somehow, it’d be a match made in heaven.
This made me laugh because it’s totally recognizable. Each and every point. I should add a link to this entry for my IM list that opens as a popup with a ‘do you accept this’ button forcing people to read the rules before they even think about adding me. Mwahaha! Or something. Thank you Bryan for making me laugh.

Apr
03

Anywhere but here

Hong Kong skyline
And to think I could have been working there…

Ah well, have a look at the purty pictures on the top 15 skylines of the world, according to the guy who wrote the article anyway. Although I’m not disputing him on the Hong Kong one.

Mar
12

Random bits

First up is the Shuttle project, which has now reached the ‘wave 1′ stage, and I must say it’s looking absolutely beautiful. Shuttle is the project by a couple of guys to make a better WordPress backend interface. Anyone who is using 2.x can already some of their influence in the current version, but the official stuff looks way better. Let’s hope it gets released soon.

For the DIY’ers there’s this, 10 ways to (ab)use a NES controller. I like the mp3 player mod best.

Ah yeah, and for all the layout whores; keep an eye on this site. He changes layouts more often than some people update their blog *cough*, and it’s always interesting to see what he comes up with. Some novel interface ideas there.

Oh, and if anyone can recommend a decent newish anime series; leave a comment. I started watching Hell Girl but as promising as the first episode was the follow ups have been a bit of a letdown thusfar, there’s no continuous storyline whatsoever…

Work in progress... not home!
Trying to get all/most of the new code working before I start on the eyecandy.